My players' want their names in the papers, says Dartford boss Tony Burman

The Darts travel to Wiltshire to face a Salisbury City side that are in fifth-place in The Skrill Premier, with nine wins and three draws from seventeen games.

Dartford, who needed two games to see off their bitter-rivals Ebbsfleet United in the Fourth Qualifying Round, are in the bottom-seven, having picked up five wins and three draws from seventeen league outings.

“Well, obviously it’s going to be a tough game,” said Burman.

“The situation where we were probably favourites in the last round, we’re not in this round I suspect due to league positions, simply because how well Salisbury are doing this year.

“It’s going to be a tough game but I’m looking forward to it.”

Everyone knows league form goes out of the window in The FA Cup.

“It definitely can,” said Burman.  “The games are approached in a slightly different way. You might take the gamble here or there.

“We want to progress into the next round and it’s something to take our minds off league games and the pressure what comes from league games.

“We’re looking forward to going to Salisbury and hopefully we can get a result that we want.”

When asked whether he was happy being drawn against a Conference Premier rival, the Dartford stalwart replied: Well, I preferred to be at home but everyone’s looking forward to that elusive tie, but we’ve got a tough tie against a team in our division.

“It was a tough tie in the last round (against Ebbsfleet United) and this one is no different.  Yes, we all like (to play) League clubs but it doesn’t always happen, but if you don’t get that you would like to be at home – that wasn’t to be.

“We’ll look forward to going down there and hopefully we can maybe progress to the next round.”

But Burman knows his side are more than capable of reaching The FA Cup Second Round for the first time since the club took AFC Bournemouth to two games back in 1994.

“I think all games are winnable. It’s just what happens on the day,” said Burman.

“Cup football is so different. You might be able to take that odd gamble or chance and it may pay off for you. 

“We know we’re going to be in for a tough game.

“The FA Cup means a lot to the players and the supporters and the club and it’s good to be involved in. There’s a lot of publicity involved and I’m sure that our players as much as theirs want to get their names in the papers and be interviewed by the TV cameras as and when it comes.

“How will it be won? We’ve got to score more goals! We’ve got to be organised, we’ve got to work hard, which we’ve done recently. Our performances recently have been half decent.

“We know we’ve got a lot of players missing from the game but we’ve got to forget about that.

“We want to do ourselves justice and have a go at the game.”

Burman is pleased to be able to extend striker Matt Godden’s loan spell at Princes Park for another two months.

The Dartford manager said: “It’s something that we wanted to do. We asked the question very early on. We’ve extended it. Yes, they had the option to call him back but Matt’s trying to get games in so he’s seen to be doing well and he scores goals.

“I’m sure that Scunthorpe will be keeping their eye on him.”

When asked how he has managed to entice a player from a distant club to Kent, Burman explained: “We knew about him with him playing at Ebbsfleet last year. We knew there was a connection down at this end of the country.

“It came about through a few phone calls. He’s agent has been involved in that as well. It just shows if you do your homework there are players’ up and down the country that maybe live or were born in the part of the county where your ground is and that’s what’s happened in this case.”

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