Dartford FC boss Tony Burman on the cancellation of Bromley FC pre-season friendly
Published: 00:00, 27 July 2017
Tony Burman insists there is no injury crisis at Dartford despite the cancellation of Tuesday’s game against Bromley.
Darts were due to host the National League side in their penultimate pre-season friendly but pulled the plug the day before.
Duane Ofori-Acheampong, Andy Pugh and Mark Onyemah all missed the 1-1 draw with Cambridge United on Saturday while Keaton Wood limped off during the second half.
Tom Bonner was away and work commitments would have ruled Elliot Bradbrook, who deputised at centre-half on Saturday, out of the Bromley game.
Burman said: "We had a few injuries, not serious, but it was enough that we couldn’t play on Tuesday night.
"We had to re-adjust and, unfortunately, call the game off simply because of that.
"We’re running with a smaller squad and the games we’ve played have been excellent.
"We’ve done ever so well in those games and just picked up some injuries where I couldn’t play the players I wanted to play and give them the right amount of minutes.
"I know it’s a bit harsh but Bromley understand.
"I know it’s messed their preparations up a little bit but if it was them, they would be doing the same thing and we would have to accept it."
Left-back Onyemah (ankle) was already a doubt, while striker Ofori-Acheampong (knee) is expected to miss the start of the season.
Burman said: "Pughy’s got a problem with his heel so we left him out on Saturday. It’s a niggly type of injury.
"One or two others have taken knocks and they wouldn’t have been fit for Tuesday. With his foot the way it is, we’ve pushed Keaton a little bit and he felt it slightly.
"It’s not a problem but Tuesday night’s game would have been too soon so he would have been one of the casualties in that.
"Tom was away and Elliot was away on work commitments on Tuesday. There are one or two knocks and it wasn’t right for us to play the game and do it in the right way.
"There were too many of them and it’s all come at once. Hopefully, they’ll be all right for Saturday but Tuesday came too quickly for us."
Dartford play Thamesmead Town at Princes Park on Saturday.
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Steve Tervet