Dartford’s striker hunt is going to the wire after another week of frustration for manager Tony Burman.

With his side’s National League South opener against Wealdstone just over two weeks away, Burman has yet to land the centre-forward he needs to complete his strikeforce.

Transfer talks with a host of players have fizzled out, leaving the Darts with academy talent Ben Francis as the only back-up to Andy Pugh at this stage.

Burman, though, isn’t about to give up.

He said: "I’ve spoken to many forwards and they’ve been in the office with me, seen us and we just haven’t been able to nail one of them down.

"We’ve been close but whether it’s finance or players wanting to play in a higher league, I have to accept that.

"Something will happen. It hasn’t happened quite yet and I’m not going to just rush and get anybody but I do need to get another forward in and probably another wide player.

"You have a massive list of targets and it takes time to see them. They leave the office, they want a bit of time to make their decisions and some players, unfortunately for us, have signed for other clubs.

"The majority of those have signed in higher leagues.

"A couple of them especially I had good vibes about, that it was going to happen.

"In all fairness, we’ve made good offers. If supporters knew what I was offering some of the players and it’s been turned down because they’ve gone to a higher league, the supporters would be with me 100%.

"It’s frustrating when you think you’ve got a good chance and I really did think we had a good chance.

"All the people I spoke to were good guys and it’s a shame we haven’t got some of the targets we wanted."

Read the full story in the Dartford Messenger.