Dartford manager Steve King aware that squad needed to respond from FA Trophy exit with positive result

Dartford manager Steve King warned his squad that another shock cup exit cannot define their season.

The Darts bounced back from their FA Trophy defeat at lower-league Needham Market with a 2-0 home win over Bath on Saturday.

It was a big relief for the home side, who couldn’t afford a similar reaction to their FA Cup loss at AFC Sudbury.

Dartford didn’t win any of their next five league games – failing to score in four of them – after the fourth qualifying round exit and skipper Tom Bonner’s outrageous red card hit them hard.

“That was pointed out - the Trophy game has gone now, we can’t do anything about it so forget it,” stated King.

“It was important to get that win against Bath. After the FA Cup we drew the next game, lost the next one and it was four or five games.

“After that we didn’t recover properly. We went into that game 11 unbeaten with 10 wins and a draw. We strolled up at that game, went in front with a worldy goal from Jebby and didn’t follow it on.

“The sending-off changed the game but it was important to get this win straight after the Needham one.

“Needham deserved that win, I’ve got no complaints as they were better than us on the day. That’s football, I’ve been on the other end of it when I’ve knocked Premier League or Championship clubs out and people say ‘how have you done that?’ but it’s football, anyone can beat anyone on the day.

“I’ve been managing 22 years, it was the furthest I’ve been in the FA Trophy and I thought we had a great chance of getting into the quarter-finals. It would have been Stockport but that’s another story!

“We had to get it out of our system and I had to get it out of my system, it’s taken me a week, it’s gone now and we’ve got crack on with the league.”

Dartford will