Staying in a play-off spot over the festive period is Dartford’s priority.

Darts are seventh in National League South ahead of Saturday’s home game against Hungerford Town.

They look well-placed but could drop into the bottom half this weekend if results go against them.

In such a tight division joint-boss Jamie Coyle knows how important games like the next one will be.

He said: “We want to get out of Christmas and the New Year still in the play-offs because it would give us something to build on for the second half of the season.

“I still think there’s so much more to come from us. We’ve done OK and we’ve won games but we’re still sitting there thinking there’s so much more we need to improve on. The players know that.

“We’ll keep working hard and being patient and working on our organisation.

“Defensively, we’ve been brilliant this year but there’s no hiding the fact we haven’t scored enough goals.

“We’ll continue to work on it and add quality to the squad and sooner or later, it will click.”

Hungerford arrive in the relegation zone having won just four games all season.

It’s two weeks since either side played in the league, with Dartford’s last outing the 1-1 draw with Slough on December 8.

“It’s going to be a difficult,” Coyle said. “We had a friendly on Saturday against Tonbridge so we got some much-needed minutes for the boys that haven’t been in the team.

“We had another chance to look at some partnerships up front with Phil Roberts coming into the side recently so that was a real benefit for us.

“Hungerford had a positive result in their last game (beating Chippenham 2-1).

“You can look at the league table and think it’s going to be an easy fixture but we’ll have to be at full throttle to win.

“We really need that going into a tough Christmas period with two games against Welling, who are flying this year, and East Thurrock.

“It’s important for us to take a bit of momentum into Christmas.”

Charlie Sheringham is unavailable on Saturday as Dartford tackle the first of five matches in the space of 15 days.

Coyle said: “For a spectator, it’s a good time to get out of the house and watch some decent football.

“If you’re in the game, it’s a real tough period. You understand it both ways but hopefully we’ll get through with very few or no injuries because we haven’t got a huge squad.”