SEPARATED by 20 places in the table and the width of Kent geographically, Dartford and Margate were drawn together by the fixture-makers at Princes Park last night.

Originally hoped to be a fortress against invading visitors – a cauldron of test and trial – Darts’ home has become more of a source of easy pickings of late.

Visitors certainly raise their games at Princes Park and last night was no exception.

It helps, though, if the visitors have a game plan and the willingness to carry it out.

Margate certainly did.

At the end of the season, it doesn’t matter where the points come from and how they are obtained and it has to be understood leagues are won with points gained –losses do not incur loss of points.

Darts went into the Margate game with 70 points and came out of it with 70.

They are still top of the table and nearer the title than anybody else.

The game was no spectacle and, perhaps, this was the real disappointment of the evening.

Darts were playing their fifth game in 11 days and it showed.

The flowing football of the previous two games just wasn’t there, as much due to the visitors as to the cramped fixture list.

In Scotland, the record cup win of 36-0 was described as ‘Arbroath beat Bon Accord 36-0 and the ball was sky-high all game’.

Last night wasn’t this bad but is was pretty formless with few incidents of real note and the crowd had to be content making five shouts for penalties, two of which were quite reasonable.

The only goal of the game was scored in the 65th minute and it was symptomatic of the evening.

A defensive slip allowed James Pinnock to fire a shot home past Dartford keeper Andy Young, although the effort had more than a suspicion of offside about it.

Dartford: Young, Burgess, Gross, Flanagan, Beales, Dafter (White 78), Hayes, Harris, Tait (Haworth 78), Burns (Rook 63), Bradbrook. Subs not used: Noble, Coyle. Att: 907.