Tony Burman praised referee Ian Cooper for being "brave" enough to over-rule his assistant and award the late goal which earned Dartford a point against Maidstone United.

An offside flag cut short the Darts celebrations after captain Elliot Bradbrook had planted the ball past Lee Worgan with eight minutes left at Princes Park on Saturday.

Danny Harris, standing to Worgan's immediate right as Bradbrook took his shot, was initially ruled to be interfering with play but Mr Cooper saw it differently.

And after a chat with his assistant, he pointed to the centre circle.

Dartford boss Burman said: "It just looked like a normal goal to me.

"From the cross, I thought there was a lot of people on the line. I couldn't see how it was offside but the linesman seemed to think there was one of our players standing in an offside position.

"The referee's explained that he was behind Elliot and he felt that the shot on goal, the goalkeeper's vision was not obstructed at all.

"Obviously, the one who was offside was probably outside the goal.

"There was a bit of controversy with it being offside or not offside but for once, there was a brave referee in front of a crowd who's gone up to his linesman and asked for the decision.

"I was pleased that he kept the decision right and after that, we could have gone on and won the game. It wasn't to be but I thought we played well and we definitely deserved something out of the game - if not all three points."

Elliot Bradbrook, Ryan Hayes and Mark Onyemah all hit the woodwork for Dartford, who trailed to an Alex Flisher goal before Bradbrook levelled things up.

Burman said: "We've got realise we were playing a team in form, who had won their last six games.

"I know the majority of their players and I knew it was going to be a tough game for us.

"I thought it was an entertaining game for the spectators although conditions got worse in the second half.

"I'm pleased that we've kept our run going (Dartford are now five games unbeaten). We've come back from 1-0 down and on another day, we could have won the game.