Dartford 2 v Charlton Athletic 3 & Halls Athletic 0 v Falconwood 3
Pre-Season Friendly double header.
Princes Park: was opened on 11 November 2006 when Dartford FC (who had played at various grounds outside the borough since 1992), overcame Horsham YMCA 4–2 in an Isthmian League Division One South league fixture, in front of a capacity crowd of 4,097. The pitch is sunk two metres below ground level to reduce noise and light pollution. The stadium has a sedum roof blanket which is, in effect, a living roof that provides a natural air filtration system.The solar panels positioned on the roof serve the community changing areas and public toilets hot water storage cylinders.
The roof is held in place by treated Glulam timber beams. I assume that is what the wooden giant statue acting as an additional roof support is made of too. A water recycling system which serves the toilets within the clubhouse, utilises the rain water collected in two large ponds at the north end of the stadium grounds. Low energy lighting and increased fabric insulation throughout the clubhouse provides better thermal retention and condensing boilers provide a more energy efficient system. Also the excavated earth from the site was reused for landscaping the external courtyard areas around the ground.
When travelling to places that require a few connecting services en route, I always factor in a bit of extra-time, just to be on the safe side. Today I had the rare privilege of being treated to three different modes of transport, that were all spotlessly clean, efficiently run… and actually reached all of my desired destinations earlier than they were scheduled to.
Oi! This isn't supposed to happen, I’m a football supporter travelling at the weekend and I demand to know: where's my requisite entitlement of cancellations, grief, inconvenience and delays!? I’m a stroppy old sod and I need to have this kind of thing to have a good old moan about, to maintain my wellbeing and equilibrium.
Having stepped off the Gravesend B Fast-track bus that leaves from outside Dartford Railway Station and stops right outside Princes Park (£3.80 return), I decide to kill some time walking around the complex to check out the facilities. Almost immediately and quite by accident, I happened upon some community pitches, including a a fenced off ground, separated from the main stadium, with a perimeter fence around the pitch, dug-outs and a 200 seater stand set back from one touchline.
A sign informed anyone who intended to enter the ground that it was nothing whatsoever to do with Dartford FC and that the club wouldn't be responsible for anything untoward that might happen to you therein. There was a team out on the 4G pitch, dressed in Blue and Gold, which corresponded with the Halls AFC flag hanging from the fence and pretty soon a second group of players joined them dressed in white and green.
One of their number was wearing a tracksuit top emblazoned with the name Falconwood across the back. I entered the two team names into a very handy website I sometimes use called ‘Football Web Pages’ and discovered that I had inadvertently stumbled across a friendly fixture to be played between the hosts who usually play in the SCEL Division 1 and the visitors who belong to the Kent League. Go me!
With temperatures expected to rise later in the day, it had been decided that the game would go ahead considerably earlier than the scheduled 1.30 kick-off. Meaning I was about to get to watch an extra unexpected bonus game, in it’s entirety, that would be concluded in time for me to nip across the car-park to the main Princes Park Stadium in time to watch the whole of Dartford v Charlton Athletic game too. I was fair giddy with excitement, I can tell you 😁😁😁
Saturday 12th July 2025 - Pre-Season Friendly - At Princes Park 4G Community Stadium - Halls Athletic FC (0) 0 v. Falconwood (1) 3.
Punctuated by frequent and sensible water breaks, the game itself turned out to be very entertaining and played at a higher tempo than one might have expected in such unrelenting heat. I found myself so engrossed by the spectacle of this unexpected additional 90 plus minutes of football, that it didn't even cross my mind to attempt to get either the team-sheet details or goal-scorers names.
Bloomin’ heck, what a complete bloody shamateur I am. But, I can tell you this much: the strike that afforded the visitors a one goal half-time advantage was a worldly, a proper “F*ck me! You don't stop those!” moment. The camera on my phone displayed a warning message that it might not continue to work correctly because of the heat. That's a first! I had no idea it was so technically advanced.
Much to the obvious joy of their coaching staff, the visitors added two more, comparatively normal looking goals after the break, without reply. And it was soon time to head over the nearby ecologically correct stadium to see how that there Nathan Jones’ team-building plans were progressing. To date, the Addicks have seen an influx of five new players already with more transfer activity apparently imminent, as the team heads out to Slovenia for a Pre-Season training camp this next week.
Saturday 12th July 2025 - Pre-Season Friendly - At Princes Park - Dartford ( 2 ) 2 ( Callum Jones 10, Samir Carruthers 35 pen) v. Charlton Athletic (2 ) 3 (Daniel Kanu 5, Greg Docherty 26 pen, Micah Mbick 84) - Attendance: 3,584
Dartford (first half): Henly (Olenga 82), Frampah, Williams, Olarewaju, Whitfield, Olapade, McLeod, Oduadu, Carruthers, Jones, Dsane. Dartford (second half): Henly, Smith, Taylor, Box, Campbell, Trialist A, Pinder, Eze, Nayler, Trialist B, Trialist C. Unused subs - Trialist D, Atkins, O’Mara-Knapp.
Charlton Athletic (first half): Maynard-Brewer; Ramsay, Jones, Gillesphey; Rylah, Coventry, Docherty (c), Edwards; Dixon, Kanu, Campbell. Charlton Athletic (second half): Maynard-Brewer (Reid 60); Burke (c), A.Mitchell, Z.Mitchell; Asiimwe, Mwamba, Anderson, Enslin (Mbick 80); Fullah, Olaofe, Carey. Unused subs - Gough, Laqeretabua.
‘Twas a mixed bag of Charlton players that turned out in the Summer heat this afternoon against Isthmian League Premier Division side Dartford, several first team players were absent because, to quote their manager: “Due to different players being further along in their pre-season training than others”, while three of the new signings, namely: Reece Burke, Sonny Carey and Tanto Olaofe made their debuts. Jones also fielded a total of twelve academy players who are stepping up to the first-team any time soon.
Charlton got off to a flying start, opening the scoring in the fifth minute, when Daniel Kanu crashed the ball past Jonny Henly and into the roof of the net at the second attempt after Henry Rylah and Kaheim Dixon had combined well to carve the Darts defence open and create the chance. Alas, the lead lasted all of five minutes and the hosts were on level terms when Callum Jones stabbed the ball past Ashley Maynard-Brewer amidst a goalmouth scramble. Lloyd Jones might have made a difference if he hadn't been behind play, having been nudged over by a crafty off the ball challenge in the build up.
Charlton were ahead again in the 26th minute, when the referee, Luke Scott, spotted George Whitefield pushing the ball away with his arm, even though the hosts number 6 was laying on the ground at the time. Kinnel! You’ve got to have eyes in the back of your head to be a referee. The crowd behind the goal did their level best to distract Greg Docherty, who coolly put the ball into the back of the net and gave them a momentary disdainful look.
Tyreece Campbell tested Henly, who then had to be alert to stop Kanu from netting his second goal of the game. But as the Championship side appeared to be taking the initiative, Dartford countered and a long ball forward found Eddie Dsane inside the visitors area, who went to ground after tangling with Macaulay Gillesphey. Maynard-Brewer moved slightly to his left a as Samir Carruthers chipped the resultant spot-kick straight down the middle.
Understandably, given the turnover in personnel and the kind of heat that was bearing down on the pitch, the second-half was a little more pedestrian and not ever so incident packed. But with ten minutes remaining, Micah Mbick(remember that name), who had already turned out for Charlton’s U21 team earlier in the day entered the fray from the substitutes bench.
Within minutes he had netted what proved to be the winning goal, with his first touch. A proper ‘impact-sub’ you could say. Sonny Carey and Nathan Asiimwe worked their way through the Darts defence and when the latter played the ball across the area, Mbick was on hand to plant the ball past the hitherto impressive Henly. Game over! FT: Dartford 2 v Charlton Athletic 3
Retford man cometh: I don't like blowing my own trumpet (I’ve seen some of the places it's been), but there was a third contest in Dartford this afternoon and it was a very one-sided one. Having skipped breakfast this morning (yes, me!), I was quite peckish between the games so I went to the food-hut in search of one of the highly recommended burgers they sell here. Alas, the ladies serving were both outside the premises and were panicking because of a wasp invasion. 🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝 “I’m not going back in there, those damn things scare me to death!”, said a damsel in obvious distress. Hmm, well bugger that, I was proper hungry, so I poured a drop out of her ‘energy drink’ onto the counter as bait, and smashed the buzzing invaders to pieces when they entered my trap and fell for my cunning plan. Note* they were Wasps, not Bees, so my actions were perfectly acceptable. I even wiped up the mess after I’d committed murder. Ignore the false advertising on TV my goodly people, Red Bull certainly didn't give these horrible little critters any wings 😉.