Dartford delivered the perfect response by putting Dulwich to the sword on Saturday.

Questions were being asked about the Darts after they lost to fellow play-off contenders Chelmsford last week.

But they re-established their grip on second spot in National League South as Alex Wall fired in a hat-trick during a 4-0 win over Dulwich.

“It was a great result, especially off the back of what happened against Chelmsford,” said Dartford assistant manager Christian Jolley.

“We needed to bounce back and we changed things up, changed personnel, changed system and it worked brilliantly. I thought we gave a good professional display.

“We’ve got a good depth in the squad now and we’re in a position where we’ve only really got Charlie Sheringham on the injury side of things so that means people are really competing and training has been really intense and performances have gone up.

“We needed a spring in our step and we know we’ve got a busy couple of weeks coming up so we needed to try a different system to see what options we have and how players figure in that and give people something to think about.”

Dartford made five changes to their line-up while the likes of Pierre Fonkeu and Jack Smith did not even make the bench against Dulwich.

Samir Carruthers was not used during the 90 minutes and Jolley admitted there were various factors behind their decisions.

“The whole squad have participated massively in getting us to the position we’re in now and it’s one of those bitter-sweet moments where you want to play every minute of every game,” he said.

“However we need to win and we need to find players to win. Players are good at reflecting, they are honest and open and they know sometimes you hit a bit of bad form, you’re tired (after) 37-38 games and the level is really intense, we’re asking a lot of them and some of them needed a rest.

“Some of them needed to come out of the firing line a bit because we ask so much of them and sometimes performances drop. Some of them need a rocket and need something to think about.

“It's almost trying to evoke and invigorate a response. We’ve been together all season, it’s been a long, tough season and we wanted to win the league (but) Ebbsfleet have run away. It’s been really difficult to keep on top of them, especially since the turn of the year as they’ve been fantastic.

“Then you have to change your insight and motivation into how we’re going to negotiate and make sure we finish where we want to finish and this is gaffer’s forte, he’s been there and done it many times so it’s his lead and we’ve all got to support exactly what he asks.”

Wall stole the show against Dulwich with a hat-trick which included two excellent finishes in the space of three minutes early in the second half.

“Fantastic hat-trick,” beamed Jolley. “I had a little grumble with him now about hold-up play and little bits like that but those details we can still work on. That’s a critique but you can’t really say much to a man who scores a hat-trick like that.

“He’s so impactful, in both boxes. Defensively his game is brilliant but no-one gives him any credit for it, but what he does for us defending corners and free-kicks is outstanding. Then when he goes in their box, he took his goals really well.

“I’m really pleased for him, strikers live off goals and that will give him a massive lift and get some momentum up as all strikers score in clusters. That has put him into double figures which is where we want him to hit.”