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Sport

Dartford FC boss Tony Burman on the FA Cup tie at Needham Market

By: Steve Tervet

Published: 00:00, 28 September 2017

Tony Burman is considering changes for Dartford’s FA Cup tie at Needham Market on Saturday.

The manager was unhappy with his team’s lack of organisation in the 3-0 league defeat at Weston-super-Mare last weekend and won’t tolerate a repeat.

Burman had plenty of options on the bench at Weston and may well shake up his starting XI for the third qualifying round tie in Suffolk.

Dartford manager Tony Burman Picture: Andy Payton

He said: "We had too many players below par. I’ll pick my strongest team.

"I thought Tom Murphy, Andy Pugh and Warren Mfula added a bit of sharpness to the
second- half performance when they came on.

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"If that’s what it needs, I’ll do what I think is best. If we’d won the game, we’d have stayed top of the league and the players have got to realise that. That’s our aim, to be up there.

"I was disappointed on Saturday. Being organised is one of our strengths but it just wasn’t there."

Needham play one division below Darts in Bostik Premier and they’ve been inconsistent so far this season but Burman is wary of an upset.

He said: "It doesn’t matter what position you are in the league.

"The FA Cup is a great competition and there’s always upsets, you just hope you’re not one of those banana-skin ties.

"As much as we weren’t great against Barking (in the last round), we won the game and that’s what counts.

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"You know teams are going to raise their game against you when they’re in lower leagues, the same as we would do if we were drawn against a team in a higher league.

"It’s the beauty of the cup and you have to get things right. It’s nothing to do with league positions, you just have to do your job on the day."

Burman, who planned to watch Needham’s 3-1 league win at Harlow on Tuesday, is
waiting for news on Ryan Hayes after the winger had to come off injured at half-time against Weston.

Centre-half Richard Sho-Silva missed that game because he was moving house but is expected back in the squad this weekend.

The teams are playing not just for a place in the final qualifying round but £7,500 in prize money.

Burman said: "The FA Cup is always important because of the financial implications.

"What you don’t want in the FA Cup is to start getting into replays every round. It becomes maybe another game too many.

"At the moment it’s great and we want to be in it as long as we can but we want to do it without replays."

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