Burman describes pitch at Bourne Park "a cowpat" following Stones shocker

Dartford manager Tony Burman described Sittingbourne’s Bourne Park pitch “a cowpat” following his side’s crushing 4-1 defeat at local rivals Maidstone United on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Stones won their seventh successive game to go two points clear of Hastings United, with two games in hand, at the top of the Ryman League Division One South table - leaving Burman fuming.

His side were deservedly 2-0 down at the break, courtesy of goals from Lynden Rowland and Mo Takaloo, as the hosts adapted to the poor playing conditions.

But during a dominant spell, prolific striker Brendon Cass netted his 26^th goal of the season to pull a goal back for the Darts with a dipping 16-yard volley but two late strikes from Rowland and substitute Simon Austin left the Darts stunned and eight points behind their table topping rivals.

Bourne Park has suffered from the wet winter this year and Sittingbourne’s chairman Mr Andy Spice and his ground staff worked tirelessly on the pitch right up to kick-off - but Burman wasn’t impressed.

“I think they’re (Maidstone United) a team that can play in these conditions,” he told www.kentishfootball.co.uk after his side lost their tenth league game of the season.

“We’re not used to these sort of conditions. We’re not a team that can play that way and they done it better than us in the first half.

“Our performance in the first half, with what I asked them to do, in respect of trying to get their back four turning, we didn’t do and Maidstone did it to us and they done it a lot better.”

After allowing Maidstone United to dominate proceedings during the first half, Burman’s men increased their urgency and dominated the second half up to Cass’ 67^th minute goal before the Stones hit back with two goals in the last 12 minutes.

Burman changed to a 4-3-3 formation after 55 minutes, playing Cass, Jay May (whose scored 18 goals this season) and substitute James Carter up front.

“I was a bit disappointed with my front two today,” said Burman. “I don’t think they caused them enough problems but again the service maybe wasn’t good for them but it was when we scored the goal.

“We was 2-1 down and we was in the game because there was a good 20-25 minutes to go.

“When we got the goal back we started to knock balls behind them. We changed things to go three up front and once we got the goal back we went back to just trying to knock a short ball on what can only be described as a cowpat.

“Listen, we’re spoilt because the pitch at our place is excellent but I know that there’s a lot of people been working ever so well to try to get this pitch right - but it isn’t right.

“You have to play on certain pitches and you’ve got to come and do a job and we didn’t do it today.”

Burman takes his side to another of their Kent rivals on Tuesday night.

Ashford Town’s pitch at The Homelands has had its own problems with too many games postponed due to waterlogging.

But Burman hopes their clear-the-air chat after Saturday’s game will inspire his players to roll up the sleeves and adapt to the conditions.

“We’ve had a chat with them and we know where I think we’ve gone wrong,” he said.

“They know that I’m disappointed in a couple of individuals but that’s how it goes sometimes.

“The individuals I’ve just mentioned have been excellent for me all season but today we’ve been beaten by a strong, physical side who obviously wanted the game on for obvious reasons and fair play to them.

“They’re top of the league, they’re riding high and I’ve got no complaints about the way it’s gone - we didn’t deserve to win today and that’s it.”

Burman is expected to draft John Guest and Mark Green, who were suspended for the Stones shocker, into the starting line-up for Tuesday night’s trip to Ashford Town.

The Nuts & Bolts, second from bottom in the league, have only played 26 league games and haven’t played since their home draw against Horsham YMCA two weeks ago.

“They’ve had a few injuries over the last couple of weeks and as they haven’t played I expect them to have a full strength squad to pick from on Tuesday night so it will be a big game,” said Burman.

But Jeremy Kite, the leader of Dartford Borough Council, who built Dartford’s £6.5m Princes Park Stadium, believes the authorities are not helping the Kent clubs that need help.

He says that the Football Foundation need to help Nationwide Conference South outfit Welling United with their new floodlights and help Sittingbourne improve their pitch.

He told www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk  : “Can only agree with the comments about the pitch - the off-field facilities were ok but there seems to have been investment at Sittingbourne from people who clearly care about their club but all this seems to be out-of-balance when the pitch is so much in need of help.

“Can’t blame Maidstone at all. This is not their permanent home so they would be foolish to pump cash into someone else’s playing surface when they are saving to invest in their own.

“I know I have got a bit of a dower on the Football Foundation after their lamentable performance on Princes Park but surely here’s what revenues from the richest game in the world should be doing?

“Interest free loan over twenty years for new floodlights at Park View Road NOW - not after 18 months of form-filling, political correctness measurement and photocopying and fifty grand for pitch improvements at Sittingbourne.

“That’s probably a minute’s revenue from the nation’s beautiful game today - but it might just save a player from injury and encourage more families to attend.”

Visit club websites:

www.ashfordtownfc.co.uk

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

Ashford Town v Dartford
Ryman League Division One South
Tuesday 6^th March 2007
Kick Off 7:45pm
At The Homelands, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ