Will Dartford FC keep Adam Flanagan and Jamie Coyle on as joint-managers?
Published: 08:56, 28 April 2019
Updated: 09:01, 28 April 2019
Adam Flanagan and Jamie Coyle are set to find out if they will continue as joint-managers of Dartford next season.
The pair were appointed last summer following Tony Burman's resignation but failed to get Darts in the National League South play-offs.
Flanagan wants the chance to rebuild in the summer but the board now have a decision to make.
Flanagan said: "We’ve got to have a meeting with the club on Monday and see if they want to move forward with us for next year.
"If they do, we feel this has been the season that’s opened our eyes and we can actively operate a little bit quicker, recruitment-wise.
"We’ve seen players at other teams that we’ve liked and we’ll go after those and rest assured next year we’ll have a very committed Dartford team that will out-work a lot of teams in the league and that will push us on from where we’ve finished now.
"I’d like to think so (that we'll be given another season).
"The fans will be really disappointed because, coming out of February, they probably thought we should be pushing for second and third – and I think we should have. That hasn’t worked out and you’ve heard their frustrations as the last eight weeks of the season have gone by.
"All I would ask of them is that having played for the club and now managing the club, the club means a lot to me and Jamie and while they’re frustrated with performances, I would argue we’re more frustrated because we want to continue the success we had as players.
"We want them to continue supporting and liking us because we feel that’s what they did when we played and we know, as a club, we all need to work together and pull in one direction.
"For me, the way we do that is have a positive approach all through the club and that needs to transcend onto the pitch and into the stands and if we get that positivity back, I think Dartford will return to success."
Flanagan and Coyle came in for heavy criticism at the start of the season and supporters have grown restless again during the run-in.
Six of Dartford's last seven matches were against teams in the bottom half but they failed to win a single one and missed the play-offs by two points.
"I read the comments sometimes," said Flanagan. "I was disappointed today when Andre Coker came on and he’s got booed. I don’t think that’s our fans, I don’t expect that of them but that just shows you they’re frustrated.
"Maybe they’re frustrated by some of the decisions they think we’re making and we understand that but behind it all, we want the club to be successful. Everything we do is to get this club a victory and ultimately get success. Nothing we do is to annoy them but when you’re frustrated, you’re going to say things and they’re frustrated because they want success as well.
"We all want the same thing so we’ve got to make sure we don’t come to loggerheads and we get behind one another and push this club forward because that’s the only way I see it; everyone on the same page, everyone positive and that transcending onto the pitch with good performances which fans expect of all Dartford teams and through that, hopefully we’ll get better results and a better position in the league."
Dartford's play-off hopes were ended by a 2-1 defeat at Oxford City on Saturday.
Defeats elsewhere for Billericay and St Albans meant a win would have been enough to get the Darts in the top seven but they came up short.
Flanagan said: "We got ourselves into a good position, leading at half-time, so we were halfway there.
"Our focus purely was on trying to win the game and let the results play out the way they would.
"Conditions were difficult in the first half and we wanted them to come onto us and we would then try to counter on them - and in spells it worked well.
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"The goal was a good set-piece in by Hayzie, Jordan Wynter got on the first contact and knocked it back across and Ronnie put it in, which was a good goal. You’re thinking 'get into half-time 1-0', which we did and the focus at half-time was on starting the second half well and not letting them come back into the game.
"We knew, prior to the game, their forward four were very positive and very direct with a good turn of pace and our focus was on our back four and midfield – how could we counter and take those attributes away from them?
"They manoeuvred things around a little bit, took their centre-half off and put another attacking player on at half-time and it was that attacking player who got into a good area. Maybe we could have been more narrow that side but he’s had a shot, it’s from 25 yards, it’s a reasonable shot, it’s gone semi to middle of the goal and could Wellsy have done a little bit better? Maybe – I know he’s critical of himself.
"But even when that goes in, there’s still a lot of football to play.
"The second goal, they broke on us and we had an opportunity to clear it but we’ve tried to play it inside and in a game of this magnitude, we needed to do the basics and defend well.
"We had done to that point but they seized on that opportunity, got a second goal and for 10 minutes, we went really quiet.
"We made a couple of subs, started pushing more bodies forward, that left us a little bit open and Wellsy made three or four good saves one-on-one.
"While we asked more questions of them - Ronnie had a header he just put wide from a good cross in from Hayzie - and we got into reasonable areas, we’ve not had any clear-cut chances.
"The keeper’s not had to make any quality saves and we’ve just missed out on the play-offs with a bit of a whimper."
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Steve Tervet