National League South

Sunday 2nd January 2022

Kick Off 15.00 Actual 15.01

Ebbsfleet United 1 Dartford 0, attendance 2,566

85’ 1-0

@ Kuflink Stadium

Stonebridge Road

Northfleet

DA11 9GN

£15 Admission

£3 Programme, didn’t bother buying.

When the York City match was postponed due to Covid-19, it left me without a new ground option for today, so I again revisited somewhere I hadn’t been to for years. It was back on 5th September 1992, well before the ground had a sponsored name and in the days that the club was still known as Gravesend & Northfleet. They beat Witney Town 2-1 in a Southern League Southern Division match in front of 492 spectators. I remember being impressed with the size of the ground, but I don’t think I really appreciated just how good it was. I was still only just getting into serious non-league ground hopping at the time (this was ground number 319) and most of the grounds I visited back then were pretty decent. It was well before the days of ‘standing in a field’ every week! The ground still oozes character, but ‘improvements’ and updates to the old place are slowly taking over. Thankfully, it hasn’t been too spoiled yet!

The match was 3rd versus 4th in the league table, for a North Kent derby that is one of the oldest fixtures in football (according to the stadium announcer) having first been played in 1906. It attracted a decent crowd of 2,566, the biggest league attendance for this fixture for 62 years, which if the current quoted stadium capacity is correct (4,769) was just over half full. There is no way you could have got another 2,203 in here.

As with yesterday, it was a poor game. It is safe to say that defences were on top. Dartford had three great chances, but failed to hit the target with any of them. Ebbsfleet had a deflected effort that went past the far post, but offered little else. It looked to be heading for a 0-0 draw, when Ebbsfleet conjured a chance with five minutes left, Ben Chapman firing past the ‘keeper when put through on goal.