DARTFORD Football Club’s best week since 1992 was appropriately bracketed by the best April Saturdays imaginable.

The Championship was won with panache at sunny Kingstonian and the trophy was presented to the club on Saturday before an appreciative – and equally sun-drenched – audience of 2162 at Princes Park.

In between had been visits to two midweek venues for rearranged fixtures which yielded six points and enough goals to take Darts’ league tally for the season well into the 90s.

These encounters were played out in what is generally termed ‘brass-monkey’ weather.

Visitors Aveley were on a roll and had got themselves a toe-hold in the play-off group.

Among their starting line-up was ex-Dart Steve ‘Scouse’ Butterworth who, in his short spell in black and white had become a firm favourite of a fair slice of the Princes Park patrons.

On this occasion he departed with an injury after 15 minutes.

Without doubt the heavy midweek schedule had taken its toll on Darts and the encounter was far from a classic.

Darts were invited to attack the Academy End and 10 minutes after the off a standard Ryan Hayes cross found Rob Haworth at the far post, who headed home for league goal 95.

Within the blinking of an eye, Aveley were level when a minor infringement enabled Ryan Edgar to curl his right-foot free-kick narrowly inside Darts’ left post.

Dartford upped the pace and the sturdy Ollie Morris-Saunders was kept busy in the visiting goal.

He was grateful Lee Burns had left his shooting boots behind more than once, particularly when a clearance was deflected to Burns and his shot went narrowly wide. No matter.

The inevitable Hayes hit a cross which was headed back to Billy Burgess, who showed great agility in executing a scissor-kick to score Darts’ go-ahead goal.

It was quite low key after the break and the hosts were content to control the game in some comfort.

Aveley showed the resilience needed to hold a play-off place, claiming a point with a leveller when Martin Touhy turned a lost-cause chase into a chance for Sherwin Stanley to equalise with seven minutes left.

The behind-the-goal audience believed the heavily sanded goalmouth had as much as anything to do with the goal.

There remained the presentations and the celebrations and the trip to Bognor is still to come next Saturday.