Manager Ady Pennock is confident Dartford’s young guns will be firing back at them soon.

The Darts produced a morale-boosting performance just days after a disastrous run, chasing Cray Valley to a goalless home Isthmian Premier draw at the weekend, 1-1 early from playmaker Samir Carruthers at Isthmian South East Erith Town in the Velocity Cup. 0 won. Goal last Tuesday.

With a number of youth products in Dartford’s first-team squad this season, Pennock always expected the levels of some of these players to drop but is now hopeful they will come back stronger.

“The lads were great,” Pennock said.

“As I said at the beginning of the season, they will have a high performance in the first few games and then there will be a dip in form.

“This is what happened. But I still have great faith in the young people in the club.

“They will come back stronger and start performing again.”

Although the Darts find themselves closer to the relegation zone than the top flight, Pennock knows his team can easily gain promotion up the league if they can draw with Steve McKimm’s Cray Valley side.

Pennock, whose team are at home to Cheshunt this weekend and visit Hashtag United on Tuesday, said: “If you look at Saturday there were some strange results again.

“Dover is in good form but a few results beyond that show things can change quickly.

“Our players worked hard. The important thing is to get this balance right and come together.”

Pennock admitted Dartford’s derby with Cray Valley in front of a crowd of 912 at Princes Park was not very eye-pleasing.

He thought: “It was really just good junk. It was a messy game.

“I thought we were a bit nervous in the first 20 minutes, which is understandable after everything that’s happened in the last few weeks. “We probably had a better half chance.

“It was another clean slate. We held one last Tuesday and another on Saturday. It was a very similar game last Tuesday.

“Cray are a good team, they are in good form and have very good players.

“Freddie Parker was a handful of people on Saturday and he always will be a handful of people. They had a bit of a tempo, but we took care of that.

“Of course we wanted 3 points, but at the end of the day, if you don’t give up, the minimum you will get is one point.

“Cray are a good team and we took four points from them this season.

“Saturday wasn’t very nice. “We played better, but we played better and we lost.”

The match also saw goalkeeper Jacob Marsden replace young Bromley loanee David Aziaya, who was withdrawn on the morning of the match.

“Jacob was brought in and did a really good job,” admitted Pennock. “It was hard for him.

“Obviously he’s been in and out this season for one reason or another, but I thought he did a good job on Saturday.”

Carruthers’ penalty helped 10-man Dartford draw 1-1 with Potters Bar on Tuesday.

Darts were reduced to 10 when Duane Ofori-Acheampong received two yellow cards.