Dartford manager Ady Pennock won’t use injuries or suspensions as an excuse for negative results

Dartford manager Ady Pennock won’t be looking for excuses with his squad stretched to the limit.

The Darts were without six first-teamers for last weekend’s Isthmian Premier draw at Cray Valley due to injuries and suspensions.

They had a bench of youngsters with Pennock opting not to make any changes to his line-up during the 90 minutes.

“I don’t want to make it as an excuse,” stated Pennock. “It is what it is, you’ve just got to get on with it and I’m not one to make excuses about the injuries.

“We’ve had some bad knee injuries this season, Dean Naylor with his ACL and then Sammie McLeod got a bad two-footer against Gillingham in pre-season.

“We had to put him on the bench on Saturday but he’s not even had a full training session yet!

“But this is football, you get seasons like this with suspensions and injuries and you’ve got to deal with it.

“The 11 players that started against Cray last weekend were more than capable of getting a result and that’s what they’ve done.”

Dartford took a 13th-minute lead through Dan Smith but were pegged back in the second half when Rowan Liburd netted after a misplaced pass from Samir Carruthers.

Jez Pinder and Sam Okoye were banned while Jacob Bland failed a fitness test and Dan Carter was ruled out through illness.

“I thought it was a marvellous point for us, under the circumstances,” said Pennock.

“We had Jez and Sam McCoy suspended, Eddie [Dsane] was injured, Jacob didn’t make it and Dan Carter was ill.

“We were literally down to bare bones and it’s always a difficult place to go anyway.

“I think before the game we’d have been pleased to take a point. I was very pleased with the boys, I had to play Ben Frempah, Denzelle Olopade and Sam Smith who haven’t played 90 minutes in six