The Kids are Alright! Darts Academy continues to flourish.

Dartford Academy has rightly received countless plaudits this season, with an all-time high of eight players making the first team squad – and others in and around it. 

However, this only tells part of the story of the set-up, with dozens more making the transition to the higher levels of football in recent years and even the odd Manchester City scout attending matches to cast their eyes over promising players.

While it can be a difficult balancing act to build successful Academy teams with players suddenly missing when called into first team action, for Darts Academy Manager Ben Greenhalgh, it’s one he relishes.

And he believes the stats can help paint a much more detailed picture of just how well the club is doing.

He said “As a football club and an Academy, we’re producing and funnelling large numbers into the whole system.

“We worked out the other day that about 59 players have graduated over the past few years and 54 of them are playing Step Five and above. 

“We can even break that down further. It’s about 12 or 13 that are now playing Step Three and above, so it’s not a case of everyone just being chucked into the bottom end, we’ve got so many players out in non-league and league football, now.

“The harsh reality is they can’t all get into the first team here and some have been let go in the past, when perhaps they wouldn’t now.

“But it’s great to see us moving in the right direction as a club.”

This is Ben’s fifth year as Academy Manager, although several years were spent as a player and on the coaching staff, before. He’s never happier than when a player goes through the Academy and into the Dartford first team or gets a chance of football elsewhere.

He said: “I think the biggest example of that was Martial Godo who was with us for two years. 

“We did a third year with him and then during his third year, he had every single club watching. I think one of the proudest moments for me was to have a Man City scout watching – you’ve got the best club in England coming here to watch your players. 

“He’s now got a five-year contract with Fulham. But even with the likes of Olly Box, Jez Pinder and George Whitefield, who have gone through us, it’s a great feeling to know we are producing these fantastic talents. I think they’re the winning stories.”

With a slick operation spearheaded by Director of Football Tony Burman, Ben believes the club’s Academy has never been in a better position. 

He continued: “The main thing throughout has been making sure we add professionalism into everything we do. I’m someone that wants to do something properly, if at all.

“We’re not the generic sort of football club Academy in a way, where it’s a money-making scheme. Everyone knows, we look at getting the right personnel in and the right numbers in and our ambition is to help every one of them. 

“I think if you have too many players in a training session, you’re not going to get the most out of each and every one. 

“Myself, Leo and Elliot are also there every session. We want to rock up to everything and make sure we’re part of all of the boys’ journeys. 

“We also added in a third-year progression, because we found that at 17 or 18, sometimes the steps of first team football are a bit too soon. There’s a lot of players that might need another year of progression. 

“So that’s worked really well recently, with players like Olly Box and George Whitefield.”

With so many players making the grade, is there something they are doing differently to other academies?

“We have to sell the football club first and with the facilities we have and everything done on site, like the education, this is a lot easier,” Ben continued.

“I think the way we’ve chosen to manage it as coaches, in terms of this professionalism and demanding a lot of the players, is key and the ones that succeed are the ones that buy into that.

“We do a lot of fitness. So, I think Ady will tell you that all the players that came from us will be top of his fitness in all the sessions and that’s something that we demand of the players and the players that apply to that do well. 

“Then obviously, you’ve got to have someone like Ady who’s going to actually give these players a chance, because there have been times in the past when managers haven’t looked at them and we’ve probably missed out on them as a football club.

“Now we’re not going to miss out on so many players, because they’re all getting the opportunities, and even when they’re not getting a chance in the first team, there’s another chance that they may get to train with them. That’s absolutely massive to have that end in the club.

“I can’t say what other academies do, but we’re putting in a lot of time, here. We’re here all day, every day, making sure that they’re doing the right things. 

“I think we’ve got quite good man-management style, especially with the third years that we’re trying to progress into the world of football. 

“Then between us and Tony, we have a lot of experience in the game and contacts at other clubs and good relationships with them, which means we can put players out early enough that they come back stronger. That experience helps us build respect.

“I think we care about them and there’s probably a lot of coaches that may only really care about one or two and we try to care about everyone.”

The most difficult part of running the Academy for Ben is balancing the Academy team’s fortunes with watching some of his players get first team opportunities.

Ben added: “It’s difficult, but also what we are trying to achieve. We are selling it to the players that we train on Monday and Tuesday to build towards Wednesday’s game, and then the harsh reality is, some of those players might be frustrated when they notice that three or four boys aren’t in that Wednesday’s game. 

“You may get a weakened result because of this impact, but you just have to manage everyone’s mentalities.

“The last game we lost, we missed a few players and missed that little bit of experience in the game, but it’s a learning curve for some of them. 

“That’s what we have to accept as coaches, and we have to try and educate the players in that manner. This isn’t all about winning. We set everything up to focus on winning this game, but there are sometimes limits.”

And for DFC Academy that continues to punch above its weight, the result of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes is continuing to pay dividends for the first team and many other clubs throughout the game.

By Gareth Morgan

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