An entertaining North West Kent derby between Dartford and Welling United ended with the points shared.

After the match, Dartford manager Steve King said “We didn’t play anywhere near our levels. I thought first half we were atrocious but even on that we had two great chances. Charlie (Sheringham) went through one-on-one and I expected him to finish that which he has been, he’s scored nine goals in ten games I think, Charlie, so I expected him to finish that.

“(We were) nowhere near the races. (It was a) poor goal to concede, I felt Dan should have saved it as well. It almost pea-rolled into the bottom corner.”

They were much improved in the second half and King continued “I just had a right go at half time. I had to take Connor (Essam) off. Connor would have got sent off. He should have been sent off in the first half.

“I changed it to bring Josh (Hill) in there. Josh got caught cold, ball over the top. He should head it before it bounces and he gives away a penalty (and we have a) mountain to climb. We get it back to two-two and we’re all over them. There’s only going to be one winner and Elliott (Romain)’s got to score that at the back post. How he’s missed it, it’s harder to miss that than score. He’s three yards out.

“Jacob (Berkelety-Agyepong)’s come on and he’s changed the whole game. He wasn’t quite fit, right, to start but when he came on he changed the game. His intensity, running at them, going past them, skipping past them for fun, there was only going to be one winner at the end but as I said, I was not happy with the performance.”

The two week break has been difficult for all clubs. King explained what Dartford have done. “We’ve trained at the odd time, that’s all we can do. We played Tuesday night. We looked sharp Tuesday against Southend. We played two teams, one team in each half so they had forty-five minutes in their legs and they were outstanding.”

Despite his disappointment, King accepted that his former club had presented Dartford with a challenge. “Give Welling some credit.” he said  “They put a team together today and its the manager’s first game so you know what’s going to happen there.

“They’re going try even harder to impress the manager to keep the shirt, to keep themselves at the club and I thought they gave a good account of themselves but for me I look at our set up and how we’ve not won the game at the end there. Luke Allen was the best player on the pitch for me. He was everywhere, outstanding.”

As far as what the future holds for this season, King said “That’s something that we can’t control. I think there’s another twist and turn to come. You’ve only got to look at the fixtures today. You’ll see all the Northern teams have pulled out. There was five South fixtures that were played. I think that there might be another scenario coming but we’ll wait and see about that one.”

Until any directive is issued, Dartford will look no further than the next few games, starting on Tuesday when they host Eastbourne Borough. “Tough game.” said King. “Eastbourne beat Hungerford three-one today. They beat us three-one earlier. They’re a good side and they’re having a good season. They’re top six already. No expectations for them and they’re doing ever so well so another tough, tough game.”

Whether he changes his line-up remains to be decided “Noor (Husin)’s injured. (He) might be out for another two or three weeks, Jordan Wynter’s out longer term, but everyone else is available.”

Should they have future fixtures against clubs who aren’t able or aren’t prepared to play, King will be looking for alternatives “That’s what I do.” he confirmed. “That’s what I’ve been doing all the way through. That’s why we’ve played eighteen games and others have only played twelve or thirteen. I think just keep going until we get told to stop.”

Clubs who refuse to play don’t bother King. “It’s down to the league to deal with that.” he stated.

“We’ve got Eastbourne on Tuesday, they want to play. We’ve got Billericay on Saturday. They want to play. They’ve done remarkably today putting out five non-contract players and six under twenty-threes and then holding St Albans two-two. It’s a helluva result so we go there next weekend so hopefully we know we’ve got the next two games and we go from there.”