Fans Forum Update

The Board thanks all fans who took the time to come to the Club’s Fans Forum or join online. The following is a slightly abridged version so you can find out more about the work going on and what’s in the pipeline.

Quick Overview 

At the Fans Forum the Board announced the next phase of their plans that they hope can bring in extra revenue to help the club progress.

These include:

1. Holding a series of large screen events for sporting events including the Ryder Cup, FA Cup and World Cup. Some will be free, some ticketed.
2. Holding new events in the Champions Bar, including an ‘Evening With.’
3. Putting on a music event on the pitch at the end of the season with DJs, drinks offers and 6 hours of music.

Welcome

Gareth Morgan, the club’s PR and Comms lead welcomed supporters. He announced he has now been brought on board as a full director rather than associate director, while not much changes in his role.

He said he introduced the first fans forum a year ago to give the club an opportunity to be more transparent and communicate better, with fans. This year they invited both sets of managers.

At the last forum the club launched a five-year plan. Rather than a normal business plan, the board felt it crucial to have something concrete to work towards, re-shape their thinking and create something tangible that everyone could understand and hopefully support.

Gareth said he came in after relegation and it was clear a reset was needed to rebuild the foundations of the club to give it the best possible chance of success and start moving back the right way.

The plan announced a year ago, remains the same – to be in a better financial position to support both teams into getting into their respective national leagues. The club want to go full time for the men and support the women’s team better, financially.

He said: “None of those things were going to happen overnight. As discussed last year, we estimate needing anywhere from a quarter of a million to half a million pounds a year extra in order to do this initially.

“The plan was started a year ago, we have now reached the end of year one. We didn’t say the men’s team would be back in the National South four months after announcing the plan. We are ambitious, but don’t have a magic wand. What we hope you will see by the end of today, is that the things we are putting in place and launching will give us a better chance of moving forward as a club and creating something bigger and better than what we are now.”

The Reality of Non-League Football

Gareth gave an overview of the non-league football.

“From a men’s perspective, last year I said the National League saw around 80 per cent of its teams training full-time, with the National South having around seven teams operating on this basis. More teams have now gone full-time in the National South and Chatham has done the same in our league in a hybrid full-time capacity.

“In the meantime, twenty lower league football clubs in the UK have fallen into arrears to the HMRC, according to recent data released. Increased cost pressures, including the recent hikes in national insurance contributions are pushing more football clubs into arrears.

“Fair Game, a coalition of club directors, supporters and politicians assessed 164 UK football clubs across seven leagues in its 2025 Fair Game index, scoring them on financial sustainability, governance and transparency. It found money so tight that 43 clubs in the top four divisions were taking big financial risks holding less than one month’s cash to cover operating costs. Effectively, clubs have recovered from the pandemic, but if gate receipts or income from owners were to fall, they would be left in a perilous position.

“There were two noteworthy football administrations in the second half of 2025. In July, Morecambe Football Club (MFC) were suspended from the National League due to delayed wages, HMRC arrears and financial instability. The sale to Panjab Warriors in August saved them. In October, Sheffield Wednesday entered administration.

“Fair Game noted that clubs with a reliance on a single wealthy owner often created a single point of failure which can mask weaknesses in governance, cash-flow discipline and risk management.”

Gareth continued: “Another national league club’s latest set of accounts show the club lost £2.8million when they retained their National League status in 23/24. Costs for the season increased by £882,000. Of this, £499,000 was related to greater player and management-related costs, further affected by increases in travel costs, admin and staff costs and growth of and investment into the women’s football programme.

Gareth spoke of Kevin Maguire from the Price of Football podcast who believes Yeovil Town lost around about £2.8m a few years ago, with its owner lending money to the club and a large amount being written off.

Kevin said: “The average losses for a club in the National League is around £700,000. Stockport County promoted (to the Football League) a couple of seasons ago cost the owner around £4m. Wrexham, despite all the global interest in that club, lost over £4m being promoted, so you are reliant on somebody who tends to be successful to underwrite those losses and they become a bit like the Bank of Mum and Dad. 

Kevin continued: “Many clubs have to go cap in hand to the owner. Unless there are opportunities to generate additional income at the club which we have seen at some clubs which have used 3G pitches as their main playing surface. But then if they get up to the EFL, they have to be ripped out. Football is a bit of a silly business, you are having to pay wages all year but you only have 25 or 30 days of money coming in. So, if you can multi-function the stadium, generate closer links with the local community to make it a desirable place to host events and so on, that helps a little bit. But football clubs are notoriously expensive to run, and the comment that it is a big step up to the National League is true. When you get to the National League, probably 80% of them are on a full-time basis and you have those additional costs and the cost of living which is hitting us all as well.”

Gareth summed up: “As you can see, it’s a very fine balancing act. The sums being talked about are massive. You want to be ambitious, but at what cost? Some clubs below us in our own league are stumping up huge amounts of money to accommodate higher wage bills close to double of ours. Money does not guarantee success. But, of course, it helps.

“Folkestone are thriving with this additional income this year, but had little joy last year with that same resource. Two teams were relegated this season into our league and expected to bounce back up but it’s been far from easy for them. One club is facing back-to-back relegations. Some clubs are lucky enough to have investors that don’t mind not seeing a return on their financial contribution or can off-set it in various ways. Other clubs have two or more 4G pitches to hire out. Others have other revenue streams that we don’t have yet.

“Maidstone’s massive windfall from the FA Cup and Dorking’s reality show hasn’t helped them push on as of yet. Every division has clubs struggling to balance making revenue with being ambitious.”

Gareth spoke of the challenges in the women’s game, too.

He said: “Some Premier League clubs like Fulham can foot the bill and make up the difference. The women’s side had a budget similar to that of teams in our division and the division above, but while gates are rising slightly for us, the overall costs have meant we have often made a loss, or broke even, until this season’s excellent FA Cup run. A massive congratulations to Macca and Connor and the girls for this, it was a privilege to watch their progress and success and see so many new supporters.”

Dartford today 

Gareth moved on to speak about the club today and mentioned some of the areas that had been the Board’s focus over the past year.

“For us as a board, this first year has been about getting various things in place that allow us to move forward.

“It’s fair to say there was a hangover last year. The relegation from the men’s team hit us hard in terms of enthusiasm and trust from supporters. I came in at the worst possible time in one respect, but in another I saw it as an opportunity to come in with a fresh pair of eyes and bring new ideas to the table.

“Internally, we have made an effort to rebuild and foster better relationships and to have everyone working together better. There are still areas that aren’t quite there, but it’s a start.

“As a club, we have an excellent community team led by Darren Phillips doing some brilliant work and bringing in many schools for free to games to nurture the next generation of fans. We have Darren Corley, and Russell Searle and Zach Bowden running the youth and academy youth sections which are growing all the time.

“We have an amazing team of volunteers, who assist in all areas of the club, from health and safety, to match day operations, and other areas that often go under the radar.

“Jack and Hayley do a tremendous job from an operations point of view, with so much happening at the club to organise as well as they can.

“Our women’s team, managed by Connor and Macca narrowly lost out in the league, but are looking to go again this season. They had some great success in the FA Cup recently and I worked closely with them to generate as much interest as we could in the games.

“Our men’s team, led by Ady and Roland, got into the play-off final last season. It was a tremendous run and one that won us a lot of plaudits. So again, a massive congratulations is due to the management team for quickly revamping the squad and getting us so competitive so quickly following relegation. Unfortunately, we lost, but we are hoping to end the season strongly with a play-off place at the end of it.

“From a commercial point of view, the club bought Wayne Beckett in as an associate director to oversee things. He has worked hard with Martin our sales manager to bring in many new opportunities, one of which was the shirt deal with Target and a new stand sponsor. New sponsorships are being worked on all the time.

“We bought in Halls as a tenant, with a good working relationship enabling another important revenue stream.

“Mark Brenlund is now overseeing retail and has been busy bringing in new revenue streams, with new clothing ranges, pricing changes and food outlets, to name a few areas of focus.

“From a communications point of view, we have a media team that are putting out more content than ever for both the men’s and women’s team, with Carol continuing to take some amazing photos and Alex for the women – and Connor and Jade working hard on the media on the women’s side

“There’s been a lot to change in the past year. I’ve rebuilt and rewritten the website which has seen online visitors treble and started a newsletter with 800 supporters receiving regular news from across the club.

“We’ve added academy fixtures and tables to the website and it is now kept more up to date, encouraging return visits.

“We put out a lot more content than many teams in the National League and many don’t cover their academies or women’s teams to the extent we do. And a large majority of these have a full-time media person, which we don’t have the luxury of.

“During the women’s FA Cup run, I brought in the BBC several times and Meridian News and organised countless opportunities on radio which helped spread the word and increase numbers. All of these were organised from our end and none from the media outlets themselves. “Some weren’t even aware of the team or women’s football in general, until my approaches.

“I’ve started partnerships with the local college and football university which will slowly enable us to provide more content and increase our presence with young fans, with other areas of communication in the pipeline, some that will be discussed soon.

“Match day experience to keep fans coming has been an area we have looked to improve.

“Norman Grimes has been behind the Fanzone, an area for supporters to sit outside and have a drink before games, with a DJ on to help with the atmosphere.

“As mentioned, the extra food outlet was opened to reduce queuing. We have asked Matt (from the upstairs bar) to provide pop-up bars when the crowds have got bigger, although we don’t see the revenue from these, such is the contract we are in at present and has another year to run.

“Thanks to the help from a supporter Sean Sparrow, who provided the introduction, and Mark Brenlund, we’ve got advertising at the train station, with both men’s and women’s fixtures on view to a footfall of around three million commuters a year. We also advertise our matches at other stations.

“The Supporters Association continue to assist us and run successful events such as the fun day, awards night and race night, as well as operations on women’s match days.

“From an operations and maintenance point of view, we have secured new council contracts, got a new business contract in the pipeline renting land from us and have had a new sound system installed to help with atmosphere on match days.

“As was discussed here last year, Tony Burman has now expanded the academy to include a girls’ academy under George Kingdon. In two years, we will have three years of female scholars, to replicate the boys’ academy managed by Ben, and not only provide extra revenue, but pathways to both the men’s and women’s teams.

“At the beginning of the season, we set a budget for both the men’s and women’s teams we believed would allow us to be competitive. Both teams are enjoying strong seasons thanks to the excellent work of the managerial teams. Some teams on the men’s side have much bigger budgets – but at the moment we have to work within our means as we continue our plans for the future.

“So, where did all this lead us? Our average crowd last season for the men’s side was up on our last season in the National South and similar to the year before that in the National South, despite relegation. We lost some fans but gained many others through some of the things we put in place. Women’s attendances are up, with record numbers during the cup run. Retail is up, communication better, commercial where we wanted it to be.

“Last year, we had big holes through sponsors folding and not paying what we had budgeted for. This year we did not have to ask for money from the Supporters Association, or put in director loans.

“Unfortunately, we are in a position like many of you at home and pubs and other hospitality businesses across the country. Costs are escalating. The money we have made is quickly swallowed up by ongoing stadium costs and budgets. We’ve just had one major contractor say they are moving base and that’s a considerable hole we now need to fill again.

“To put some things in context for everyone, ground costs are huge and combined take up a large amount of our income. Utilities cost £100,000 last season. Service contracts were £76,000. Maintenance costs were tens of thousands and rates and insurance £40,000. On top of that we have just been hit by a business rates bill of £50,000, often talked about in the press recently as killing the hospitality trade. This is the reality of many businesses up and down the country and the reality of us as a non-league football club.

“For all the best will in the world, things can quickly change from one minute to the next through no fault of our own.

“The club has a lot going on, but the main revenue is obviously men’s matchday of which we rely on the money generated over 25 days a year or so. The books are always well balanced, but it is difficult to bring in a huge amount of money that can help us go to the next level.”

The Next Steps 

Gareth then spoke about the next phase of the board’s vision.

“Are we open to investors, yes. We have had conversations with money men and investors and those conversations will continue.

“So, what’s the plan for now? We need to think outside of the box. We need to make the most of our facilities and that means utilising the ground and space better.

“We have important ongoing conversations with the council to do a number of things around the overall space that we hope will help generate extra funds. These things take months, not weeks to get off the ground.

“For now, the next stage of our plan is to launch a calendar of events to bring more people into the ground over the next six months.

“In a week, we will launch a new ticketing system that will support some of these aims and help promote offers with supporters and new attendees.

“Firstly, we will be putting on extra-large screen events, covering sporting events such as the Ryder Cup, FA Cup and World Cup. Some will be free, others ticketed. We have the large screen sorted and are in the final phases.

“Secondly, we will be running some more evening events in the Champions Bar including some ‘evening with events’, starting with one for the older fans and Peter Taylor confirmed. This is an idea that came from one of our managerial meetings a few months ago that was tweaked.

“Thirdly, and more importantly, we will be holding a music event on the pitch, here in the stadium. This is a very ambitious move but something that could really support our aims.

“We have had countless meetings with promoters, gig specialists and venues such as Kent cricket Club and costed up lots of variations.

“We appreciate the music event will not be for all supporters, but there are lots of facets to it.

• We hope to attract new people from Dartford and further afield to the ground, who may return for the football in the new season. The new ticketing system allows us to reach out to the database seamlessly with football offers, after they have been to events.
• If we show we are a multi-faceted facility and can be multi-event, we hope it will attract extra investors and more sponsorship.
• If it is a success, it will put us on a better financial footing and give us the breathing space to put extra money in areas we need to in order to progress
• If it’s a success it also allows us to plan for further events we are in discussions about and have costed rigorously.

“The music event is a house and soul DJ event with a headliner and we appreciate that it might not be the sort of music some supporters will listen to. But we hope it will resonate with clubbers and house music lovers in Dartford and beyond. We also have three DJs connected to Dartford clubs in the past to bring something different and exciting to the town. It will take place in May and be from 4pm until 10pm. We will do everything we can to sell as many tickets as possible.

“Why haven’t we gone for bands? Because the production costs are more expensive. We want to keep costs low this time and try to maximise profit. Why House music? Because this first event is a trial run and was chosen after conversations with music promoters.

“I’d like to make this as clear as possible. This is a tester. If we can make it work, it opens the door to a myriad of different ideas that have been costed and discussed at length.

“In effect, it’s a trial run for bigger and more ambitious plans. How many people can we attract? How much money can we make from it? Can we make events such as these a crucial part of the club’s future?

“Unfortunately, running it in May is the only chance we have this season due to pitch repairs and being ready for pre-season.

“We need to get more people in the ground and using the facilities, all year round, drinking, eating and making the most of the space. The council discussions play a major part in this too.

“If this event doesn’t work, or tickets don’t sell as we hope, at least we have tried something different that could make a real impact on our financial fortunes. If it works, it paves the way for the next part of the plan next year and the year on, that hopefully will bring in even more revenue into the club to really move us forward. We have to start small to see where it can lead and hope it can become something an awful lot bigger.

In summary

Gareth ended his section with the following:

“Since I came here a year and a half ago, I’ve seen the potential of the club. There are good people here, who run it well and work extremely hard to make it what it is.

“There are people in every area of the club, that make it what it is, giving up their time for free and often going under the radar.

“There are many fans who have been around for decades. They want to see the club promoted, which I can totally understand.

“However, no club has the divine right to be in any division and it’s not easy to get out of any division. You can have all the money in the world and find yourself half-way down the table as many clubs have, in the Isthmian Premier, alone. Every division from non-league up to professional leagues are full of these stories. Bad luck. Managers that have run the club into the ground. Owners ploughing money in and then leaving – leaving the club in millions of pounds worth of debt and little hope of ever paying them off.

“We have had lots of meetings in the past year and many people in these meetings connected to the club have seen and heard some of what we are trying to do and achieve and how we are trying to rebuild the club and get us all moving the same way. ‘One Club.’

“Every person here today in person and online is invested in the Club. They want to see success.

“What we need now more than ever, are the supporters onside. Support our events, repost them, help us sell tickets, be positive when you talk about the plans rather than dismissing them out of hand. 

 “We need everyone behind us to help us make the money we need to transform us. We can’t sit still. We need to try new things, to diversify and take a few risks.

 “Even if the music event isn’t for you, maybe come along and support what we are trying to do for the future of the club. Attend the other events. The more people we get along to each and every one of them, the better our chance of progressing as a club. 

 “While we hope to attract non-supporters to the main music event, we need as many of you to purchase tickets and get your friends and family along, which will help us attract sponsors, quickly.

To summarise:

• For every Bromley there’s dozens of clubs struggling to make ends meet. It’s a fine balancing action between ambition and finding the money to progress.
• A benefactor doesn’t guarantee success nor does going full-time. Eastbourne are full-time and have a huge budget but find themselves in the relegation zone in the National South.
• The cost-of-living crisis has hit us hard, as it has hit businesses and individuals hard up and down the country. All the work that has gone into the past year can quickly change with a massive maintenance bill or unexpected business rate bill
• But there is hope: we have put together a plan including a calendar of new events that we hope can help us turn the corner financially and progress to a multi-event club. One is a music event on the pitch at the end of the season we hope generates interest as a tester for bigger and more lucrative ideas.
• We need you, the supporters. Can you bring an extra person to the remaining matches to help boost gate numbers. Can you support our events? Can you get behind us as we try something totally different that we’ve not tried before as a club. Can you help push these events on social media?

“In a nutshell, it’s vitally important for us to foster new revenue streams to progress and we have formulated a plan that might enable us to do this. Let’s see if we can all work together to help us achieve these ambitions.“

Frequently asked Questions and Answers

The board prepared answers to some of the questions or comments it had seen or been asked, recently

Q. You directors must be rolling in it?

A: No director is paid. Everyone here is voluntary, we have two full-time employees, Tony Burman, Director of Football being one of them and Jack Smedley, Operations Manager, the other. Ady and his team are part time; Macca, Connor and his team are paid and part-time. All money made goes back into the running of the club.

Q. Why don’t you employ more people?

A. If we can raise the right money, one of the options on the table is to do this.

Q. The board doesn’t care about the club. It’s just a social club for the directors. 

A. Everyone here works many hours each week for free to try and support it the best they can. Just because you see directors enjoy a drink before a match doesn’t mean a lot isn’t happening away from those days.

Q. You don’t care about the women’s team.

A. It’s a difficult balancing act. Gareth said: “Personally, I have ensured the women’s section on the website is always up to date, often within minutes of full-time. Even when I don’t go to a match on a Sunday, I’m working on the women’s side of the website the same day. I also secured around 10 plus media opportunities during their FA Cup run.

“I speak to Macca, Connor and Jade regularly and speak and co-ordinate media with Connor and Jade every week.

“I’m attending an FA workshop on the women’s game and how to attract fans, this month.

“Mark, Wayne, Tony and Norman have attended many games this season, with Steve also attending. There have often been two or three directors at matches. What has happened in the past is in the past. We care about the women’s team and are united in our aims to support them better in the future where possible.”

Q. You better increase the women’s team budget or they will miss the opportunity of promotion. 

A. At the moment, income has slightly outstripped expenditure for the women’s team and that is through the FA Cup run. It’s not as simple as putting it all into the team. There are multiple costs connected with both teams, from pitch, to ground, to maintenance, to staff, to budgets. If we can generate more income over the next phase being spoken about, budgets will be discussed at the end of the season.

Q. Are the women’s team going to see any of the FA Cup money?

A. Yes, they are getting the exact same percentage as the men get or would get if they had their own cup run. Macca and Connor can use it as they see fit and we have discussed and agreed to several things they plan to do with it.

Q. Have you upped the budgets to help the teams’ promotion aims?

A. Both management teams agreed a budget at the beginning of the season which they have managed. Both teams were offered extra money on top of their budgets in January to bring any extra players in or support their aims if they wanted to.

Q. Why has there been no live commentary for some men’s games?

A. Many reasons. Three clubs had no media facilities which meant they couldn’t do anything despite going to the ground with the gear. One game Riley had to do it in a bar as there was nowhere else to go during torrential rain. A recent game had very patchy Wi-Fi. After training Riley up, he has covered over 90 per cent of the games since he took over from Will and is doing an excellent job. We have had a minimum of two media assistants at most matches, home and away.

Q. Why hasn’t Ady done an interview after some matches?

A. A couple of times the away club has switched off lights and asked us to leave the pitch and ground. Sometimes, it’s late and everyone needs to get a coach home. We had a couple of matches when the weather has been so bad, it was pointless trying to do an interview. We don’t get a media room at many grounds to do it in. We also don’t yet have a full-time media person.

Most matches Ady has not been able to do one, Gareth has done a written one.

Q. Why haven’t you got a director for the women’s side?

A. Tony is director of football, covering the men’s, women’s and academy teams. But it is something being explored.

Q Why don’t you take the bar on upstairs, you’re missing out on revenue?

A. As we mentioned last year, at the time we hired it out for a yearly fee it was seen as the best course of action for the club financially – we needed to see the regular income come in rather than what could possibly be made. A substantial yearly fee was seen as crucial to keeping us afloat. A three-year deal was signed which runs out next year. When the contract runs out, more options are on the table.

What happened in the past is not necessarily going to be repeated at the end of this contract in a year’s time but we will not be discussing this further at this time without conversations with the relevant parties having taken place first.

Q. Why hasn’t the board sorted out the testimonials for Elliot Bradbrook and co?

A. Testimonials have no input from clubs, they are arranged by committee. The club granted a testimonial and offered days to host this, but through Covid and other commitments from the committee, they could not agree on a date which has been discussed many times.

Q. Why are you banning all the kids?

A. We are not. This year we gave over 300 free season tickets to under 16s, many clubs charge for this. We also gave 300 free season tickets to all of our registered youth players.

We had an incident when a group of youths smashed up the toilets a few months ago and security had them leave. We have had incidents at a number of away games where footage has been shared and those fans’ photos shared between clubs and alerts in place to identify them. We have had police reports of youths agreeing to meet up to fight and we have put in more comms to try to reduce the chances of these happening. At present no one has had an official ban.

The club also heard from people who said they had seen young fans turned away. The board are meeting with the security management to try to get the bottom of it and ensure no one is getting turned away who shouldn’t be.

Q. We all know every director is able to enjoy free hospitality at every home game which they do. I want to ask each director and the chairman how they think the club benefits from them.

A. No director takes anything from the club. They work for free all season. They buy the shirts and any clothing out of their own pocket. The lunch some directors take is part of the hospitality duties. The lunch is bought for the sponsors and away directors, it’s a good time to chat with sponsors and away directors. The food for away directors is also a league requirement. The meal is already being prepared for a large amount of people and we don’t think the odd lunch is unreasonable for the free work that is undertaken.

Question and Answers from the Evening

 Q. Can we get the women’s sponsor on the front of the shirts?

A. Mark Brenlund, director of retail: “Yes, we can sort that. We will need to get a list of people who want to buy them so we can pre-order them due to stock concerns, but we will aim to have that in place for pre-season.

Q. We have had a shocking disciplinary record this season, who is the leader. What are you doing about it?

 A: Ady: “I tell my players to be competitive but don’t tell them to get sent off. The Majority of my players give it 100 per cent every game, and that’s what they’ve done. I’m very proud of them as I am to be a manager of Dartford. That’s what we have all wanted.”

Q. Why have you got a keeper as a captain?

Ady: “Michael has been injured and suspended and he was my captain. It’s not just on the pitch, it’s the training and changing room. Samir has been great in the changing room as well. People lead in different ways.

We nominate Joe or Samir to go to the referee if needed, obviously Jonny can’t do that.”

Q. But Ady you’ve had 12 red cards?

A. Ady: “I tell them to be physical, I’m not telling them to go over the top. It’s been a problem. It’s been frustrating. There’s been some silly two-yellow cards and some that weren’t red. But there have been some poor referees as well. They get fined.”

Q. We are top of the league in red cards

A. Ady: “We do fine them and deal with them. I’m not going to tell them not to be competitive. As soon as they go over that line, I can’t control it. But there have been some silly yellow cards. I can’t stand dissent. I tell them and make them know when they’ve gone over the top, I promise you and they will get fined.”

Q. An email mentioned it was the 20th celebration of ground this year

A. Chairman Steve Irving said: “We are planning a number of things, including the event we have mentioned. We will do some things next season. We’d like to hear any suggestions of anything you would like to see. Please have a think and let us know.”

Q. With the women’s team there have been some issues in the past. Would Macca and Connor agree with what the board has said about the club coming together more?

A. Connor: “I’d totally agree with what’s been said. We’ve probably spoken to the club more in the past year than we ever have. They are listening to us and we are to them. Us sitting here today makes a big statement, it puts us and the girls on a platform to be heard. It’s never going to be the parity that everyone looks for because of what the men to bring to the football club, which we understand. There are always conversations about what we need and what the girls need and to help try to get out of this league.”

Macca: “For me it’s about perception. Gareth alluded to it earlier. There’s been a big bone of contention that the board haven’t been at the games, but this year they have. This year it’s been better than it’s ever been. It’s showing the club is coming together as one club. Of course, there were issues in the past, through no fault of anyone. We have tried to fight that the girls got parity. It’s not to say the board didn’t want to give it to them, but that was sometimes the perception.

“We have had conversations about more money and recently about spending money on bonuses and it’s about progressing this football club. We have to make a transition about how to make the next step, and we are all moving in the right direction.”

Q. I just want to say something about the women’s team. I’ve been up a few times this season. Get yourself up there, they’re a cracking side.

A. Less a question, more a statement!

Q. There are issues for disabled people struggling with lift access and using the door. It’s ruining the match experience. Also, car parking.

A. Steve: “It’s the first time I’ve heard this brought up or of any complaints about disability issues. The ground was designed with this in mind. But we will look into this. One of the things we are in discussions with the council about is having the car park resurfaced, remarked and rebadged. There is a conversation to have a pay-as-you-park scheme, so then no one would be able to park in the disabled spots. In the meantime, we have to find a way of stopping people parking in those bays but it’s not easy.

Q. Disabled viewing areas people are using them, the signs are gone. 

A. Steve: “We can sort this, we will get new badges put up.”

Q. I have a lot of time for you Ady, and I have a lot of time for what you are doing for this club. But I can’t understand why our top scorer sits on the bench for 86 minutes?

A. Ady: “Eddie has missed a lot of training. I can’t just put him in and he breaks down again. He’s the best finisher at the football club. He’s had a shoulder injury, a hamstring injury, numerous injuries. I think it’s only his third training session since his last injury. We’ve had to manage him but I’m hoping he will stay fit for the rest of the season.

Q. If we get promoted is there a budget in place to keep us up there? 

A. Gareth: “The things we are trying to do such as the events are to give us the chance of generating more money. From April to June, we hope to put things on that will help our aims. The budgets get discussed at the end of the season when we will know where we are.”

Q. I wanted to shout out for Macca and Connor, it’s nice to hear there’s an alignment with the board and the teams. There are people here who went to see the team play for the first time during the cup run. Is there an opportunity to give supporters at the men’s game a voucher or incentive to go to a women’s game? And the make-up of the board, and with the under-representation of women in non-league football, is there a chance of making a change in the future?

A. Gareth: “This is something we brought up earlier, we are in discussions about the representation at board level, so it is in our thinking. There are a lot of new options with add-ons thanks to the new ticketing system that starts in the next week.”

Steve: “We give out a lot of free tickets to schools so I think we can do something about this quickly.”

Since the meeting we have agreed to give out free tickets to women’s matches at the next men’s home match against Cray.

Q. George from Halls. Wanted to give a shout out to his Club, season ticket holders can get into their games for free if Dartford are away and supporters want an extra game.  

A. We have had a recent meeting with Halls with discussions ongoing about how we can support them better next season.

Q. Why do you think the women’s team has been successful this season in particular? 

A. Macca: “I think we’ve been pretty successful for the past few seasons since me and Connor got together. Success comes down to the ladies.

They are educated what it means to be part of Dartford and play for the Club. I was born in Dartford and sometimes this gets lost. It means any new players are told what it means to wear the badge and play for this club. The supporters are magnificent. The staff are fantastic. The FA Cup run was magnificent. It’s a lot easier to ask them to run through walls when there’s a lot of fans supporting them every week. But we are only in February, we have a lot more we want to achieve.”

Connor: “There’s a group of fans who help us out on a Sunday and it doesn’t go unnoticed. You can see what it means through performances when they have packed crowds here supporting them. It’s about the standards we set. We’ve come a long way. It’s one of the best facilities around which makes it easier to sign players. We try to get away from it being a women’s football thing. It’s football.”

Q. I wonder if we can get the women’s managers to manage the men’s cup games?

A. A rhetorical question!

Q. Ady, you made the statement about aiming for safety this season. Now that’s been achieved what’s the strategy?

A. Ady: “I’ve said that at every club I’ve been at. It’s a thing you say. You want to get to 30 points as quickly as possible. But I want promotion. That’s our aim. I’m not here to make up the numbers. It was just a reporter asking a question but nothing to take literally.

“I love the squad. We are young and hungry. I got told there was more money and if I found someone, I could go get them. I don’t want to splash a couple of grand a week on anyone. We are looking all the time. I want someone to make a big difference in our push.”

Q. Is it a realistic expectation of this club that survival should be the goal? 

A. Steve: “It was one comment. There has never been a time where survival has been our aim. I wanted to win the league. We were gutted to lose the play-off final. How’s that a lack of ambition to lose in the play off final? We don’t want to be in this league, we want to make it up.”

Q: The ground is looking tired and is in need of paint and repair. Have you anything in mind for renovation?

 A: As part of the council discussions they are looking at roof repairs. It leaks a lot presently. When this is done, we will look at repainting, redecorating and revitalising and replacing the cladding.

DFC will be launching a new ticketing system next week and the first event next week in their new calendar of events that will be introduced over the next few weeks and months.