Alfie Pavey’s Boxing Day winner will not persuade Dartford boss Tony Burman to change the way he manages him.

Sixteen-goal Pavey has played second fiddle since Danny Mills arrived on loan from Ebbsfleet but Darts’ top scorer delivered the perfect response by scoring a spectacular goal in stoppage time at Welling on Tuesday.

Pavey had been struggling with a chest infection but has remained on the bench despite claiming to be back to full fitness.

“Alfie is upset in the nicest possible way that he’s not playing but he can do (goals like) that,” said Burman.

“He has scored some important goals for us. It’s a great technique, everyone knows they usually end up on the A2!

“Believe you me, I will make him a lot better than what he is doing. He has got my belief and regardless of whether he has been playing or not, I’ve got to manage him in the way I think is right.

“He is a young, good lad who has done ever so well for us. He has had some problems in the last month and I’m going to manage them problems the best way I can.

“I don’t care who it upsets and I don’t care what anyone says, I will do it the way I’ll do it.”
Despite Pavey taking the plaudits for the winning goal, Burman warned: “He also needs to improve as he gave the ball away when it went up the other end for the first goal.

“We were in good possession and all of a sudden he couldn’t pass the ball five or 10 yards. But he shut me up because of what he did with the winner.”

Dartford host Welling in the return fixture on New Year’s Day and Burman believes his side are clicking into gear after holding rivals Braintree and pushing Boreham Wood all the way in two FA Trophy ties.

He said: “I always like to think we can play better but I thought we played all right at Welling. That’s four games on the trot that we’ve said that.

“I think we’re close to starting a winning run. We had a bit of good fortune at the end so hopefully we can do that now.

“We’re pleased with where we are. We realise we want to kick-start the season and we might just do that with what happened at the end of the game.

“We know we’ve got to be professional and consistent and get four or five wins on the bounce. If we do that then that group (at the top of the league) will get smaller and it will help us hopefully to pull away from them.

“The finances for all those sides are about even and it’s good for the league that it’s close. It is calling out for someone to have that run of wins.”