Dartford boss Tony Burman has assured supporters striker Jon Main did not engineer a move away from the club to join Dover Athletic.

Main (pictured) was recalled by the Wombles on Monday afternoon and hours later was unveiled as a Dover player – a sure fire way to rile the Dartford supporters.

However, Burman leapt to the player’s defence saying the move was out of Main’s hands and "made sense."

Burman also hailed the impact the striker made on Darts’ renaissance in Blue Square Bet South this season, despite only scoring one league goal in his two-month spell at Princes Park.

Burman said: "Since he joined us in January, we have only lost two games. He has made a good impact, even if he’s not scored as many goals as he might have wanted.

"Under loan rules, we could only have him for 93 days – his loan was due to be up on April 14. Wimbledon called him back ahead of Thursday’s transfer deadline and reached a deal with Dover who can take him for a further 28 days.

"It is unfortunate that we have lost him but it happens in football, it’s a business.

"If we’d kept him, in two weeks’ time he wouldn’t have had a club to play for until the end of the season. I can see the sense in the deal.

"It was out of our control. Wimbledon are full-time and he’s a full-time player. He has to do what the club says. Dover came in with a better deal for Wimbledon – it doesn’t matter to Jon, he gets paid the same by Wimbledon.

"I hope the supporters understand that the player had to do what he was told to do."