DARTFORD'S assistant manager Paul Sawyer says he is impressed by the standard of trialists who have taken part in the pre-season campaign.

The Darts squad returned to the training ground on Monday, where they were joined by several under-21 trialists determined to take the step up to the first team.

Sawyer said: "We've had a couple of practice games for the trialists in the last few weeks and a couple of faces have come through it to join the first team in training.

"It has been a real positive and we will be taking a closer look at them both in training and the pre-season games before deciding where to go from there."

Dartford face two professional outfits next week when Tottenham and Crystal Palace both send sides to Princes Park.

Spurs are first up on Monday evening and Sawyer is expecting a real test.

He explained: "Although we aren't expecting Tottenham to send their first team, it will still be a great experience for our players to come up against opponents of their standard.

"Hopefully they will be impressed with the facilities they find here and we can make it a regular arrangement whereby they might send stronger teams down in the future."

Friday night sees the return of former Darts' favourites Peter Taylor and Dave Martin as Crystal Palace arrive in town for what is already a sell-out game.

The Palace match was arranged as part of the deal which took Martin to Selhurst Park last season, and Sawyer has no doubt both he and Taylor will receive a rapturous reception from the 4,100 crowd.

He added: "I'm sure they will be made more than welcome and Dave will be keen to impress on what promises to be a memorable night.

"Peter commands enormous respect for what he did at Dartford all those years ago and there will be a lot of people there who will remember him from his time here.

"I still can't believe we have a sell out for a pre-season game and the players will hopefully rise to the occasion of playing in front of such a big crowd.

"It will be very similar to the day we came back to the town last November."

Dartford have also appointed Nicola Collett as the club's first ever general manager.

Nicola will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day running of Dartford's commercial operations as well as liaising with the council and organising match day arrangements.

She beat off competition from 28 other applicants to land the role and became Dartford FC's first full-time employee.

Chairman Dave Skinner said: "We certainly hope Nicola will move the club on one step further with this new role and wish her every success."