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Reaction from Dartford joint-boss Adam Flanagan to the 1-0 win over Welling

Dartford joint-boss Adam Flanagan was delighted to get one over rivals Welling on New Year's Day.

A scrappy game was settled by a scrappy goal, Ronnie Vint bundling the ball home late on for Darts.

It was a much-improved display from Dartford after their 2-0 defeat in the reverse fixture on Boxing Day.

Dartford's Phil Roberts tries to create an opening against Welling. Picture: Alan Langley
Dartford's Phil Roberts tries to create an opening against Welling. Picture: Alan Langley

"To be fair it was a bit of a scrappy goal to win the game," said Flanagan.

"We just wanted to gain a bit of redemption for Boxing Day.

"I felt we competed a lot better than we did previously and on the day we deserved a goal. We put a lot of good balls into the box, their keeper made a good save in the first half, and I felt we were asking more questions than they were.

"It was nice to get the goal, it was a bit scrappy but we'll take a 1-0 win over Welling any day of the week!"

Having lined up with a defensive 4-5-1 formation on Boxing Day, Darts went to their more-accustomed 4-4-2 in the return – with Flanagan admitting he and joint-boss Jamie Coyle got it wrong in the first meeting.

"Analysing ourselves, we missed a trick on Boxing Day," he said. "We analysed their home record and we went too defensive on the day, me and Jamie have held our hands up over that.

Read the match report from Dartford's 1-0 win over Welling here

"On New Year's Day, we wanted to give a better account of ourselves, especially going forward, and I think we did that.

"It was a good performance by everyone, there wasn't any stand-out player. It was a real collective that worked hard from each other."

Darts came back with 10 men against East Thurrock to earn a point on Saturday, and Flanagan was happy they built on that by taking their tally to seven points from four games over the festive period.

"We targeted nine points from four games and that would have taken us to 40, we didn't quite reach that but we've got seven," he said.

"After the game on Boxing Day, there were a lot of players that realised they'd lost their personal battles.

"The good thing about playing the return game quickly is it gives people an opportunity to redeem themselves and those players that performed poorly on Boxing Day really stepped up.

"It moved on from the second half against East Thurrock. When we went down to 10 men, we had nearly an hour left of the game.

"Everyone worked hard and we could have gone on and won that game with the desire everyone put in.

"It was good to carry that on against Welling. It means a lot to a lot of people and that's the message we were trying to get over to the players.

"We didn't show that on Boxing Day, I felt we were below par and Welling were good. On New Year's Day, I felt we competed and were the better team.

"They had a few moments and so did we, thankfully we were able to score."

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