You like to be the underdogs sometimes because it gives you a lift, says Dartford boss Tony Burman

DARTFORD boss Tony Burman says he wants to lead his underdogs into the Blue Square Bet (Conference) Premier play-offs at the end of their first season back in non-league football’s elite.



The Darts will travel to Halifax Town in the FA Carlsberg Trophy Quarter-Finals on 26 January after beating their Kent neighbours Bromley 4-2 on Saturday.

Dominic Green, 23, scored two goals within 34 minutes into his debut, having arrived on a one-month loan from League Two side Dagenham & Redbridge.

Lee Burns came up from right-back to notch his second goal of the campaign for Dartford’s third, before striker Harry Crawford scored his fifteenth-goal of the season with the last goal.

Bromley had deservedly equalised after nineteen minutes through Pierre Joseph-Dubois and the French striker netted his eleventh goal of the campaign when he scored Bromley’s second – and the last goal of the game – with 20 minutes remaining.

Dartford are presently sitting in eighth-place in the table, with 38 points from 27 games and are six points behind fifth-placed Kidderminster Harriers, who occupy the last play-off berth.

The Darts welcome ninth-placed Macclesfield Town to Princes Park on Tuesday night – a side that dumped current Championship leaders Cardiff City out of The FA Cup in the Third Round at the beginning of the month.

Macclesfield Town are managed by Steve King, who will be best remembered guiding Lewes up from the lower reaches of the Ryman League into the Conference Premier, before he took charge of Macclesfield at the start of the campaign after the club lost their Football League status at the end of last season.

“Listen, that’s going to be one tough game Tuesday night,” warned Burman.

“They’re another good, full-time outfit.  Steve’s trying to stamp his authority on the club at Macclesfield and he’s doing it in his own way, which is good.

“We’ve watched them play and it’s a tough game. We’re the underdog again and we’ll see what happens.”

Dartford have more than held their own in the division and Burman admitted his players relish the underdog tag, being a part-time outfit.

“At the moment you obviously like to be the underdogs sometimes because it gives you a little bit of a lift,” said Burman.

“We’ve got to come here again and we might change one or two things around but hopefully we’ll have a full fit squad.

“I’m still looking to bring some people in and there might be one or two added to that soon.”

Dartford travel to eleventh-placed Hereford United on Saturday, a club that lost also their Football League status at the end of last season and won that went down to a 4-0 defeat to the Darts earlier on in the season.

Hereford will be best remembered here in Kent as the club that ended then Kent League Hythe Town’s FA Cup campaign back in 2010.

Gary Mickelborough scored Hythe’s goal in their 5-1 defeat at Edgar Street to become the first Kent League footballer to score in the FA Cup First Round for over 50 years.

Burman said: “We’ve done the majority of most of our long trips, it’s the last of the long un’s, but we know it’s going to be tough because we’ve got another game (at home to Braintree Town) on the Tuesday.

“That’s where the problem lies when you’re running with a small squad.  It’s the travelling, getting up for work and then playing again on a Tuesday night and when we’ve had those weeks we haven’t done that well especially when we’ve had to travel a long way.

“Hopefully we can get things right. There’s some big games coming up for us and we’d like to get over that 40 mark and then start kicking on to see if we can get to 50 points.”

Burman insists he hasn’t given up the chase for a play-off place with nineteen league games left to play.

“We’re still involved in and around the play-off picture,” said Burman.

“We’ve lost four games. We’ve had a little bit of a spell. Who knows what might happen in the next few weeks or in the next couple of months, but we’ve been fortunate to win four games on the trot. Who’s to say it’s not going to happen again?

“Who’s to say we’re not going to creep into that play-off area again?

“We’ve done well and we deserve to be where we are. If we keep battling and keep working as hard as we can, I’m sure things will go right for us.”

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

Dartford  v  Macclesfield Town
Blue Square Bet Premier
Tuesday 15^th January 2013
Kick Off 7:45pm
At Princes Park Stadium, Grassbanks, Darenth Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 1RT