Tony Burman has refused to accept that Dartford’s best chance of beating Port Vale has gone after the League 2 side snatched an undeserved late equaliser at Princes Park on Saturday.

Elliot Bradbrook’s 39th-minute goal looked to have earnt the Darts a historic FA Cup first round win only for Vale defender John McCombe to break their hearts six minutes from time.

Manager Burman felt his side had done enough to win on the day – a view shared by his opposite number Micky Adams – and he says the Darts certainly have nothing to fear at Vale Park on Tuesday night as they battle for the right to entertain Accrington Stanley in round two.

Burman said: "We had a great chance to win it on Saturday. It didn’t happen but I still think we can play better. Saturday proved league positions mean nothing.

"I’m told Port Vale is a big pitch and that will suit us. We won’t have such a big crowd behind us but we are going up there with the intention of causing a shock."

Burman said he sent his team out to ‘have a go’ on Saturday and the Darts will adopt the same positive approach for the replay, even though Vale will probably have their own 10-goal leading scorer Marc Richards fit again after a knee injury.

He added: "We felt there was no point holding back. They’ll know more about us than they did on Saturday and they’ll play better but we are not going to go up and put 11 men behind the ball.

Burman hopes Darts can start reproducing the sort of performance they conjured up against Vale in the Blue Square Bet South, starting with Saturday’s home game with Dorchester.