Dartford caretaker manager Tony Burman says threat of relegation battle in National League South can be catalyst for upturn in results

Dartford caretaker boss Tony Burman insists the club would be “silly” not to look at the league table.

The Darts are just six points above the relegation zone after their winless National League South run extended to five games with a 2-1 loss at Farnborough last weekend.

Burman’s only been in charge for two matches and is trying to breed confidence within the squad. But he knows they have to start picking up results.

“We’d be silly not to look at it,” stated Burman. “We know the situation we’re in.

“There’s a big black cloud up there with an ‘R’ (for relegation) printed on it and I don’t want it coming over our club.

“We’ve got to take a massive reality check and realise that. There’s 17 games to go and we’ve got to get a certain amount of points.

“We need to do it sooner rather than later. At the moment we’ve got to get that clean sheet or that win under our belt and if we can do that it will give us a little bit of confidence.

“We can’t get into a rut, that’s when things don’t start looking good. We’ve got to start performing, we all know that.

“Some of the play at Farnborough (last weekend) went in the right direction which I think will give us a lift in the next few games.”

Dartford visit Bath this Saturday and then host Chippenham at Princes Park on Tuesday night. That game starts a run of matches against teams in the bottom half of the table.

Burman remains in caretaker charge, as things stand, and warned: “It still becomes difficult because the onus in those games is for both clubs.

“It makes it more intense and nerve-wracking. I’m trying to get the players in the right frame of mind. I know we lost last Saturday but the reaction we got was a bit of light at the end of the tunnel.

“We weren’t beaten off the