KCFA need to bring the League club's back into the Kent Senior Cup, says Dartford chairman

Wednesday 13th April 2011

DARTFORD co-chairman Dave Skinner says playing this season’s Kent Senior Cup Final at Princes Park has raised the profile of the beleaguered competition, writes Stephen McCartney.

Bromley booked their place in the final against Dartford following their 3-2 win against tenants Cray Wanderers last night.

Bromley secretary Colin Russell lost the coin toss in the Cray boardroom after the game, so Mr Skinner opted to stage this season’s final at a Stadium that is fitting to stage Cup Finals.

Both Blue Square Bet South clubs agreed to stage the match on Bank Holiday Monday, 2 May (3pm), and a crowd of at least 1,500 is expected.

“It does raise the profile of the final to have two of the senior, senior clubs competing for it,” Mr Skinner said last night.

“Always in past years, not being nasty, it has been some low profile clubs competing but hopefully this will start to raise the profile of the competition to the heights it once was.

“I’ve been talking to the KCFA people (asking me) what we may expect (crowd wise). I’m talking a thousand, they’re talking 1,500. It will be nice to certainly get over a thousand. Again, that will then show the competition is going back to it’s high profile.”

Although the likes of Gillingham, Charlton Athletic and Millwall compete in the Kent Women’s Cup, the Football League trio opt out of the men’s competition.

Now it’s time for the Kent County Football Association to demand that the trio play in the Kent Senior Cup.

“I mean, that will be the ultimate to get the profile right,” agreed the Dartford stalwart.

“I don’t see why the club’s can’t enter sides, even if it means they only play a mixture of first team and reserves and playing away from their own ground, because it costs a lot (of money) to open up a League club, but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t enter the competition and play their games away.”

The first couple of rounds in the Kent Senior Cup is usually played out in front of lower crowds and fringe players taking to the field.

“It’s like everything,” explained Mr Skinner, “it’s like the Premier (League) clubs in the FA Cup. They think other things take preference and their needs are away from a Cup competition, but as I say we don’t have many competitions we enter that we expect to get through to the latter stages off so it’s always nice to get somewhere and you’re County Senior Final is a good place to end up.”

Mr Skinner added: “It would be fitting to have the final in the most senior club in the county - hopefully Princes Park in a couple of years time!”

Dartford’s playing contracts expire on 30 April, but Mr Skinner explained that he has no problem extending those deals a couple of days so Tony Burman’s side can contest the final in May.

“The agreement is we will pay the players a little bit extra to cover the extra day’s over and above they’ve been contract,” he said.

Both Kent clubs have tasted the agony and ecstasy of the Blue Square Bet South season - and they are now both fighting each other to finish the highest in their last remaining four games.

Bromley (now in eleventh place but level on points (51) with Dartford) raised all expectations when they won their first seven league games and were early table-toppers, whilst Dartford took time to get to grips with their new division, after running away with the Ryman Premier League title last season, and both are meeting each other in midtable.

Tenth-placed Dartford welcome Boreham Wood to Princes Park on Saturday, before travelling to ninth-placed Havant & Waterlooville on Monday 18th April, before playing the dress rehearsal with Bromley (at Hayes Lane on Good Friday), before foes Dover Athletic visit Princes Park on Easter Monday, before they complete their campaign at Maidenhead United on 30 April.

Looking ahead to the Good Friday clash against Hayden Bird’s Bromley, the Dartford chairman said: “Let’s say I’m a little disappointed with the state of the playing surface (at Hayes Lane) and it looks it’s taken a little wear and tear this year.

“But we’ll come here and we’ll compete and battle as we have done ever since Christmas and hopefully the way it’s going at the moment if we get a result at Havant on the Monday and Bromley on the Friday, we’ll cement our ninth place.

“Bromley started off really well but since Christmas we’ve been doing two points a game, which is championship form so we shot up the table and to finish in the top half will be a good end to the season - and there’s a bit of silverware on offer.”

Reflecting on the club’s first campaign at this level, Mr Skinner said, “It was always going to be difficult. It’s the highest that we’ve ever competed at so it was always going to be a steep learning curve and we have learnt and hopefully we have convinced people we belong in this level, if not higher.”

Visit Dartford’s website: www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk & www.dartfordfconline.com

Dartford v Boreham Wood

Blue Square Bet South

Saturday 16th April 2011

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Princes Park Stadium, Grassbanks, Darenth Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 1RT