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Dartford and Hendon played out a hard-fought stalemate, as the points were shared in front of 927 supporters at Bericote Powerhouse Princes Park.
Dartford boss Ady Pennock would have been the happier of the two managers at the beginning of play, especially since the hosts had been through a barren run recently.
However, the Darts should have been ahead before the break after having created the best opportunities and dominated a majority of the ball.
The first came in the 7th minute, when Callum Jones forced Hendon goalkeeper Luke Campbell into a fine save with a left-footed curling drive. Jones then scored with a beautiful finish (28) after a rather scrappy period, only to see it chalked off for offside.
The visitors were very quiet in front of goal, preferring to soak up the pressure and try to hit back with counter-attacks. The tactic almost paid off in the 31st minute, when Billie Busari forced debutante goalkeeper David Aziaya into an excellent save.
The goalkeeper, who’d arrived from EFL outfit Bromley on an initial one-month’s loan, was still recovering his positioning when his defence momentarily switch off, allowing Niko Muir to smack the far post seconds later.
Sam Odaudu came close to edging the hosts ahead right before the break, only to see Campbell save his strike following a good attack along the left-flank (45).
Any hope of an entertaining second-half was ended within three minutes of the restart, when referee Mr Kane Dempster bizarrely sent Dartford’s Jeremiah Pinder off after the youngster had made an excellent (and fair) challenge.
The decision lit the spark that had been threatening, and the second-half turned into a more heated affair with many tackles flying in from both sides.
Ady Pennock moved to swap things around to help his team cope better now that they were down to ten men, with a double substitution in the 57th minute. Eddie Dsane and Duane Ofori-Acheampong were the duo to leave the field, their replacements being Tyler Christian-Law and Ade Yussuf respectively.
That was then followed by the return of Olly Box, who came on to replace the injured Denzelle Olopade after 71 minutes, before Luther Williams replaced the excellent Michael Olarewaju (83).
Returning to the action, we see Josh Hill and Co angered by the earlier sending off and trying to convert their dominance into a goal.
Having made some excellent challenges throughout the game in his first start for the Darts, Michael Olarewaju almost came up with the vital goal at the other end. But, his lovely header was tipped over the crossbar by the alert Luke Campbell in the 59th minute.
The longer the game went on though, the more both teams became determined not to lose this fixture, and cancelled each other out during a rather scrappy second-half.
In fact, it was Hendon that came close to snatching a winner against the run of play, but Josh Hill was on hand to superbly block Joseph White’s 75th minute effort.
Whilst things didn’t quite fall for the Darts in front of goal this afternoon, they were quite simply superb at the other end. The quartet of Sam Odaudu, Josh Hill, Michael Olarewaju, Samuel Okoye, and David Aziaya between the sticks were solid throughout and well deserving of the clean sheet.
Samuel Okoye’s performance earned him his first Man of The Match award for the Darts, in what was a solid afternoon for him, as he and his teammates earned a valuable point.
TEAMS
DARTFORD: David Aziaya, Sam Odaudu, Josh Hill (c), Michael Olarewaju, Samuel Okoye, Denzelle Olopade, Jeremiah Pinder, Samir Carruthers, Callum Jones, Eddie Dsane, Duane Ofori-Acheampong.
SUBSTITUTES: Jacob Marsden, Olly Box, Luther Williams, Tyler Christian-Law, Ade Yussuf.
HENDON: Luke Campbell, Tarik Gidaree, Olatunbosun Adenola, Blaise Riley-Snow, Ethan Light, Dave Diedhiou (c), Billie Busari, Kurtis Cumberbatch, Fabio Sole, Niko Muir, Kai Brosnan.
SUBSTITUTES: Joseph White, Youssef Chentouf, Shaun Lucien, Ronny Mfinda, Anduan Hajdini.
Chris Palmer