Dartford manager Ady Pennock refused to let play-off final heartache take the gloss off an excellent campaign.

The Darts finished third in Isthmian Premier after recovering from a mixed start to the season before losing the play-off final at home to Dover on Monday.

It means they failed to bounce back to National League South at the first attempt - but Pennock insisted it was still a season to be proud of.

“First of all, I have to say congratulations to Dover, congratulations on their promotion and good luck for next season in the league above,” stated Pennock.

“We’re all disappointed but it’s been a marvellous season. We have absolutely punched above our weight and it’s been amazing.

“I just want to thank everybody at the football club from top to bottom.

“Obviously the chairman, directors, my staff, all the players and everyone else.

“Also, a special mention for the supporters because it’s been an amazing season. We’ve punched above our weight, it’s unbelievable and I’m just so proud of everybody here.”

Pennock revealed Dartford’s budget would have put them in the bottom eight of the division.

But he’s managed to put together a talented and hard-working squad that so nearly produced an amazing promotion story.

“What we’ve done this season has been incredible, absolutely incredible,” stated Pennock.

“Like I said before, this club has some of the best facilities. Financially, we are eighth-bottom in the budget league and that shows everybody what we’ve done this year.

“We’ve got a lot of youngsters that we should be very proud of and I think they’ll have really good careers.

“I don’t think nobody will know [about the budget] because it’s not my place to say anything. It’s up to the chairman and directors to say something which I don’t do, it’s one of those things.

“I’ve kept quiet about it all season, I’ve said nothing about it all season. I’ve saved the club thousands and thousands of pounds here because obviously there’s no money here at the moment.

“We need an investor as soon as, because if this club wants to move on we have to get an investor in, in my opinion.

“That’s my opinion because the directors and the chairman are trying so hard to get money here. They’ve got a five-year plan but I can’t wait five years.”

Pennock felt Dartford and winners Dover looked tired during the play-off final.

Both sides had to get through extra-time in their respective semi-finals while the high stakes of a final also meant for a different atmosphere.

“It was a funny game, wasn’t it?” said Pennock. “They scored a penalty and a free header, we could have been a little bit better but I’m not complaining.

“Good luck to them and I wish them all the best. I just thought both teams were a little bit tired, really, it wasn’t an exceptional game.

“The semi-final against Cray Valley I loved and that will go down in history, I just thought it was amazing.”

Pennock has enjoyed getting as much as he could out of the squad he built at Dartford.

“I’ve loved it, absolutely loved it and there’s some good boys here,” he added.

“I think it’ll be very difficult to keep a lot of the players here because they’ve been absolutely fantastic. I know they’ll play at a higher level and they’ll get bigger money as well. That’s our problem.

“They’re honest boys and there’s such a togetherness there, we’ve won games through that togetherness, really. They deserve absolutely all the credit in the world.

“I just thanked them afterwards. They’ve given me absolutely everything.

“ We’re all disappointed, obviously, but I thanked all my staff, all the players for every single bit of their effort.

“That’s all I could say, really, they’ve been amazing.”