We'll be better next season, says Dartford boss Tony Burman

DARTFORD boss Tony Burman says there is something riding on their last league game of the season at Maidenhead United tomorrow, writes Stephen McCartney.



The Magpies must claim at least a point to preserve their Blue Square Bet South status for another year, whilst Burman wants to complete their first campaign at this level on 57 points.

Burman said: “I think they’ve got to get a point to secure their safety in the league and also we want to win the game to try and finish as high as we can.

”We want to try and get 57 points and if results go out way we could finish in the top 10, which would be nice for us in our first season.”

For that to happen, tenth-placed Bromley must lose to Eastleigh at Hayes Lane.

When asked to reflect on his side’s campaign, Burman said, “Overall, yes, I’m pleased because of where we were (inside the relegation zone) at Christmas.  Things didn’t go quite right in the league games but they went right in the cup games, but we have to look and learn and have to try and learn from our experiences this year and put things better for next year and that’s the improvements we have to make next year.”

Burman added, “I felt, potentially, we had a squad that would challenge for the play-off places but it wasn’t to be, but there’s plenty of room for improvement for us to get to that extra 10-12 points to try and be up there challenging.”

When asked about his dealings in the summer transfer market, the Darts boss replied, “Well, every year you try to improve your squad and that’s what we’ve tried to do since we’ve been here.  It’s part and parcel of football that players go and players come in.  Sometimes you want players to stay and they want to go somewhere else.  It works on both sides.

”But I don’t think we’ve got loads and loads to do because the players we’ve got are at the right age.  It’s a little bit of a long-term look at things.  A lot of the players are still under 25 and some of them are under 23, which is good.  We’ve got a lot of players at that age and hopefully they will learn as well and improve next year.”

One player Burman wants to secure is 24-goal striker Charlie Sheringham.

”We haven’t spoken to anybody yet,” said Burman.  “We’ll sit down and see who we want to keep.  The majority of the squad will be offered to stay.

”Yes, I would like to keep Charlie along with a number of other players, but we haven’t actually spoken, but I won’t be speaking to the players until all of the games are finished.”

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

Maidenhead United  v  Dartford
Blue Square Bet South
Saturday 30^th April 2011
Kick Off 3:00pm
at York Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 1SF