Dartford travel to Metropolitan Police on Saturday with their heads held high after two competitive pre-season tests against League 1 opposition.

The Darts followed up Saturday’s friendly against Norwich with a closely fought game against Gillingham on Tuesday night and assistant boss Steve Mosely is now looking forward to getting down to business.

Mosely said: "The league sides have obviously spent a lot more time training and you don’t tend to see too much of the ball but to score four good goals has been a good plus for us.

"Pre-season has gone well so far but those two games are for fitness and bringing a bit of reputation to the club. Now we start some of the games where teams are going to be at the same level as what we’re going to be at and we can judge where we are compared to them."

The Darts were missing a number of key players, including forwards Jay May, Rob Haworth, Allan Tait and Lee Noble but after going 2-0 down, goals from former Gillingham youngster Adam Burchell (pictured) and defender Adam Flanagan levelled it up going into the break.

Gillingham added two more goals to win 4-2 in front of another sizeable crowd of just over 1,000 but it was Burchell who stole the show, as he impressed against his former club and walked away with the man-of-the-match accolade.

Mosely said: "Playing against his old club he did really well as he did when he came on against Norwich. It’s about consistency but there is potential there.

"He has pushed himself in the reckoning but the problem is he has a suspension coming up."

Burchell’s lengthy suspension kicks in at the start of September and lasts around three months. He was sent-off twice for Dartford’s reserve side last season and also faced a disciplinary charge for abuse to a match official.

Cody McDonald returned to Princes Park on Saturday with League 1 side Norwich and helped them to a big pre-season victory over his former club on Saturday.

The Canaries netted seven times against their Ryman League, Premier Division hosts, who sold McDonald to the Carrow Road club midway through last season.

McDonald came on as a substitute and played the final 20 minutes and at that stage, Dartford, who had only recently got back into pre-season training, were losing 5-2.

The ex-Darts striker's introduction was warmly received by the Princes Park crowd and he won a penalty which Jamie Cureton scored from, despite his initial shot being saved by keeper Sam Mott.

McDonald then set up Cureton for the final goal of the game.