Football Season Guide

Dartford are still in the Conference Premier despite finishing the last season third from bottom as they were handed a reprieve eventually. The Kent club were spared relegation because Salisbury failed to provide financial guarantees and were eventually demoted from the Conference. It is a big stroke of luck for Dartford but they will feel that they were rightly reprieved having run a sustainable budget at this tough league and trying to live within their means. They also displayed real desire to stay up last season and were actually very close to pulling off a miracle escape. They just ran out of steam at the end but the efforts of the players deserve some credit and there is actually some momentum from last year that Tony Burman can work on. Moreover, he managed to retain the services of Andy Pugh and Rory McAuley on permanent deals after the duo played a big part in the late revival while being on loan from Cambridge. Adam Green is also back in the team after an year away and he is a quality and very reliable left-back. Harry Crawford is another former Darts back who comes back as he failed to make the mark at Barnet but has scored quite a few goals for the Darts a couple of years ago and will certainly be useful up front. Jason Brown will be the new number one keeper and he has bags of experience at a host of clubs higher up the Football League ladder. There is still alarming lack of depth in some areas but Burman knows how to use the loan market. Moreover, most of the key members of the squad from last season have been kept and Dartford will be hopeful of making a stronger start of the season than last year. That should hold them in better stead and they should have enough to actually beat the drop.