The next step is to get into the play-off places, says Dartford boss Tony Burman

DARTFORD boss Tony Burman says he wants his side to better last season’s record in all competitions, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Darts finished their first campaign in Blue Square Bet South in tenth place and won the Kent Senior Cup for the tenth time in the club’s history with a whopping 4-1 win over Bromley.

They also reached the FA Cup First Round going down in a replay away to League Two side Port Vale.  They knocked big-spending Crawley Town out en-route to the last sixteen of the FA Trophy too.

“The next step is to get inside the tenth spot and hopefully looking for the play-off places,” said Burman.

“We got into the first round of the FA Cup, let’s get into the second round of the FA Cup.  We got into the last sixteen of the FA Trophy, let’s try to get better in that and that’s what we want to do, but the league is the most important thing.

“Hopefully, we’ve learnt from our mistakes last year but we’ll get off to a better start and then hopefully be in that group challenging for a play-off place.  That’s what we’re aiming for.”

Burman has promised new faces ahead of their season opener away to Weston-super-Mare on 13 August.

He said: “I’m happy with the squad but there could be one or two players coming in before the start to the season.”

Dartford have opened their pre-season campaign with defeats to League Two sides Southend United (0-3) and Gillingham (2-5) and Championship side Millwall visit Princes Park on Tuesday night, and Crawley Town, who clinched the Blue Square Bet Premier title last season,  visit on Saturday.

“They’ve had a difficult two weeks and I’m pleased that we’ve come through it,” said Burman.

“We’ve trained really hard, had two of the games and now we’ve got Millwall and the recovery period for the guys is getting shorter.

“We know we’re going to be in for a tough game and it’s getting to that 60-70 minute mark and it really depends what the scores are then.

“Millwall have done every so well and we’re really pleased there sending a team to play us.  It will be a hard work out but it’s tough.  They games have got to be tough. The fitness side to it is so important to us.

“You can’t take too much notice of the score in these games.”

Visit Dartford’s websites: www.dartfordfconline.com  & www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk

Dartford  v  Millwall
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday 19^th July 2011
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Princes Park Stadium, Grassbanks, Darenth Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 1RT