Princes Park opener is ALL TICKET - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Dartford co-chairman Mr David Skinner has today unveiled the opening game at Princes Park on Saturday 11 November against Horsham YMCA is all-ticket, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Ryman League Division One South clash, which falls on the day when the FA Cup first round proper takes place, is expected to be be a complete sell out as the north Kent club open their stunning, all-covered, 4,100 capacity, £6.5m stadium.

The Darts have played at four different grounds during their 14-year exile but in 63 days time football finally comes back home.

“Yes, the game is all-ticket or at least we’re trying to make it all-ticket,” Mr Skinner EXCLUSIVELY revealed to www.kentishfootball.co.uk today.

He explained: “Not so much to cause problems but we anticipate the interest being so high. What we want to do is to guarantee that we get everyone a ticket who wants it.”

There will be a mad rush for tickets once they go on sale on 29^th September.

“You can get them through the club, get them through the council at the civic centre near the railway station, also at the Orchard Theatre in the town,” announced Mr Skinner.

“The Orchard are about to launch an internet booking service so people will be able to buy tickets on line as well.”

Dartford will be in discussions to ask how many tickets their visitors will need.

“What we’re doing is we’ll contact Horsham YMCA to get them a number of tickets for the day,” Mr Skinner said. “They can pick them up before the game. The number depends on how many they want.”

But Mr Skinner admitted tickets for seating will be limited due to the high number of VIP’s attending the stadium’s showpiece opening game.

“The only restrictions at the moment is that there probably won’t be many stand tickets for general sale as they’ll probably be used up for all the VIP’s and invited guests,” he said.

Dartford who won 5-0 at Kent Leaguers Tunbridge Wells in the preliminary round of the FA Cup seven days ago, welcome Hastings United again next Saturday in the first qualifying round.

But the Darts lost top spot after their 2-0 defeat to rock bottom Hastings today, putting in a poor performance in the league encounter.

Mr Skinner, meanwhile, hopes the Darts rediscover their impressive early season form to get through four more rounds to make it a very special opening day.

He said: “I would be more than happy to get a home draw on November 11, because not only it will be great particularly if we draw a big team in the first round, but we would have also earned £7,500 along the way.”

Dartford’s second game at Princes Park on 25 November against local rivals Sittingbourne is, at the moment, NOT all ticket.