Dartford Football Club have announced that they have withdrawn from the Kent Senior Cup due to fixture congestion.

This was caused by cancellations due to weather over December and January, additional games due to the success of their FA Trophy campaign and their league fixtures.

Margate v Dartford was originally drawn as a second-round fixture of the Kent Senior Cup with an original play-by date of 30^th November 2012.  Poor weather throughout December and January made scheduling the match difficult for both clubs, and with rescheduled league fixtures and Dartford’s FA Trophy matches taking priority in February the match remained unplayed.

The Senior Cup competition had meanwhile progressed to the semi-final stage, prompting the Kent FA Competitions Committee to issue a final play-by date of 5^th March for Margate and Dartford’s second-round fixture in order to maintain progress through the competition.

Margate were available to play the match, but when Dartford were handed another rescheduled league fixture on 5^th March it was suggested that the match be moved to 6^th March as an alternative.  Dartford were still unable to play on this date and subsequently withdrew from the Kent Senior Cup.

Kent FA Chief Executive Paul Dolan explained the withdrawal.

“We have other teams at the semi-final stage in the Senior Cup and the final is scheduled for early May, so we are duty-bound to progress the competition at this stage”.

“We understand that clubs at Senior Cup level have other commitments and we never stand in the way of clubs chasing league promotion or progressing in national FA competitions, but with over three months since the original play-by-date we have to move the competition forward.”

“We wish Dartford FC the best of luck in their remaining league games.”

Meanwhile, Dartford issued the following press statement:

“Since playing the previous round in November, there have been many attempts at playing the tie, but due to the recent poor weather and the state of Margate’s pitch, together with our own fixture backlog, having got to the FA Trophy semi-final, the game has had to be postponed many times.”

“Recently we were informed that we had to play the game the week beginning 4th March or we would be eliminated from the competition. This proved impossible as the First team were playing Saturday, Tuesday, Friday, and the Academy were also committed to play on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

“Despite trying and failing, to get an extension of the deadline, we were then informed that we had forfeited the tie, and Margate would go through to play Ebbsfleet.”

“We did consider sending a very scratch team to play at Margate, and also our late offer of sending a weak Academy side, but in deference to the standard of the competition, and a team of Margate’s standing, it may have been something of a mismatch, we must reluctantly accept the decision of the KCFA Committee.”