Dartford boss Tony Burman praised his side’s battling qualities after their goalless draw at Chelmsford on Wednesday night.

The Darts kept a clean sheet against a direct Chelmsford team at Melbourne Park to leave their National League South play-off semi-final evenly poised ahead of Sunday’s second leg.

“It’s a decent result to get something from the game,” said Burman.

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“The main thing is we haven’t lost, we haven’t won the game I know that but we competed against a strong, physical side.

“I’m glad we go into the second leg on Sunday still in the game. We’ve put on a decent performance.

“It was two sides who didn’t want to lose. It wasn’t the prettiest of games but you have to have a battle here.

Read the match report from Wednesday's first leg here

“They put a lot of pressure on you through set pieces and throw-ins, they get the ball in the box early and you have to match that aggression that they’ve got. I thought we did that really well.”

Dartford improved in the second half, enjoying more possession but still failing to force a save out of home goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimons.

“We didn’t create as many as I’d have liked ourselves but that’s how it happens sometimes,” added Burman.

“After half-time we wanted to get Ryan Hayes and Luke Wanadio in the game but it didn’t quite come off for us.”

Dartford right-back Keaton Wood came off with 13 minutes left but Burman expects him to be fit for Sunday.

“He got a knock to the head,” said Burman. “We’ll keep an eye on him and see how it develops over the next couple of days.”