Striker Adam Cunnington has urged his Dartford team-mates to mix up their game.

Cunnington has given Darts a physical presence in attack this season - but he insisted having a big target man in the side doesn’t mean they need to become too direct.

“I’ve been around a little while so I think some of the boys know how I want to play,” said Cunnington, who joined from Billericay on the eve of the campaign.

“We probably just have to use that option, not every time but selectively. We’ve got to make sure we don’t go too direct and make sure we mix it up a little bit.

“We did that to a degree at Chelmsford in the first half and looked a better side for it.

“Second half, we went one-nil down and went long ball again. Every flick-on isn’t going to go through, teams aren’t silly.”

Cunnington knows the team need to show more resolve - especially if they don’t get the first goal in games.

“In the second half we just haven’t applied ourselves in the same way,” he admitted after the 4-0 drubbing at Chelmsford.

“We knew Chelmsford were going to come out fighting. If they were honest they’d say they were particularly poor first half, and we probably made one or two mistakes again.

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“The first goal has killed us. But, I hate to say it, it was a bit like Wealdstone and once one goal has gone in we haven’t really looked like coming back.

“We’ve got to stand up and be counted. You can’t be losing games 4-0 in Conference South. You have to stay in games and then you never know, you might nick a goal at the end and come away with a draw.

“We conceded a couple of soft goals and once that first one went in we never looked like getting back into it in all honesty.

“The red card certainly didn’t help. But I don’t think we can use it as an excuse. Did we look overly threatening in the second half? Not really.

“We were looking for that little bit of spark and magic and it didn’t happen. Overall it wasn’t good enough in the end.”

Cunnington, who bagged his first goal for the club against Havant, knows things can change quickly in football - starting with this Saturday’s trip to Weymouth.

“It’s another tough one,” he said. “We’ve had a real tough start - no excuses - we should have picked up more points.

“But we have to look forward. We’ll go there knowing we can hurt them, we’ve just got to take those chances early on.

“It settles everyone’s nerves a bit and then we can relax and play our football. By the looks of it, that’s the key to us at the moment.”

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