We must treat struggling sides with respect, says Burman

Dartford manager Tony Burman has revealed that he has a full strength squad to pick from for tomorrow’s visit to struggling Godalming Town, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Surrey side are second from bottom in the Ryman League Division One South table.

But Burman warned that you can never expect an easy ride against teams fighting for survival, making a young Croydon Athletic side a prime example.

Darts cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win over the Rams last weekend courtesy of a Ryan Hayes hat-trick but the cash-strapped club went on to hold Maidstone United to a goal-less draw at Bourne Park on Wednesday night.

But the stalemate meant the Stones returned to the top of the table, leapfrogging over Hastings United, who went top following their 3-2 win at Ashford Town 24 hours earlier.

“Funny old game football is after our result last week against Croydon, where I think it is fair to say many of us felt we should have had more goals against a very in-experienced side,” Burman said on his website notes on www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk.

“The same side go to the league leaders and get a great result. Who would have predicted before the game that result and that is why you cannot take any games for granted.”

With nine games remaining, fourth placed Dartford are nine points behind leaders Maidstone United and need to pick up wins to cement their play-off place.

Last season the Darts missed out in the Southern League play-off’s by just one point and Burman doesn’t want history to repeat itself.

“I have spoken to the players this week in training and stressed to them how important it is for us to concentrate on what we have to do in our remaining games,” he said.

“There is no point in relying on other teams to win or lose their games. We have got to do what we need to do first and forget about everybody else.”