Dartford manager Tony Burman praised Andy Pugh after the former Gills striker scored the winner against AFC Telford United on Saturday.

Pugh's first goal since joining Dartford from Cambridge United in the summer earned his new club their first win of the season in the Vanarama Conference.

He had to wait six games to open his account but Pugh's all-round game has impressed Burman.

"Pughy’s a really intelligent player," he said. "He’s been full-time at Cambridge and it’s done him the world of good.

"He doesn’t mind dropping off in the hole. When you’re playing 4-4-2 and you’re playing against teams who play three in the middle of the park, sometimes you can get a little bit overrun.

"What we do is that the forward has to come in deeper in the hole and try to pick that third man up. Pughy’s decent at it and when he gets the ball, he’s intelligent.

"I think he’s been really unlucky not to score more goals."

Last week, Burman spoke out in support of his strikers, who have lacked confidence in front of goal at times this season. Pugh, Tom Bradbrook and Harry Crawford have netted just twice between them in six games so far.

Burman said: "I think we’ve done alright but we’ve lacked a little bit of killer instinct. It’s alright playing alright but you’ve got to win games. We’ve got to do it with a bit of fight and I thought we did that in the second half (on Saturday).

"I want them to be like that in every game. You can’t keep saying to the forwards 'you were unlucky to miss a chance', it’s got to start going in.

"Once they start going in, hopefully it can flow and you wonder what the problem was in the first place."