Dartford boss Tony Burman said conceding an early goal gave his side a mountain to climb as they went down 4-0 at Port Vale in their FA Cup first round replay on Tuesday night.

Paul Goodacre conceded a penalty after just 17 minutes to allow Marc Richards to put the hosts ahead and the striker lashed home the second to end the tie as a contest after only 26 minutes.

Two further goals after the break from Sean Rigg and Justin Richards saw Vale through to a second round tie at home to Accrington.

Burman (pictured) said he wished the Darts had managed to avoid conceding the early goal.

He said: "Port Vale are a good side and they showed it. We didn’t have the element of surprise in the replay that we had in the first game.

"We conceded too early, we needed to get to half an hour or more without conceding to put pressure on them. Unfortunately we got punished for our mistakes. We gave them a goal and it gave them confidence.

"If we’d gone longer without conceding it might have been a different outcome. We know we should have won the first game at home and we knew it was always going to be difficult to come away and get a result. The pitch is absolutely massive and they are used to it and we're not."

He added: "We gave a good account of ourselves, you learn from these experiences and I think everyone enjoyed the experience."