Dartford manager Ady Pennock reacts to 2-2 draw at Cray Wanderers and latest twist in Isthmian Premier title race

Manager Ady Pennock was proud of his Dartford players despite relinquishing their grip on the Isthmian Premier title on Monday.

The Darts were held to a 2-2 draw by Cray Wanderers on Monday, allowing promotion rivals Billericay and Horsham to overtake them in the penultimate round of matches.

“It’s a difficult place to come,” said Pennock. “They’ve been flying and we were under no illusions, we knew it was going to be very difficult. They’re very good going forward.

“But we could have scored seven or eight goals.

“It summed it up in the end, we had two or three really good chances.

“I knew it wasn't going to be our day when we hit the bar, and it popped up in the air, and then it hit the bar again, and went over.

“I’m proud of those boys, we’ve come a long way and I’m unbelievably proud.

“I know there'll be disappointed supporters, and disappointed players and everyone else, staff, but I'm very optimistic.

“It's just a shame we couldn't get the three points.

“But if someone said to me at the start of the season, we’re level on points at the top and we’re into the play-offs, and possibly go to the last game of the season to go straight up, then I’d have snapped their hand off.”

With the Darts drawing, Pennock found out how their rivals were getting on.

But any thought of taking a defender off and throwing an extra body forward were ended by a red card for centre-back Michael Olarewaju for two yellow cards.

“I did turn to Roland Edge (assistant manager) and ask him to have a look at the other scores,” revealed Pennock. “And then a minute later, we had the red card.

“But even when we went down to 10 men, we had some two or three good chances. We kept going, there were some good saves, and we were a bit unfortunate, hitting