Dartford boss Tony Burman has warned that some Conference South clubs will follow Hereford and Salisbury into financial turmoil unless they curb their excessive spending.

Burman’s side were reprieved from relegation last week after those two cash-strapped clubs were kicked out of Conference Premier.

While the result was good news for the Darts, Burman fears that mismanagement elsewhere will bring a repeat of the close-season fiasco which seems to haunt non-league football every summer.

He said: "Looking at what other clubs are offering players in Conference South, it’s crazy. Clubs can’t continue to run like that.

"It always happens at this time of year and then, by Christmas, they’ve run out of money. They budget to reach the second or third of the FA Cup, not just the first round and it makes you think ‘what are you doing?’

"It’s unbelievable, the amount of money that’s being thrown about in Conference South. What’s happened at Hereford and Salisbury is probably the tip of the iceberg.

"People take clubs over and they’ve got visions of grandeur. They think running a football club is a money-making exercise but it doesn’t work like that.

"Yes, you need to get a player, that player’s in demand and if you want that player, you do your best but sometimes you have to walk away from it and go to your next target – even if it might make the supporters unhappy."