FOR the second time in the space of a few months, Woking picked up three points against Dartford which their performance did not merit.

Having said this, they were offered two straws in those games, grasped them firmly along with the points on offer and that ultimately is what football is all about.

Dartford were in control for most of the first half with Elliott Bradbrook and Danny Harris prompting along the left and Lee Noble doing likewise in right midfield with Jacob Erskine the target man.

Woking broke infrequently and reduced to long-range shots which were easily handled by Louis Wells in the Dartford goal.

Two incidents turned the game on its head.

First was the dismissal of Noble for two yellow cards – the second one for a reaction which was completely out of character.

He now misses the away fixture at Macclesfield on Saturday as a result.

The second was the award to Woking of a penalty for an offence which the vast majority of observers agreed occurred outside the area.

Even though the referee was close to the incident and saw little in it, his assistant decided it as a holding offence which ended up in the area.

Substitute Guiseppe Sole sent the limping Wells the wrong way to score the only goal of the game with seven minutes (plus the subsequent six of injury time) remaining.

It was a measure of Woking's lack of confidence to hold on to their fortuitous lead against 10-men that they spent the last 13 minutes of the game on the back foot.

A harsh introduction to Conference Premier football for the Darts.

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Dartford: Wells, Burns, Bonner, Arber, Green, Noble, Champion, Rogers (Rose 89), Bradbrook, Harris Collier 87), Erskine (Crawford 69). Subs not used: Wallis, Hayes. Att: 1,846.