Dartford captain Josh Hill was so surprised by his 35-yard wonder strike, he forgot to do his goal celebration!

Hill scored the best goal of his career to set the Darts on their way to a 4-1 Isthmian Premier win over Whitehawk on Saturday.

The centre-back raced away to celebrate and forgot to do his planned routine.

“When you hit it, you can tell a lot of the time,” reflected Hill. “I hit it really true and straight, and as soon as it didn’t get blocked I could see where it was going.

“I was running away - that’s probably the fastest I’ve run all season to celebrate that goal!

“I didn’t have a celebration planned when I scored the other week so I had been thinking about it. I’m expecting a second child in May so I was going to do the classic baby celebration.

“But I was so overawed with the goal that I didn’t even think about it! I’m just glad I’ve scored and we’ve won.

“I don’t mind admitting that I surprised myself by scoring it. It’s one for my three-year-old boy Jack who was here watching, hopefully he wasn’t in the bar keeping warm when it went in. Either way I’ll be showing him the video about a million times!”

Hill’s no stranger to a header or two during the season but at least for a moment he could experience what it’s like to find the top corner with a long-range blockbuster.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” he added. “It’s not my job to score goals but I normally contribute a handful during a season.

“I’ve not scored anything like that so I can see why strikers are strikers because getting that feeling after scoring a goal, if you get that every week or every couple of weeks then you can’t really beat that.

“I haven’t scored many like that. I had one when I was at Braintree a good few years ago that probably comes close but nothing that good.

“It was one of those where it has fallen out so nice and there were probably loads of people saying don’t hit it as it will end up in the car park but luckily it went in the top corner and I’m buzzing with it.”

The strike eclipsed fellow defender George Whitefield’s brilliant 30-yard goal against Cheshunt at Princes Park in November.

So how does Hill feel about taking the goal of the season accolade from his young team-mate?

“I think George will be shooting from everywhere trying to get it back!” joked Hill. “He’s claiming that his goal is better so I’m hoping that there’s no official votes and he rigs it.

“There will be plenty more goals yet so we’ll see what happens but I’m hoping it will be in the nominations at least!”

The win over Whitehawk extended Dartford’s unbeaten run to 15 league games ahead of their home match with Chichester this Saturday.

Quite rightly, Hill is enjoying the moment.

“The last time I did interviews post-match was when we played Wingate & Finchley and were 3-0 down in 15 minutes,” he said.

“I remember my mood very vividly that day as it was a turning point for us.

“We haven’t lost since then in 15 league games and at any level going that long unbeaten is very good.

“We’ve had a great Christmas period and everyone is pulling in the right direction and that’s what you need to compete, we’ve put ourselves in a good position now for January and the rest of the season.

“It's confidence. You have to earn it, you can’t say just go and be confident, and go and do something. You have to build it up and work hard.

“We’ve done that all season, we haven’t played that bad in many games even though we went on a run of not winning in seven. It’s just a bit of fortune has turned around, that hard work has come to fruition and while the confidence is like this you have to make the most of it and hope it lasts as long as possible. It doesn’t always happen like this.”