Having seen his side claim all three points from their game at Welling United, Dartford manager Tony Burman was relieved.
His team had lost a two goal lead but won it with an injury time wonder goal by Alfie Pavey.
“Alfie’s gone and pulled that out of the bag, probably one of the best goals I’ve ever seen.” He said. “It’s a great technique. Everyone knows that they could end up on the A2 but I’m pleased for him.
“He’s upset, in the nicest possible way, that he’s not playing but he can do that and he’s scored a lot of important goals for us. We realise you want to try and do something and kick start the season and today might just do that with what’s happened at the end of the game.
Coming into the game, five teams shared the league summit meaning there could be an interesting second half to the season. “We’re well pleased with where we are after twenty two games. We know that we’ve got to be consistent and we know that we’ve got to get some wins, four, five, six on the bounce.
“If we do that, I think that the group that is there now will get smaller and it’ll help us, hopefully, pull away.
Even teams down to mid table are close enough that a few good results could put them in the mix. “It’s good for the league and I think that the finances are probably about evens.” Burman continued. “It’s calling out for someone to have that run. Hampton have done it. They’ve had ten wins on the spin and they’re right in there. They need to sustain it.
Strangely, the Vanarama National League have no fixtures scheduled for Saturday 30th December and Burman admitted that he was mystified. “I’m aware that it’s Non League players but we could have changed the game from New Year’s Day to Saturday and I still think we would have got the same crowd, if not more.” he said.
“But it wasn’t to be and it seems that we’re the only ones not playing and I’m not quite sure why that is. We’ll have a training session on Saturday and then move on from there.”
It does give players who are carrying knocks two extra days recovery time but he confirmed that none of the three substitutions that he made were due to injury. He said “We wanted to get Alfie on. We kept (Danny) Mills on and we put Pughie (Andy Pugh) to the right hand side.
“I felt that Haysie (Ryan Hayes) and Murph (Tom Murphy) have worked really, really hard in the last three or four games and it’s tired legs.”
One of Burman’s former players, Jamie Coyle, opposed him as manager of Welling and he said “Jamie’s taken on a tough job here, and I mean that in the nicest possible way, where they were last season and what they’re trying to do this year, and he will get it right.
“He’s an excellent coach and he’s having a go on the management side, which is what he wants to do, and fair play to him. He’ll make mistakes but you’ve got to back him when he makes the mistakes.”
On New Year’s Day, the two teams meet again for the second half of the double.
Pictures supplied by Dave Budden.