Dartford captain Tom Bonner is hoping the new year will bring a long-awaited league title to Princes Park.

The Darts went top of National League South with a breathtaking 4-1 Boxing Day win at Ebbsfleet, and could go six points clear with victory over their rivals in the return fixture on New Year’s Day (3pm).

Bonner was part of the Dartford side that won the play-off final against Welling in 2012 - but would dearly love to win the championship.

“I’m desperate for it,” said the 34-year-old centre-back. “I’ve been at Dartford for a long time and gone close on many occasions.

“I’m desperate for Dartford to win the league, not just for the club but myself.

“There’s a long way to go but fingers crossed. There’s another massive game on Sunday so we’ll see how it’s going after that.

“Teams will look at our result, see we’ve won 4-1 at Ebbsfleet and think blimey.

“We’ve won at Havant and Ebbsfleet now. I wouldn’t say we’ve put a target on our back, but we’ve staked a claim that we’re not mucking about this season.

“We want to win the league and hopefully now we can push on and do that.”

It was a first away win for Dartford against the Fleet in the league since 1979.

Bonner is expecting a massive response from their title rivals when the teams meet again at Princes Park on Sunday.

“That stat just goes to show what an unbelievable performance that was, hats off to everyone involved with Dartford, including the supporters,” said Bonner.

“There were no trains or buses so to see that many fans behind the goal was incredible.

“I’d be very surprised if it’s a similar game on New Year’s Day. If my team lost 4-1 at home on Boxing Day, I’d make sure there was a reaction next game.

“We’re fully expecting Ebbsfleet to come at us and they’re going to do everything they can to right this wrong so we’ve got to be ready for that.

“They’ve been beaten at home quite comfortably so we’re expecting a really tough game.

“We’ve won on Boxing Day but if we don’t turn up on Sunday and lose then it’s all for nothing. We need to keep our feet on the ground and hopefully put in another performance like that.”

Dartford raced into a three-goal lead thanks to Luke Allen, Luke Coulson and Maxwell Statham.

Bonner admitted it was part of the gameplan but didn’t expect it would come to fruition so early.

“Our gameplan was to start fast but we weren’t expecting to go 3-0 up,” said Bonner.

“We scored after 44 seconds, we wanted to set the tone early, we didn’t want to let them play and wanted to get at them early. Not just in the first half, but for 90 minutes I think we executed it perfectly.

“It’s not often you go in at half-time with a three-goal advantage. We didn’t want to sit back and invite pressure in the second half.

“We wanted to go again and if we’d scored more goals then I don’t think Ebbsfleet could have complained. We were worthy winners - if anything it could have been more.

“We had four or five golden chances in the second half. I should have scored, Alex Wall will put his hand up and say he should have scored and Luke Coulson said he should have.”

Bonner believes the key to Dartford’s success this season is the camaraderie in the squad.

He added: “I’ve been at Dartford a long time and this is one of the best dressing rooms I’ve been in. All the boys in there are my brothers, that’s how we look at it.

“If people are left out and sitting in the stand, you’d never notice as everyone is together as one.

“Credit to the gaffer, he has instilled that in us. He’s brilliant with us, makes us do stuff with the fans and we’re all pulling in the right direction.”