FA Trophy Special: McClements' is still in Burman's plans

DARTFORD boss Tony Burman wants his side to perform when they lock horns with Harlow Town in the first qualifying round of the FA Carlsberg Trophy on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Darts’ run of four unbeaten games came to a sorry end when they were defeated 1-0 at home to Margate last weekend.

Burman, speaking to www.kentishfootball.co.uk today, admitted the performance from his side was unacceptable.

“This season we’ve lost games I thought in most of those games (that) we’ve played very well and I’ve backed the players and I think the supporters have backed the performances sometimes,” he said.

After being on such a good run, we’ve put in a poor performance against Margate. Not taking anything away from Margate, they deserved their win and we deserved nothing from the game in my opinion and that’s disappointing.

“I’ve spoken to the players and they know they’ve underperformed. It wasn’t a couple of individuals. As a team, collectively, they didn’t get it right and a few of them were under par.

“We’ve spoken about it and we’ll put in a better performance at Harlow on Saturday.”

Dartford are sitting in 16^th place in the Ryman Premier League table - six places lower than the Hawks - and Burman wants his side to bounce back and book their place in the next round of a competition that was won by local neighbours, Ebbsfleet United, last May.

“Well, it was our first victory and our first goal we scored, in our fourth game, at Harlow,” recalled Burman.

“We had a really good game over there and they’re a good side and they’ve adjusted to the (Ryman) Premier League very well.

“There’s no easy games in this league and they’ve had some good results.

“We’ve been drawn at home, which we like to have, but we’ve been drawn against a difficult side. Harlow are at our level, there’s no points involved (so) you can sort of go for the game and that’s what we’ll attempt to do.”

Burman goes into the game with a number of injuries.

Rob Haworth’s calf injury flared up against his former side Margate last Saturday and is doubtful. Full-back Steve Norman has now undergone his hernia operation and is expected to be out for another five weeks. Ray Powell twisted his ankle against their Kent rivals last weekend.

But there is much better news on the horizon for trio Richard Ketchell, Nick Barnes and Alex O’Brien, although the FA Trophy tie is too early for them to return to action.

O’Brien played around 30 minutes for the second string in midweek and the other two are on the mend.

Burman gave an update on influential central midfielder, Eddie McClements, who hasn't played a game this season due to work commitments as a graphic designer.

“Eddie had to work between two to three months and it’s coming up for that time now,” explained Burman.

“He’s in and out of the country and as and when he’s ready and if he’s work slows up, he’ll come back training with us.

“At this moment in time, he’s not coming back in the next month and getting into the side so to speak. Once he’s ready he’ll come back and join in again.”

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

Dartford v Harlow Town
FA Carlsberg Trophy First Qualifying Round
Saturday 18^th October 2008
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Princes Park Stadium, Grassbanks, Darenth Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 1RT