Burman wants to enjoy the next seven days

Monday 11th September 2006

Dartford manager Tony Burman insisted his side put in the effort, despite losing their unbeaten record – and top spot in the Ryman League Division One South table – on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Darts put in a poor display to hand bottom-of-the-table side Hastings United their first points of the campaign.

Two goals in the first half-hour did the damage with Lee Carey scoring his third goal of the season and Ade Olorunda heading home his second of a campaign, that’s got off to a slow start.

But Burman will rally his troops ahead of their next two games.

Winless Folkestone Invicta travel to Thurrock’s Ship Lane on Tuesday night in the second round of the Westview Cup before the Arrows return in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday.

“I think our effort was there, lets put it that way, but our quality just wasn’t from start to finish,” Burman told www.kentishfootball.co.uk after their poor display.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Hastings. They were excellent on the day. They came here, played a lot better than us, especially on the break.”

Burman who publicly warned his side about complacency creeping into the ranks, on the eve of the game, defended his players on that subject.

“I can assure you that was not the case,” he insisted. “They wanted to win today but it just didn’t go right.

“All the good things we’ve done in the previous five games they didn’t do any of them.

“Like I say the effort was there, the quality of the good habits which have given us a good start to the season, just wasn’t there and I don’t think it was there for 90 minutes.”

Burman, meanwhile, hinted at making one or two changes for the Westview Cup clash against a side that’s currently at the foot of the Ryman Premier League table.

“I don’t think the players need a kick up the backside because that was one performance in the first six,” said Burman.

“For me the players have been excellent in the previous five games.

“But there may be some changes so I can look at one or two of the lads who have been patient on the bench, but the important thing for me is that seven days is a long time. There’s a League Cup game on Tuesday, Cup game next week and it’s an important week for the club.

“I still want to be in them cup competitions, we’re not top now, we have to try to get back to top, we don’t want a bad seven days.”

But at least the Darts have seven days until they meet Hastings United again, and with £2,250 in FA prize money up for grabs the Darts boss is desperate to boost club coffers.

He said: “They’ll come back and think they’re favourites, so let’s see if they can handle that before the game.

”But they’ve had a bad time and fair play to them. They’ve had two good results this week and they thoroughly deserved today’s result without any shadow of a doubt.

“If they’re the bottom team than this league will be very strong.

”It’s a funny old game and you can’t take anything for granted and maybe that’s what we did.”

Ever-present goalkeeper Kevin Hudson admitted: “I think we all turned up today expecting to get three points and to be honest it looked like we were expecting three points without really putting the work in.

“But football has a nasty habit of kicking you where it hurts.

“We’re under no illusions, whatever league you play at this level there’s going to be no easy games.

“I thought we were well beaten today – they really deserved their win.”

Looking forward to their FA Cup clash against Hastings, Hudson, who made his debut in the competition at the age of seventeen, added: “It’s always nice to have a good cup run but I think we would have taken three points in the league.

”Hopefully we’ll put in a better performance than today as we never really looked at the races, did we?”

Club websites:

www.dartfordfc.co.uk & www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk

www.folkestoneinvicta.co.uk

Dartford v Folkestone Invicta
Westview Cup Second Round
Tuesday 12^th September 2006
Kick Off 7:45pm
at Thurrock FC, The Thurrock Hotel, Ship Lane, Grays