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Pre-season friendlies against Leyton Orient, Southend and Gillingham give Dartford a cash boost

08:00, 07 July 2011

Dave Skinner
Dave Skinner

Dartford chairman Dave Skinner is hoping for another pre-season pay day after lining up an entertaining schedule.

Since moving to their Princes Park home, the Darts have become a regular destination from Football League teams.

Leyton Orient, Southend and Gillingham were among the visitors last season which helped the club amass around £25,000 in revenue before the season had even begun.

Southend return to kick things off on Monday and they will be followed by Gillingham (July 15), Championship side Millwall (July 19) and big-spenders Crawley on July 23.

"Bringing these high profile clubs to the ground is great as we can get some cash in ahead of the season," said Mr Skinner (pictured).

"Last year the money we made from pre-season helped cover the gap when all of those games were called off throughout November and December. It proved to be important to us and we probably made around £20-£25,000.

"Hopefully we will attract the people back for the pre-season games this year."

And attracting League clubs back to Princes Park year-on-year shows no sign of stalling.

"It’s quite easy to attract these clubs when you have the facilities that we have," added Mr Skinner. "They get to play on a decent pitch, where they won’t get injuries and we play the game in the right way as well because if we start kicking them off the park they won’t come back."

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