Dartford have unveiled their plan to get back to the Conference – and stay there.

Co-chairman Steve Irving says the Darts need to go full-time to be a force in non-league’s top division but admits that will require substantial investment.

Dartford were England’s top part-time club in their first Conference campaign but they’ve finished in the relegation zone in each of the last two seasons.

Mr Irving said: "Within five years, we want to be a sustainable, successful club in the (newly-named) National League.

"We want to get back in that division as quickly as possible but it has to be sustainable.

"To be a fully-sustainable club in the National League, we need to be full-time, which is why we’ve set that five-year timescale.

"Part of the initial plan is to make sure we can afford to go full-time within that five-year-plan, to be a fully professional outfit."

Dartford manager Tony Burman added: "Conference South is going to be one difficult place to be and I’m not going to stand here and say we’re going to win it.

"What we’ve got to realise is that if we are in a position to be in the play-offs and maybe be promoted again, we’ve got to learn from what we’ve done before. We’ll have to change the structure again.

"Maybe (training) three days a week is the next step for us. It’s something we’ve got to look at and we would have looked at that last season if we hadn’t been relegated. All those stages were put on hold.

"But if we go full-time, are we saying the club have got to pay the players through May, June and July? Where do we find the money for that?"

Read the full story in the Dartford Messenger.