DANNY Harris scored the only goal of the game as Dartford enjoyed a morale boosting victory over League One Leyton Orient at Princes Park on Saturday.

The friendly was prefaced by a minute’s silence for former referee Jack Taylor who took charge of the 1974 World Cup final. Jack, who died the day before, was a highly regarded referee who went about his business with a dignity which automatically commanded respect.

In three home pre-season games against full-time opposition, Darts have conceded just one goal and that a breakaway following a Dartford corner against Gillingham.

On Saturday a strong Leyton Orient side never really threatened the Darts rearguard, despite trying to wrest control of the game in the second half when they were marginally more effective than in the first.

Kicking to the preferred Academy End in the first half, Darts soon made an impression when Harris almost lobbed the tall Jamie Jones in the Orient goal. As usual skipper Elliot Bradbrook ran things from centre-left midfield, with both Harris and the marauding Adam Green causing the visitors some anxious moments.

Orient began to find their feet after 20 minutes with most of the prompting coming from Gary Sawyer. Although former Charlton and Millwall striker Kevin Lisbie was busy, he didn’t cause Darts many problems.

Just before half-time a quick Dartford throw in from the left was gathered by Harris and his shot on the turn flashed wide to the left of Jones to put the hosts in front.

Darts made four changes at the interval bringing on Jon Wallis for Green, Ryan Hayes for Nathan Collier and Jacob Erskine for Lee Burns.

Orient needed to up their game in the second half and were egged on by their vociferous defence.

While it had some effect, Darts had filtered back leaving Erskine as a lone striker to keep the visiting defence – to use an NFL expression – honest. And it worked well.

For all their quality and increased second half pressure, Orient caused Dartford few problems and it was noticeable their manager Russell Slade was far from happy as he delivered his post-match summing up.

Finally, the announcement the crowd was 633 resulted in renditions of the Dambusters' Theme to echo round the terraces.

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Dartford: Wells, Rose, Green (Wallis 46), Bonner, Arber, Champion (Hammond 88), Collier (Hayes 46), Rogers (Sawyer 82), Burns (Erskine 46), Bradbrook, Harris. Sub not used: Sutton. Att 633.