Lee Noble celebrates scoring Dartford's late equaliser against Welling Picture: Keith Gillard

by Matthew Panting

Lee Clarke went from hero to villain as Blue Square Bet South derby honours were shared on Boxing Day at Park View Road.

Clarke’s first-half penalty looked to be enough for 10-man Welling but he then missed a second spot-kick and, within seconds, Lee Noble headed in an injury-time equaliser for Dartford.

Dartford had only two early Jon Wallis shots to show for their dominance of the opening half-hour but Welling led at half-time thanks to Clarke’s penalty after Loick Pires was tripped by Matt Jones.

It could have been more but for Elliot Bradbrook’s excellent challenge on Andy Pugh and Luis Cumbers wastefully fired over from close range on the stroke of half-time, moments after Clarke cleared Tom Bonner’s header off the line at the other end.

Bradbrook headed wide early in the second half for Dartford but the game came to life when Joe Healy and Tom Champion clashed just before the hour mark. Both players went in strongly but Healy appeared to be later than his Darts opponent although why Champion got a yellow card and birthday boy Healy a red card, remained a mystery to everyone except referee Craig Breakspear.

Ironically, Welling created more with 10 men and should have put the game out of sight. Pugh curled wide, saw his close-range effort blocked onto the woodwork and then set up Cumbers, who fired high and wide of the near post.

When Cumbers’ right-wing cross was blocked by the body of Bonner, the assistant referee flagged that it was handball and a second penalty appeared to have decided the game.

But Dartford keeper Louis Wells had other ideas, dived to his right to keep out Clarke’s spot-kick and, within an instant, Dartford broke forward and Ryan Hayes crossed for Noble to head in at the far post.

It denied on-loan Charlton keeper Nick Pope a clean sheet on his debut and meant Welling dropped to 12 points behind leaders Woking in second place.

The two teams meet in the return fixture at Dartford on Monday, kick-off 3pm.