Steve Hopes He Will Finally Be The Play-Off King For A Day

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Yet again the experienced manager has guided his club into a Promotion Final. Weymouth await this weekend - but he’s been here before, of course.

Dartford fans, this is probably the moment to consider if you want to continue reading on or not.

Try as he might, King has a rotten record when it comes to the winner-takes-all shoot-out.

It’s seven play-off campaigns now for the manager, and not one of them before now has ended well.

There were three final defeats, as manager of Whitehawk at Boreham Wood in the National League South final of 2015. Then, going back a bit, a heartbreaking defeat as Farnborough boss to Ebbsfleet United in 2011.

But last summer came the cruelest of the lot. Holding their own at Woking, but Welling United lost when they were far from second best.

Now he’s back for more. A glutton for punishment, we think they call it.

He told us: “I just have to keep hoping this is my turn - luck hasn’t been on my side for the past six times, so hopefully someone will be looking down on me!

“The last one was tough to take. It was very, very hard because I know how close we were last year with Welling. I was very down, we deserved more than we got.

“But what do you do? You have to either lick your wounds and carry on or give up. I have never been one to give up!

“You have to pick yourself up and look to the next challenge, but of course it was a very difficult summer. We may not have much of this summer left, but it would be nice to enjoy it!”

The Kent club have been superb in the play-offs so far, winning away twice - at Slough in convincing fashion, and then 2-1 at favourites Havant.

There is history for sides winning three away games and claiming promotion, Braintree Town did it two years ago.

When King took over in October 2019, the Darts were languishing in 17th position in the National League South table.

He famously said to supporters to forget about a push for promotion when he arrived.

Not mind games, but just a real belief that next season was the year he expected his team to thrive.

“I still see this campaign as a free hit, even though we have made the final,” he said.

“When we came to Dartford, our focus was keeping the club in the division. Suddenly, we went on this positive run and began getting results, we didn’t expect to accumulate the amount of points that we have since I came in.

“I was told my remit was to stay up, bring some respect back, build and we would have another go next year. We changed a few players and it clicked quite quickly.

“I don’t think I was the first name on the fans’ lips at first because I was the manager of local rivals Welling.

“When I came through the door and people saw the way I worked then they appreciated how much I want to achieve success. People bought into that very quickly and when we started winning games, it changed everyone’s mentality.

“Now let’s see what we can do this weekend. It would be incredible to complete the job.”

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: DEC O’REILLY

Full feature interview available in the National League South Promotion Final matchday programme.