Although not number one priority, both Welling United and Dartford have made it clear that they take the Kent Senior Cup seriously.

Therefore both Mark Goldberg and Tony Burman are expected to put out reasonably strong teams when they meet at Welling’s Park View Road ground in the second round on Tuesday night.

Hosts Welling got to this stage by thumping Chatham Town 6-1 away. Dan Walker scored a hat-trick and his goals were supplemented by efforts from Lyle Della-Verde and Jonte Smith, who both left Welling last week, and Josh Jackson who is on dual registration with the Chats.

It was not quite as straight forward for Dartford as they were given a stern test at Cray Wanderers before prevailing 2-1. Having been behind at half-time, Andy Pugh levelled just shy of the hour mark. Duane Ofori-Acheampong put the Darts ahead with 19 minutes remaining and that proved to be enough.

Last season, the teams met one round earlier at Dartford’s Princes Park and the hosts won relatively comfortably at the start of the journey which saw them win the cup.

George Sykes put them ahead eight minutes into the second half and Callum McNaughton made it two on 72 minutes. Although young Kurtis Cumberbatch pulled one back, Dajon Golding finished the scoring with almost the last kick of the match.

The local rivals have already met this season in the Vanarama National South at Princes Park and, again, it was Dartford who prevailed. Alex Brown was first to react and bundled home after Chris Lewington had beaten out Elliot Bradbrook’s penalty. Adam Coombes equalised with an unstoppable free kick and the teams went in level at the break.

There was a lack of quality in the second half and it looked as if the game was going to drift to a draw until a deep Ryan Hayes cross was finished at the far post by Bradbrook.

If going purely by the form book, Dartford should win at a canter however local derbies and cup games can cause upsets so this could be an interesting tie.

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.