Dartford boss Tony Burman described Friday's draw at Welling as "a big point" for his beleaguered side.

The local derby at Park View Road finished 1-1, with Ross Lafayette's penalty cancelling out an early Jim Stevenson goal for the Darts.

Having come into the game on the back of 10 straight defeats in the Skrill Premier, Burman was relieved to have finally ended the dreadful run.

He said: "It’s a small point but in many ways it’s a big point, that we’ve been able to get something from the game.

"I think we played very well. We’ve played like that (recently) to be fair but (this time) we’ve lasted the 94 minutes. We haven’t conceded in the last 10 or 15 minutes and I think it was just rewards.

"We definitely deserved a point and I think, in the second half, we could have won it."

Stevenson's goal, on 10 minutes, finished off an excellent team move but Dartford led for only eight minutes - and they were the architects of their own downfall.

Needless fouls gave Wings player-boss Jamie Day had the chance to put several free-kicks into the box and from one of these, Mat Mitchel-King dragged down Lee Clarke to concede the penalty.

Burman said: "We counter-attacked Welling at the start of the game and we got our reward by scoring the goal.

"We’ve been in that position before, where we’ve been in the lead, but for some reason we had a mad 10 minutes where we gave too many free-kicks away. We’d just taken the lead and we put ourselves under pressure. Welling are decent at set-plays.

"I think it could have been a penalty but 100% I didn’t think it was a free-kick (which led to it). The linesman was closer than the referee and the referee’s behind the play. I thought it wasn’t a free-kick so I was disappointed with that.

"Welling came at us, to be fair to them, but we gave away silly free-kicks and that’s one of their strengths."

Dartford looked solid in the second period and goalkeeper Alan Julian, when called upon, stood tall.

Burman said: "You have to be careful with Welling because they’re a good counter-attacking side. You think you’re going forward in numbers and they’re very good on the counter-attack. In the second half, we handled them a lot better.

"We were quite comfortable – I know Alan made one save from outside the box – but I thought in the second half we were the better side."

Burman revealed that defender Kenny Clark had missed the game because of a groin injury, while midfielder Max Cornhill had "other commitments" which couldn't be avoided when the fixture - originally schedule for New Year's Day - was re-arranged.

Dartford's next game is away to Salisbury on January 18.