The Bees suffered defeat in a pre-season outing under the lights at Princes Park – losing 2-0 to Dartford.

Dean Brennan’s side had the first chance of the evening when Dale Gorman played a neat pass forward to Jamar Loza in the left side of the box who opened his body up before steering his shot the wrong side of the far post.

Dartford responded with two quick-fire chances in the 17th minute as Aymen Azaze denied a fierce shot from the edge of the area before spreading himself to keep out another effort after an attacker was played through on goal.

Alan Dowson’s side took the lead shortly before the break after Luke Coulson’s initial shot from the edge of the box was blocked straight back into his path to strike across goal and into the bottom right corner.

The Bees almost equalised after the restart through Sean Shields who first curled a shot narrowly wide of the top corner before later being denied by a smart save from the goalie who kept out his effort towards the bottom left corner.

Just before the hour mark, the Darts went close to adding a second when Coulson’s free-kick looped up and over the wall and against the crossbar.

The hosts continued to push and were rewarded moments later when Davide Rodari latched onto a poor pass from Azaze before slotting it past him into the bottom corner.

Dartford continued to threaten down the left flank and caused problems for the Bees once again when a cross into the area was flicked towards goal from two-yards out to make Azaze knock the ball clear.

Azaze was called into action once more in the 78th minute when Dartford’s attacker found space from 20-yards to rifle one towards the bottom corner and force the ‘keeper to parry away – leaving the hosts to settle for a 2-0 victory.

Bees: Aymen Azaze, Jerome Okimo (Sam Beard 62’), Trialist A (Moussa Diarra 62’), Danny Collinge, Ben Wynter (Jordan Thomas 62’), Michael Phillips, Dale Gorman (Harry Pritchard 62’), Connor Smith (Ryan De Havilland 62’), Jamar Loza (Sean Shields 62’), Ephron Mason-Clark (Nicke Kabamba 62’), Sean Shields (Rob Hall 62’).

Attendance: 312.