Both Dartford and Welling United come into Tuesday night’s local derby on the back of confidence boosting away wins on Saturday.
Danny Harris scored Dartford’s winner at Nuneaton Town after they had fallen behind.
Meanwhile, Welling claimed their first away points of the season with a 4-0 thumping of Altrincham.
Before the season started, bookmakers’ odds showed the two clubs to be favourites to make the drop out of the Vanarama Conference Premier and both clubs suffered poor starts, albeit having difficult fixtures. Recent results however, have pulled them out of the bottom four and looking to pull further clear.
There are only two places and one point between the clubs. Welling sit in sixteenth with thirteen points, whilst Dartford have twelve points and are eighteenth.
Using similar fixtures played this season as a form guide, Dartford beat AFC Telford 2-1 at Princes Park after Welling had been held 1-1 by the Bucks at Park View Road on the opening day of the season.
However, Welling’s win on Saturday far eclipsed the Darts’ 2-1 defeat at Moss Lane earlier in the month. How much can be taken from this is anyone’s guess as the form book can usually be thrown out of the window when local derbies are concerned.
Andy Pugh will be hopeful of starting for the Darts against the Wings, one of his former clubs, if he recovers from injury. Tom Bender finished the season on loan at the Wings from Millwall but has now joined Dartford and came on for his debut on Saturday.
Jamie Day, Welling’s player manager, was at Dartford before taking up his current role but it seems unlikely that he will select himself now that his team is settling down.
Last season’s corresponding fixture ended with the honours shared. Jim Stevenson, on loan from Luton, fired the Darts into a tenth minute lead but Ross Lafayette equalised from the spot eight minutes later. Neither team managed to score again as the teams settled for a point apiece. The result had extra significance for the Darts as it ended a run of ten consecutive defeats.
The match is expected to be another tight encounter and should produce the biggest crowd at Park View Road so far this season.
Picture supplied by Dave Budden.