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Dartford are coming home!

Council decision gives Dartford a new lease of life, says Sampson

DELIGHTED Dartford manager, Tommy Sampson has finally seen the pot of gold at the bottom of the rainbow, after receiving news that his Dr Martens League Eastern Division team will be playing in a Conference standard stadium in the town in 2006, writes Stephen McCartney.

With work starting on the new stadium at the end of this year, it should be completed in an eighteen-month time scale, but more importantly it will give the club, without their own stadium since 1992, a much brighter future.

The site, at the Prince's Golf and Leisure Complex, is barely half a mile from the town centre, and is around 600 yards, as the crow flies, from their old stadium at Watling Street.

After leaving the town, the Darts have groundshared  Cray Wanderers' Oxford Road home in Sidcup, Erith & Belvedere's old ground adjacent to Belvedere train station, Purfleet's (now Thurrock) Ship Lane ground and have spent the last three season's playing at Gravesend & Northfleet's Stonebridge Road.

Sampson, who won the FA Vase as Deal Town's manager  at Wembley Stadium in 2000, said: "Only one of my current squad, Danny Tingley, has played at our old stadium at Watling Street, so the significance where the club used to play is a bit lost on the other players."

Sampson and his first team coach, Paul Sawyer played around 600 times between them for Dartford, and thanked his directors whose hard work keeping the club afloat has finally paid off.

He added: "Every director at the club are Dartford supporters, a small band that have kept the club alive.

"This is the start of a new era - we have another eighteen months ahead of us to stay alive groundsharing at Gravesend & Northfleet, with a small budget, but now we have something to fight for.

"There is something I can see - the crock of gold at the end of the rainbow!"

The new stadium will be state of the art and the council will put in place £2million to build it.  More importantly it will give Sampson a chance to compete on the pitch, as with a low budget, he has been forced to field a young squad in the Dr Martens League.

One of these young players, Luke Cuthbert made his debut in Saturday's brilliant 1-0 home victory over promotion contenders King's Lynn, which attracted the Darts highest crowd of the season when 415 came through the turnstiles at Stonebridge Road,

Sampson praised his hero's, he said: "A fantastic victory over a great side, they brought 20 players with them.  They view themselves as Conference people and are an experienced side.  We did very well, fought our corner and we had a few scary moments, but so did they!

"The big thing about the day was the council had announced the new ground.  There was a feel good factor and the football capped it off.  The football made the day even sweeter," insisted Sampson.

However, victory came at a price with Chris Tedder and Jay May going off injured and both will miss the rest of the season with ligament ankle damage.

Sampson revealed: "King's Lynn's Jack Defty was sent off for a horrific tackle on Chris.  We are down to the bare bones.  I watch the youth team on a regular basis and I will have four youth team players on the bench at Chatham Town on Monday afternoon.  Three of the lads I played on Saturday can also play for our youth team."

Sampson is forced to play many youngsters in his side, and he praised debutant Luke Cuthbert for his performance against the Linnets.  The county representative is a centre half for the club's under eighteen side in the MUSH Kent Youth League.

He added: "Luke made his debut and was absolutely  fantastic.  I intend to play him for the rest of the season to see how he handles Southern League football.

"All in all, a result at Chatham Town on Monday will make it a great weekend.  The council decision has given Dartford Football Club a new lease of life" admitted Sampson.

Chatham Town  vs  Dartford, Easter Monday, 12 April, 3.00pm @ Maidstone Road, Chatham - Dr Martens League Eastern Division