Dartford assistant manager Christian Jolley felt the small margins went their way against Concord on Saturday.

It appeared a relatively comfortable 3-1 win that put the Darts top of National League South but Jolley insisted it was a tighter game than the final scoreline suggested.

“We scored in the right moments in the second half and were able to see things out,” he stated.

“They gave us a good test, the first half was difficult with a lot of bodies behind the ball. We got our goal and should have protected it until half-time but they scored and it made things difficult.

“We had to come out and muster a performance, we were able to show some quality and their error for the own goal helped us get across the line.

“It’s only a 10 per cent margin, a goal scored can lift you 10 per cent or take 10 per cent off them and that’s enough to have a foothold in the game and come away thinking it was comfortable when really it was just the moments that went our way.

"A lot of things went for us but you’ve got to ride the wave when they go for you."

A change of formation helped Dartford in the second half.

They were able to get Pierre Fonkeu more involved in the game, and it paid off when he restored the hosts’ lead.

“When we regained the ball we weren’t great with our first couple of passes so the ball got turned over quite quickly from back to front,” explained Jolley.

“We never really got a real foothold and that’s what we tried to address at half-time. We did better in the second half at regaining and controlling the middle third of the park.

“We changed to a 4-3-3 which gave us an opportunity for Pierre Fonkeu to be higher up the pitch and his pace was a problem for them.

“We didn’t start how we wanted to. After 26 minutes I said to the gaffer we haven’t started well at all and then Samir popped up with a goal!

“There were five minutes of injury time and for the first two and a half minutes we were brilliant, they were penned in and we had good retention of the ball. Then the last two and a half minutes we were terrible, we put an easy cross from Sam which should go in the box went out for a goal kick and then we didn’t win a first contact for the rest of the half.

“They have a positive set-up on attacking throws and are affective, we didn’t get it right and the second phase was a handball and it was 1-1.

“Pierre sparked Charlie Sheringham and the pressing was more aggressive, it put them on the backfoot and that’s where the centre-half error came from. The timings of the goals really deflated them and we took the ascendancy.”

With Havant picking up a draw at Tonbridge and Ebbsfleet in FA Cup action this weekend, it meant Dartford took over in pole position.

They’ve played four games more than Ebbsfleet and two more than Havant, but Jolley is happy with their tally of 44 points from 21 games.

• Report: Dartford 3-1 Concord

“It’s a place where we want to be,” he said. “We’ve got more games on the board than the teams around us but the points average is exactly where we want to be.

“That’s full credit to the boys, we’re well organised and hopefully we can carry that on. But we’ve got a long way to go and it’s a tough December that we’ve got.”

Dartford visit fourth-placed Chelmsford, who are seven points behind them with three games in hand, next weekend with a 12.30pm kick-off.