Goalkeeper Ryan Sandford is grateful for the chance to rebuild his career at Dartford.

The ex-Millwall man played his first competitive game in almost a year when he made his Darts debut in an FA Trophy Second-Round tie against former club Maidstone on Saturday.

Sandford, 24, was on loan at United from Millwall when he suffered a dislocated shoulder in a National League game at Woking in December last year.

He’d been in terrific form before the injury, winning the player-of-the-month award and keeping three clean sheets in six full appearances for Darts’ Kent rivals.

He was released by the Lions at the end of last season and was linked with several clubs in the summer, holding talks with Dartford and Maidstone, among others.

Understandably, he wanted to see what was out there in the Football League and trained with AFC Wimbledon before signing a short-term deal in October as cover for international duty.

Sandford became a free agent again last week and Dartford made their move. He went straight into the side as Darts were beaten 1-0 by an injury-time Maidstone goal.

“Thankfully, I’ve been given this opportunity to come to Dartford and get playing, so I’m really appreciative of them for having me in,” said Sandford.

“I signed for a month at AFC Wimbledon because one of the senior lads was away on international duty, so they needed another senior lad in the building.

“I was there training at the time so all the pieces of the puzzle fitted into place.

“I did a month there but I’d been training there pretty much from August onwards so I was fit and ready to go, wherever I ended up. They were good to me and now I’ve come down here to play some games at another fantastic club.

“I came in for my first training session on Thursday and everyone made me welcome. I’ve enjoyed my time here so far and hopefully that continues and we start picking up some results.

“I had a little bit of a chat with Dartford in the summer. In my head, I wanted to get back in the Football League and everyone I spoke to was really understanding of that.

“But the time has come to get back playing and I’m here to play games and do as well as I can. I’m looking forward to cracking on with the games and we’ll see where we end up.”

It took Sandford five months to regain fitness following his injury, by which time he knew he’d be leaving Millwall after a decade with the south Londoners.

He always suspected that would be the case, with the priority to get his shoulder ready to continue his career elsewhere.

“The recovery was quite tough, purely because of the position I play,” said Sandford.

“The nature of the beast is you do a lot with your shoulder all the time but it feels good now and I’m glad to be back playing.

“I thought it was going to be my last season at Millwall. If I hadn’t done my shoulder maybe it might have been different but after that, I knew my time was up.

“It was quite an interesting summer with not much going on and then it speeds up again and you could be going here, could be going there, but ultimately it just didn’t fall for me.

“The shoulder’s good now - it’s probably better than the left one, if I’m totally honest. It does actually feel a lot stronger. That might say something about my left shoulder - I better start strengthening that.

“Anyone who says they’re not thinking about an injury is a liar.

“Not so much now, I’m fine now, but when I first came back in May, when I was declared fully fit, it’s still there in the back of your mind.

“You’re thinking, ‘don’t smash me, ease me’ in but now I’m 100%, I’m absolutely fine, there’s no doubts in my mind about anything. If someone wants to smash me they can smash me - the shoulder’s strong now, so I’m all good.”