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Dartford 0 Concord Rangers 1: Reaction from manager Steve King

08:16, 22 December 2019

updated: 08:16, 22 December 2019

Manager Steve King admitted he was frustrated by Dartford’s inconsistency on Saturday.

The Darts followed up last weekend’s 3-2 win over Billericay with a 1-0 home defeat to Concord.

Dartford's Darren McQueen holds the ball up against Concord. Picture: Sean Aidan FM24849487
Dartford's Darren McQueen holds the ball up against Concord. Picture: Sean Aidan FM24849487

The Dartford boss has always maintained that’s the level his current squad is at, but the variety in their performance was hard to understand.

“I was frustrated that I’m getting chalk and cheese,” said King. “Last week we deserved the plaudits and to win the game against Billericay.

“I know what kind of side Concord are, they are spoilers but they’re a decent little side and anybody who says they’re not just need to look at their form and the teams they’ve beaten.

“That’s four out of five that they’ve won. They’ve beaten Maidstone after being 2-0 down, Eastbourne, Bath, Welling and Hemel Hempstead.”

Dartford created few clear-cut chances until the last 10 minutes, and King felt too many of his team had off-days.

“I felt there wasn’t enough quality,” he added. “Normally you can have five or six off their game and the other six can carry you through but I thought nearly all of them were off their game.

“When you look around the team and you can say ‘not good enough, poor, okay, not good enough’ then you’re not winning any football matches.

“From my point of view I could dig people out here but I’m not going to do that publicly. They know certain things we did were unacceptable.

“I don’t think we worked the keeper enough. Did we deserve to lose the game? No, 100 per cent we didn’t but we did. We need to do better.”

The Darts boss did praise substitute Ryan Hayes, however. The wideman nearly produced some late magic to help rescue a point for Dartford.

“Hayzie came on and lifted it, he put in three or four fantastic balls,” said King.

“His first thought was can I cross, I didn’t think we had enough quality going in (before that) from wide areas. Hayzie has come on for 15-20 minutes and put some decent balls in the box.”

Match report: Dartford 0 Concord Rangers 1

Read more: All the latest sports news in Kent

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