Dartford 2 Havant & Waterlooville 0 match report: Joash Nembhard scores twice against his former club in National League South

Joash Nembhard scored twice against his former club to help Dartford beat Havant in National League South on Saturday.

It didn’t prove a happy return to Princes Park for Havant boss Steve King, who was up against his former club for the first time since his departure at the end of the 2021/22 season.

Dartford retained Mitchell Beeney in goal despite bringing in Chris Lewington on Friday to boost the goalkeeping department. Jordan Wynter started while Max Statham was on the bench after suspension.

There were five former Hawks in Alan Dowson’s team while Havant had four ex-Darts players in their side, including midfielders Jack Jebb and Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong.

Jebb had an early chance beaten away by keeper Beeney from the edge of the area before Dartford went ahead on seven minutes.

Keeper Reice Charles-Cook - another in action against his old side - failed to gather Baris Altintop’s free-kick into the area under pressure from Moussa Diarra and when Joe McNerney missed his attempted clearance, Joash Nembhard had the relatively simple task of turning the ball into an empty net.

Mo Faal blasted wide midway through the first half from Havant’s best chance but it was a first 45 minutes that saw the home side in charge.

Dartford were denied a second after forcing two good saves in the space of a minute from Charles-Cook. Harvey Bradbury’s 20-yard free-kick was beaten away before the keeper did well to keep out the same player’s near-post effort from the resulting Luke Coulson corner.

Havant started the second half brightly, Beeney producing an excellent one-handed save to turn behind Faal’s fierce 20-yard drive.

Diarra was in the referee’s notepad after some lazy defending from the hosts, the centre-back taking out Devante