Dartford FC boss Tony Burman says it's vital to keep former Gillingham and Welling United striker Andy Pugh fit
00:00, 18 January 2016
updated: 07:36, 18 January 2016
Dartford boss Tony Burman says keeping Andy Pugh fit is vital to his team's chances this season.
Pugh scored two excellent goals in the Darts' 4-1 win over Bath City on Saturday, taking his season's tally to six in Vanarama National League South.
But the 26-year-old has started just 14 league games for Dartford this season and Burman knows that record has to improve in the latter stages of the campaign.
He said: "Pughy’s in a good vein of form at the moment.
"It’s frustrating sometimes that he picks up an injury now and again and it stops him from playing a number of games and probably scoring more goals.
"The main thing I’ve got to do is keep him fit."
Pugh opened the scoring on Saturday with a composed finish across Bath keeper Steve Phillips, who got a touch to the former Gills and Welling striker's left-footed rocket on 34 minutes but couldn't keep it out as Dartford went 2-0 up.
Burman said: "He’s showing what a good player he is at the moment. He is a good finisher, we know that.
"He’s got some good movement and we’ve got to keep him fit. If we can do that over 10, 15, 20 games, I think he’s going to be a massive asset to us."
Pugh was taken off 15 minutes before the end and Burman admitted he had one eye on Tuesday night's rearranged trip to Maidenhead United.
"We’ve got another tough month," he said. "We’ve got a game on Tuesday, a game Saturday and I wanted to give some other people a run-out as well.
"We just thought that was the best thing to do.
"We’ve got two missing at the moment, Lee Noble and Lee Burns but we've got a reasonably full squad now. I’ve got Ben Francis and Dajon Golding who were not involved on Saturday but I needed everyone back, people went out on loan and I brought them back simply because of the number of games we’ve got over the next month.
"We’ve got to stick together on and off the field.
"The next two games are massively tough, two away games and we’ve got to hopefully get something from those two games. We know they’re going to be difficult but we’re moving in the right direction."
