Dartford welcome Isthmian Premier leaders Billericay Town to Princes Park this weekend in the division’s “Game of the Day” with boss Ady Pennock relishing the chance to show the Essex side just how much his side has improved since their meeting.
The home side go into the game having taken twenty-eight points from a possible thirty since early December, a run that has lifted Pennock’s side into fourth place in the table, just three points behind the leaders with a game in hand.
“It’s another game for us and just another three points for us to play for,” a very relaxed Darts boss told us this week.
“I don’t find it any bigger than our game last weekend against Wingate, nothing will be won on Saturday; we won’t get promoted, we won’t win a play-off place; we won’t be relegated if we win, lose or draw Saturday!”
“It’s a great game for everyone at the club as this is where we want to be and be involved in these “big games” hopefully we’ll have a good crowd and we put on a good performance!”
“Last time we played them back on a Tuesday night in early October, it was like men against boys, it really was, they were very good, they were excellent! But come Saturday we just have to carry on what we have been doing and get a little bit of luck and see where it takes us.”
The Darts have won nine and drawn one of their last ten, a run that has lifted them into fourth in the standings, with the top five in the division now threatening to break away from the rest.
There are currently seven points between fifth placed Horsham and sixth placed Hashtag United with the same games played, yet only four points separate the top five!
“It takes a little while for the table to show where teams are! It shows what we have achieved with this brand-new squad, not just a team since the start of the year, so it took some time to get sorted and manage games better but overall, I do think that we have done exceptionally well to be where we are currently.”
“If we make the play-offs it will be amazing and that’s our aim, but there is still a lot of football to be played and a lot of work to be done I can assure you – there’s a long way to go yet!”
“We respect everyone we play as in this league anyone can beat anyone, top can lose to the bottom and it’s such a difficult league to get out of! But we are enjoying the run that we’re on as it doesn’t happen often; we are enjoying it and we’ll see where it takes us!”
Pennock finished our chat with his squad news, “We are going to lose Sam OKoye through suspension after a decision that I have never seen before through all of my footballing years, his second yellow card was nothing short of laughable really, so we will miss him and we have some other little niggles at the wrong time!”