New Dartford signing Alex Flisher is stepping back up a level - after taking his wife's advice.

Flisher reached the National League with Maidstone before dropping two divisions to join Margate in the Bostik Premier.

He spent two years at Hartsdown Park - the first wiped out by a knee injury - but with his contract up, the forward remembered wife George's words and has moved up to National League South with the Darts.

Flisher, 27, said: "It's a good move for me. I'm quite happy with it. It's a really good club to join.

"I could have gone to Hemel in Conference South before I signed for Margate but with the travelling I decided against it.

"George actually said to me, 'you're better off going as high as you can for as long as you can, before you can't play at that level and you have to drop down.'

"After Margate, I thought about it and if I can play at that level again I'll take the chance while my knees are still bearable. She was actually right!

"I play golf with Lee Browning (ex-Tonbridge player who retired through injury) and he basically said the same as George."

Flisher contacted Dartford and met joint-bosses Jamie Coyle - his old Stones team-mate - and Adam Flanagan.

Talks went well and Flisher, who can play up front or out wide, is determined to take his chance in a competitive National League South.

He said: "I texted Coyley and a couple of others about having a chat and when I met him and Adam Flanagan and they sold the club really well to me.

• Flisher joins Darts

"They've also got a strength and conditioning coach there, Harrison Grant, who will help me with injury prevention, so it should work well.

"I went back to the gym at the weekend but I have to take things slowly because if I go from six weeks off to full whack, my knee would have a bit of a reaction, just because it's not done anything for a while.

"Coyley didn't say in my meeting but I'd imagine with the squad they're putting together, play-offs or promotion is the target.

"I was looking at it and there's some big teams in there.

"Maidstone, Havant and Braintree have come down, then you've got Billericay, Chelmsford and Welling, so there's a lot of teams who will be up there pushing.

"It'll be a tough league but I still think I can influence games quite a bit at that level.

"In my last year at Maidstone I still had a big influence on games, not scoring many but assisting, and with my throw it's always going to cause problems against any team."

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