Dartford are going back to the Conference South next season as their brave challenge against relegation in the latter stages of the season eventually failed. The Darts were the surprise package of the previous campaign but the loss of two major players in Tom Champion and Tom Bonner in the summer proved the first setback of many for Tony Burman and his side. The manager failed to bring replacements of similar quality but at least secured the loan capture of Adam Birchall for the first half of the season. That ought to have sorted the issues up front but the team made a rather poor start of the season and struggled to recover for a while from it. Six defeats in the first nine games kept them too close to the bottom places but they actually responded quite well to that challenge by getting home wins over Kidderminster and Southport. Yet, it was clear that the team will struggle to get decent results on regular basis as there was no squad depth at all and some star performers from the previous season, like Ryan Hayes and Elliott Bradbrook, were struggling badly for form. Still, no one would have envisaged the sort of collapse that they suffered from October onwards until the opening weeks of 2014. They lost ten games in a row in the league, including some pretty dire showings and dropped firmly into the bottom four during that period. However, the January transfer window provided an opportunity to amend the squad and Burman some decent players like Rory McAuley and Alex Wall to bolster his options. A few good results suddenly restored the faith and confidence of the players and they finally started to resemble the sort of gritty and unscrupulous outfit that they were in the previous season. A run of four wins in five in February put them right back in the mix for survival and they maintained relatively good form in the weeks after that. There was genuine buzz around the place as they aimed to cut the gap but the improved form of their contenders meant that they were always facing an uphill battle. A few poor results in the final month of the season eventually ended their hopes and a 3:2 loss at the hands of Tamworth on Easter Monday officially brought an end to their stay in the league. It was a real disappointment for Burman but he at least can be satisfied with the real effort that the team displayed in the second half of the season and that is a good platform to build on as they plot an immediate return next year.
