Dartford’s penultimate home friendly will bring familiarity to warming up for competitive football when they host Gillingham this weekend.
With the Isthmian Premier season a fortnight away manager Ady Pennock will continue to prepare the Darts, this time against his former club. The Dartford boss made almost 200 appearances between 1996 and 2003 for the Gills and managed the club in 2017.
The Darts have spread the minutes around the squad over the three friendlies so far. Twice they have played higher league opposition losing 3-2 against Charlton Athletic, then beating Eastbourne Borough 1-0. On Tuesday night the Darts travelled to Herne Bay and drew 2-2. Striker Dan Smith scored for the first time in a Dartford shirt and Olly Box netted a penalty.
Gillingham are getting ready for their League Two season opener at Accrington Stanley next weekend. So the Darts should expect a tough test as the Gills fine tune themselves.
Gareth Ainsworth’s side have won one of their pre-season fixtures and that was the first game against Dover Athletic. The Gills beat the National South side 1-0 with a goal from Robbie McKenzie.
Three friendlies followed against higher league opposition. Gillingham drew 0-0 with Reading, then tested their fitness on the south coast. Two matches behind closed doors versus Southampton were split into 60-minute games. Cameron Archer scored the only goal of the game in the first run out as the Saints won 1-0. In the following match Ross Stewart and Tyler Dibling netted for Will Still’s side to put Saints two up. The Gills pulled a goal back through a Jack Nolan penalty, but Kuryu Matsuki made it 3-1.
Most recently, the Gills played Ebbsfleet United and lost 2-1 to the Fleet. Gillingham’s Joe Gbode struck late on, but that was a consolation. Earlier, Lennon Peake opened the scoring from the spot and former Gillingham striker Dominic Samuel put Fleet two ahead.
Since the opening of Princes Park, Gillingham have visited DA1 eleven times in pre-season and have won the lot. In a more competitive environment Dartford did beat the Gills 2-1 in the Kent Senior Cup second round almost ten years ago. Last July, the Darts were beaten 4-0 by the Gills in a friendly and the previous year it was 5-0.
Gillingham finished last term in seventeenth place with only relegated Morecambe scoring fewer goals. However, defensively they were sound with only two teams in League Two conceding less than the Kent club.
The Gills had a bright start and topped the table after nine matches, but from October they began to slide. Mark Bonner was sacked in January to be replaced by the experienced John Coleman. However, Coleman didn’t last long and Gillingham made another change. With nine games remaining and without the threat of relegation or a chance of promotion, Ainsworth took over. The former Wycombe Wanderers boss used the rest of the campaign to assess his squad.