Luke Burdon scored on his debut after joining Lydd Town from promotion rivals Larkfield & New Hythe.

The former Ashford striker headed an 85th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw at home to FC Elmstead on Saturday.

Burdon’s 10 goals had fired Larkfield to the top of Southern Counties East Division 1 but he’s Lydd’s player now following a seven-day approach.

“The chance to sign him came out of the blue but how can you say no to the second-top scorer in the league?” said Lydd manager Mickey Doyle.

“Larkfield weren’t keen to play ball, which is understandable, but we put the seven days and got it done.

“Luke just wants to play with his mates.

“He plays for Market on a Sunday with a lot of the boys.

“All of a sudden our armoury is full of firepower and we’ve got to make sure we use it.

“We’ve been playing two shapes - 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 - and we’ve got options all over the park to make us more fluid.

“If we need to change shape, with the players we’ve got, we can be more ruthless and change things earlier.

“Once we’ve got everyone back fit, there’s going to be some headaches.”

Third-placed Lydd made their customary slow start against Elmstead and trailed to a Nile Waite goal.

But they dominated the second half and finally got their rewards when Burdon struck.

“It’s become a bit of a tradition that we don’t start playing until the second half,” said Doyle.

“It didn’t click again in the first half and we need to put that right and start games well.

“We’ve got to make sure we do that because we’re giving ourselves too much to do.

“We dominated the second half, the game plan was perfect.

“If we started like that, we’d be blowing teams away.”

Lydd visit bottom side Bermondsey this Saturday (3pm).