Dartford complete their pre-season campaign with a home game against local rivals Ebbsfleet United

Dartford are hoping a tough game against local rivals Ebbsfleet will be perfect preparation for the new season.

Higher-league Fleet will be heading to Princes Park this Saturday in what will be the last chance for both teams to prepare for their league campaigns ahead.

The Darts drew 0-0 at Faversham Town on Tuesday night ahead of this weekend’s exciting end to their pre-season schedule.

Goalkeeper coach Les Cleevely spoke after the Gillingham game last weekend, which ended in a 2-0 win for the Football League side.

They’ll be tested again this Saturday ahead of that all-important first match in Isthmian Premier at Dulwich Hamlet next Saturday.

Cleevely said: “We always model ourselves on quite a tough pre-season as far as games are concerned. You play one or two sides that are in and around you, the Favershams, the Chathams, and I think it’s proper preparation, rather than playing sides that are nowhere near you, or playing the great sides.

“The likes of Crystal Palace pop the ball around you and play keep-ball, which is great for the legs but it’s not great for the season preparation.

“I think they get it more or less right with the games that we face and the difficulty in the games that we face.

“We also need to get people through the gate, that’s important.

“Hopefully we can entertain the supporters a little bit with how we play. We certainly did in the play-offs.

“Hopefully we can create that and integrate the new faces that are in, like the goalkeeper [Jonny Henly].

“The back four or five have got to get used to the way that he plays. He has to get used to what he sees in front of him. But we’re in a good place with it all.

“We’ve still got time on the training pitch, a couple of good training sessions to come,