Dartford fell to defeat yet again on Saturday, as visitors Weymouth emerged victorious courtesy of a Joe Cook screamer.

Nevertheless, interim manager Tony Burman certainly felt there were positives to take from the game. Speaking after the match, he said:

“I don’t think it was a bad performance, I thought the players gave me 100%. I think their effort was there and I think they’ve shown me a lot of respect.”

“Our play and what we’ve tried to get over to them sometimes was there to see in the first half, we lacked a little bit in the second half with getting the ball wide and getting some crosses into the box. Nevertheless, in certain periods of the game I thought we looked okay”.

The turning point of the game appeared to be the injury suffered by Brandon Barzey, who Burman chose to recall from his loan at Hemel Hempstead. He gave insight into his decision to recall the winger and his fitness.

“We know Brandon is a good pacey wide player and on his day he can hurt defenders with respect to his attacking play, that’s why I brought him back, I wanted him to show as well what he could do to the supporters. I thought he did alright in the first half, we probably didn’t get the ball out to him as much as we should have done.”

“It looks like a hamstring [injury], so we’ll have to see how long it’s going to be in the week”

During the game, the Club announced the departure of striker Lewis Manor to Hornchurch. While a perceivably unusual time to announce a move, Burman provided reasoning for the timing of the announcement, and some further details behind the deal.

“I had a good talk with Lewis, he’s a real good lad but he hasn’t played as much as he wanted to play. He hasn’t started a game since the end of November, and he was getting a little bit frustrated. I said I didn’t want him to leave, and if any club did come in I would let him know about it, and if there was a serious offer not just for the club but for him then we’ll have a chat.”

“Last week an offer did come in and I still turned in down, and I said I wanted him to stay, he looked at it on his point of view and it was a good deal for him. It should have been done on Friday but the paperwork at Hornchurch’s end didn’t go through and that’s why it was only announced today.”

The biggest talking point surrounding the Club currently is the permanent managerial situation. While co-chairman Steve Irving has previously stated that the plan was to hire a new manager by the end of the month, Burman believes time is needed to ensure the right person is appointed.

“I don’t think it will be before the end of this month. We’ve had a lot of applications, and we have discussed getting that list down and we did that at the board meeting last Monday. There are some really good names in there, and some names that are tied up with clubs meaning we couldn’t do anything.”

“What is important is that we get the right person to come in, and until we make that decision, and everyone’s agreed on that then I will take things over. That’s what I’ll continue to do until we can make that decision whether the person we really want is available at this moment in time, or we have to wait until the end of the season and discuss. It does really depend on how results go here”

Following the result, Dartford sit seven points above the relegation zone and eleven points behind the Playoff places. On the Club’s outlook for the rest of the season, he said:

“If you don’t think about the relegation and the situation then you’re being a bit silly really. We’ve got to as a club make some decisions one way or the other and that includes me helping to make those decisions.”

“We’ve got to just have the confidence and belief. If we can install the confidence and belief in some players, maybe there might have to be one or two additions, even though we haven’t got the permanent manager at the moment we might have to still do that.”