Dartford Academy Whites got their league campaign off to the perfect start with a 7-2 thumping of Boreham Wood.

The Club’s senior Academy team started strongly, but went a goal down in the 20th minute against the run of play, courtesy of a 30-yard screamer.

However, the team responded well with a goal of their own five minutes later, when Hugo Taylor got on the end of Gurp Benning’s corner.

Just 10 minutes later, Kelechi Nkowocha – a stand out player in pre-season – beat his man, crossed the ball and found the head of Gurp’s brother Jeev, to make it 2-1 at the break.

The team didn’t take their foot off the pedal in the second half with a dominant performance and free-flowing football. All five subs came on to get good minutes and make impacts, with five more goals in the process scored by Richie Atkins, Kelechi Nkowocha, Max Cutler, Jeev Benning again and Gurp Benning.

Boreham Wood got one back in the dying minutes as Dartford kept searching for more.

Dartford Academy Manager Ben Greenhalgh said: “It’s usually a feisty fixture and can be difficult as they have a smaller 4G pitch. We did some prep on Tuesday, working on a smaller pitch and practiced set pieces on it. It’s often a tough place to get goals at and if you go down, it can be tricky.

“But we were excellent all over. It proved how well we have trained and prepared over the last six or seven weeks.

“There were some great performances, but we’ve taken our form and determination from pre-season straight into the match.

“We had a lot of talent last year, but we probably didn’t have the chemistry we have this year. They want to work hard and get better and they will give 100 per cent every time.

“I feel like we will have a very exciting season. We were first or second during six of the last seven years, but last season was a bit of a blip. The ambition is to get up to the top end of the league again where we feel we should be as an Academy. It’s a really tough division, but we want to get back up to the top.”

Midfielder Harvey Affection took Man of the Match for a non-stop performance.

Check the ‘matches’ section of the website for Academy fixtures, tables and results.