Dartford player-boss Ben Greenhalgh says hiccups inevitable after September purple patch of seven wins and a draw

Dartford player-boss Ben Greenhalgh disputes the suggestion that they’re ahead of schedule.

The Darts went top of Isthmian Premier for the first time on Tuesday after winning 2-1 at home to Whitehawk.

They’re still in the FA Cup and have progressed in the FA Trophy and Kent Senior Cup last month.

It’s a cracking start in the Princes Park hotseat for Greenhalgh, but he knows there will be bumps in the road ahead.

“I don’t know if it’s ahead of schedule, but it is a brilliant month,” admitted Greenhalgh, after the Darts won seven and drew one of their eight games in September.

“We can’t hide from that. We went to Carshalton and Enfield who were both joint-top at the time, and won 3-0 and 2-0.

“We won against Whitehawk on Tuesday, a team that are very explosive in counter-attacking football and they scored four goals last weekend, so they’re not a team that should be where they are in the division because of how they can score goals.

“We’re not ahead of schedule. We’re just fighting about in the manner that we want to be fighting.

“We have to accept there’s going to be tough moments throughout the season. Every month isn’t going to be as good as September. I’d love to say it would be, but you can’t go and win seven in a row every single month.

“So, there’ll be moments when we’ll need players together. But I think for me, the positive is that we’ve had to rotate so many players.

“We made four changes again on Tuesday for the starting XI and we still looked strong. We still won a game of football and I think that’s brilliant for the changing room that we can rotate.

“Obviously, being at clubs in the past, sometimes when you lose one player, it can have a massive negative effect on the team. But for us, we look like we can