The Dart(s) Board

These are our exit games only, so there have been a few wins leading up to some of these, but even with that in mind it’s pretty grim reading…

2025(ILP F) Dartford 0 Dover 2
2023(NLS SF) Dartford 1 St Albans 1 (3-5 pens)
2022(NLS SF) Dartford 0 Chippenham 0 (2-3 pens)
2020(NLS F) Weymouth 0 Dartford 0 (3-0 pens)
2018(NLS SF) Dartford 0 Braintree 1
2017(NLS SF) Dartford 0 Chelmsford 1

Who remembers that Harvey Bradbury goal eh?

Fcuk Mikey, that doesn’t make for good reading at all !!

Bloody hell. One goal!!

Remember that 3 out of 4 teams lose in the playoffs every season (5 out of 6 in NL). Okay yes in two of those seasons we were second so technically should have been favourites but I don’t think our record is too bad when you break it down.

Since I started following Darts, our record in playoff matches has been 5 wins, 5 draws, 3 losses. Four of those draws went to pens or ET, which would make it 6 wins and 6 losses.

So yea, it’s 0 promotions from the last 6 playoffs isn’t great, but every season is different. Losing to Dover on Monday had nothing to do with losing to Chelmsford in 2017 (which was 2-1 not 1-0).

I think we would have beaten Weymouth in 2020 if it had gone to ET - I also think playing with no crowds in the NLP would have killed us - look at Weymouth now.

Football has up and downs I don’t think there’s any point lamenting about past upsets (coming from someone who secretly loves to lament past upsets)

Anyway thanks for coming to my Ted talk

Looking at the interview on kent on line from Ady, not sure how we would have competed in NLS.

He states we had the 8th Lowest budget in the league ( hence the punching above our weight comment)
Its going to be hard to keep hold of players, we need an investor and saying they have a 5 year plan but he cannot wait 5 years,

Sounds all depressing stuff to me

I broke it down easy enough DofH. Of the last 6 we lost er 6.

I prefer your theory Lars!!

Heard a rumour that the ‘eliminator’ round could be coming to the “Trident” (ie. northern / southern / isthmian) leagues, therefore extending the playoff spots down to 7th. Not a fan of this at all and was hoping it would’ve been rid of rather than spreading.

I actually don’t mind playoffs (despite the above), but four places vying for one promotion is plenty at the end of a gruelling league.

DA Mikey wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 3:23 pm Heard a rumour that the ‘eliminator’ round could be coming to the “Trident” (ie. northern / southern / isthmian) leagues, therefore extending the playoff spots down to 7th. Not a fan of this at all and was hoping it would’ve been rid of rather than spreading.

I actually don’t mind playoffs (despite the above), but four places vying for one promotion is plenty at the end of a gruelling league.

I am a massive believer in the 'eliminator' style play offs do not favour the 2nd and 3rd place team in anyway. They have to sit around for a week after potentially missing out on the league title by a point or even a goal whilst the other team goes through the high of winning a play off game earlier in the week

My favourite format is a 2 legged semi and a final at the highest placed team as was the case in 2012 when we beat Basingstoke 3-1 on agg (1-0 A and 2-1 H) and then Welling in the final. Would be interesting if the stats support the highest placed team achieving promotion more often than not?

All these play off’s are an absolute joke and makes a mockery of the league. It should just be the top 2 or top 3 teams as per some leagues / divisions that get promoted.

If a team finishes in 4th or below then their season re-starts again the following August in that same league / division. Why should a team or teams that finished 2nd or 3rd be punished and made to stay in that same league / division for another year because of 1 or 2 games.

Promotion should be defined over a whole seasons results and not based on a couple of extra games at the end of that season.

I’ve never liked play off’s and never will.

Amen to that 5th.

Skip wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 5:27 pm My favourite format is a 2 legged semi and a final at the highest placed team as was the case in 2012 when we beat Basingstoke 3-1 on agg (1-0 A and 2-1 H) and then Welling in the final. Would be interesting if the stats support the highest placed team achieving promotion more often than not?

I wrote this piece before the playoffs. Towards the end of the post I’ve broken down past Isthmian Premier Playoff winners by final league position.

https://puredfc.co.uk/isthmian-premier-playoff-preview

The 5th Searcher wrote: Thu May 08, 2025 6:20 pm All these play off’s are an absolute joke and makes a mockery of the league. It should just be the top 2 or top 3 teams as per some leagues / divisions that get promoted.

If a team finishes in 4th or below then their season re-starts again the following August in that same league / division. Why should a team or teams that finished 2nd or 3rd be punished and made to stay in that same league / division for another year because of 1 or 2 games.

Promotion should be defined over a whole seasons results and not based on a couple of extra games at the end of that season.

I’ve never liked play off’s and never will.

I completely agree Matt

Fully in agreement Matt. The Sittingbourne saga just goes to prove the point!!

Play-offs are outdated, in my opinion. Brought in back in the 80s when attendances were declining and the game needed a kick up the arse. If a team finishes 30 points behind the top spot but can still sneak promotion it makes it a mockery for me. Still, they’re not going anywhere, but they need reforming.

I must be in the minority then as although i can't argue against it being unfair that a lower placed team can go up, before they were introduced the last third of the season became a total non event for over half the teams with nothing to play for, it was a total bore fest and attendances dropped well off.

But as I've said before I'd heavily weight it in favour of the higher placed teams and go with:-
2nd place straight into the final at home the following weekend.
3rd straight into the semi at home midweek to 4th and the winner of that away to 2nd and that would be it.

Or probably my choice would be 1st & 2nd automatic promotion and the same format above between 3rd,4th and fifth, but I'd definitely not go lower than 5th.

The problem is that the pyramid system couldn’t accommodate three up (two automatic and one play off winner) from our level as that would mean twelve going up to National Legaue North and South. At least that’s the way I read it.

And in a league where there is only one automatic promotion spot, playoffs do give teams unlikely to be in the title race something more ‘tangible’ to aim for. But when this extends to seventh place it’s bollocks.
Horsham were fortunate that Billericay & Dartford slipped up, as were Dover in a sense. Cray were the unremarkable team involved this time, they had a brilliant season and were very unlucky to go out the way they did at PP.

I still have great memories of our successful playoff campaign, firstly beating Basingstoke at the Camrose, then PP, then the Lee Noble scalp of Welling. Halcyon days.