Being in the FA Trophy last eight is a great achievement, says Dartford boss Tony Burman

Thursday 24th January 2013

DARTFORD boss Tony Burman says he is disappointed to have lost striker Harry Crawford to League Two strugglers Barnet.

The former Southend United striker scored 15 goals for the Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier club but Edgar David’s Bees submitted a seven-day approach – and Crawford has signed a three-year deal at Underhill.

”I am disappointed because he’s been a good player for us and I felt it would do him good to have a year in someone’s first team and that being us,” said Burman.

”I’ve been wanting Harry to sign a contract but him and his agent refused to do that because he wanted to get back into full-time football, which I totally understand.

”It wasn’t for the want of trying – I did try – but I knew what could happen in this month (the re-opening of the transfer window).

”While he was here he gave 100% and he’s scored some valuable goals for us and all the best to him for the future.”

Burman added: “I’m looking for a replacement but at the same time I am happy with what I’ve got at the club, but with the tough games that we’ve got coming up, I feel I need one or two players in and I will endeavour to do that.

”I keep getting gazumped just at the last moment. We’ll just move on and we’ll keep trying and if I can get someone who can improve the squad then I will do so.”

The Darts travel to Halifax Town to contest a FA Carlsberg Trophy Quarter-Final on Saturday.

Their hosts lie in eighth-place in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) North, with ten wins and three draws from their seventeen league games and play one level below the Darts, who are in seventh-place in the Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier, with 12 wins and five draws from 28 games – three points behind fifth-placed Kidderminster Harriers.

Burman, whose side have knocked out their Kent rivals Tonbridge Angels and Bromley in the last two rounds, said: “Being in the last eight is a great achievement by everybody.

”We’ve been drawn away from home against a team in a lower league, but a team very capable of causing an upset and we won’t be taking anything for granted.

”I know a bit about them now. They’re a decent side and they’ve got some good players and at home it’s going to be a very tough game for us to get over that hurdle.

”We’re training tonight and we gave the guys the weekend off last week because of the amount of games that we’ve played and we trained earlier in the week so we’ve been ok.”

Subject to Saturday’s result, Dartford travel to Ryman Premier League side Margate next Tuesday to contest a Kent Senior Cup (Sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com) Second Round tie.

Margate lost manager Chris Kinnear and assistant Jake Leberl to Dover Athletic last Saturday and have appointed goalkeeper Craig Holloway as caretaker manager, with Simon Osborn and Danny Hockton coming in as coaches.

Looking ahead to the Hartsdown Park clash, against third-placed Margate, Burman said: “I always try to field a strong team in that competition.

”We’ll go down to Margate with some players and a strong side and hopefully we’ll do a job there and try and progress in to the next round of the competition.

”Craig has gone in at the deep end and he’s going to see what it’s like now being on the other side of the fence.

”Good luck to him! From what I’ve read he seems to want to have a go at it. We’ll treat him and his players with the utmost respect like we always do and we look forward to seeing them.”

Dartford’s Princes Park stages the International Challenge Trophy semi-final between England C and Turkey on Tuesday, 5 February – which is an honour for the Kent club.

”They’ve (The FA) have been down and seen the stadium and seen how we are and how we treat people behind the scenes and they’ve enjoyed their time here. It’s made an impression when they’ve come to see us and all credit to all the staff who work at the stadium in the daytime and a lot of unseen work and they’ve done very, very well.

”It’s nice that they’ve picked us and they’ll be an international played here and hopefully a big crowd here too.”

Burman, who has brought defender Jack Evans, 19, in on a month’s loan from League Two neighbours Gillingham today, explained why he wants to increase squad numbers.

He said: ”We’re in front on our games and there’s a lot of teams in our division who are quite a number of games behind and they’ll be playing Saturday-Tuesday for more of the remaining weeks of the season.

”There are some really tough games coming up and that’s the reason we need to bolster the squad a bit and so some rotating as we go on because with the traveling and the games it’s going to be a really tough next month that’s for sure and we want to get as many points as we can on the board.”

Predominantly a right-back, Evans is a versatile performer who made his first-team debut as a late second-half substitute for Chris Whelpdale in the 5-2 victory at Torquay United in October 2011.

Shortly after making his debut he spent a couple of months on loan at Blue Square Bet South side Welling United before returning to Priestfield and adding six appearances to his tally.

He is a graduate of the Gills Centre of Excellence and was handed a professional deal for the 2011-12 campaign.

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

FC Halifax Town v Dartford
The FA Carlsberg Trophy Quarter-Final
Saturday 26^th January 2013
Kick Off 3:00pm
at The Shay Stadium, Halifax HX1 2YT