Weston held on to earn a point against third-placed Dartford, despite having Jamie Price sent off in the 74th minute.

DARTFORD 1

WESTON-S-MARE 1

ALTHOUGH Weston were reduced to 10 men for the first time this season, they held on to pick up a valuable Blue Square South point against third in the table Dartford.

When the sides met on the opening day of the season at Woodspring Park the visitors ran out easy 4-0 winners, but then their attack was led by Charlie Sheringham who scored two of the goals. Since then, Dartford have sold him on to Football League Bournemouth for �25,000 and he was sorely missed.

Dartford were first to show with Jacob Erskine forcing a diving save from Lloyd Irish in the first minute and a minute later Lee Noble was just off target from 20 yards.

As Weston began to settle, Dayle Grubb, who had another solid game in midfield, was just wide from 20 yards and on 29 minutes he forced Weston’s first corner.

Taking the flag kick himself, he found Chris Young, who led the Weston attack superbly against the giant home defenders, whose low effort was hacked off his line by keeper Louis Wells but the ball fell to Weston central defender Matt Villis who made no mistake from a couple of yards.

A minute later, the home goal had a scare when Ben Cleverley’s 40-yard effort in front of an open goal was feet off target when the Weston midfielder collected Wells’ free kick taken from well outside his area.

Slightly against the run of play, Dartford equalised on 43 minutes when a fine three-man move opened the Weston defence, but Danny Harris’ effort was beaten out by Irish only to fall to the inrushing Adam Green, who scored from 20 yards.

Sahr Kabba replaced Young, who had picked up a knock, on 68 minutes and the little man kept pressure on the home defence with his speedy runs. Unfortunately, Weston had Jamie Price red carded by Surrey referee Stephen Daly for an alleged two-footed tackle on 74 minutes.

Manager Craig Laird immediately brought on Brett Trowbridge into the defence, withdrawing Cleverley from midfield, and although Dartford began to dominate, Weston held out including for five minutes of added time.

Dartford’s best chance fell to Noble, whose rising effort was tipped over his crossbar by Irish at full stretch.

WESTON STATS

Goals: Dartford, Green (43). Weston, Villis (29).

Shots on target: Dartford 5, Weston 3.

Shots off target: Dartford 5, Weston 3.

Corners: Dartford 6, Weston 5.

Offsides: Dartford 2, Weston 3.

Free kicks conceded: Dartford 9, Weston 19.

Referee: Stephen Daly (Camberley, Surrey). Reasonably good game.

Bookings: Dartford, Noble, Erstkine, Bradbrook, Hayes. Westn, Slocombe, Ingram, Kirk, Price (red).

Attendance: 1,149.

Weston squad: Irish, Price, Slocombe, Grubb, Villis, Laird, Ingram (Diallo 86), Kirk, Young (Kabba 68), Cleverley (Trowbridge 74), Pepperell. Subs (not used): Martin, Huxley).

ON Saturday, Weston entertain Maidenhead in the league (3pm) and will be looking to record a double, having won 3-1 when the sides last met in September, with goals from Ben Kirk, Jamie Price and Kane Ingram.