Budget constraints mean Dartford will have to release players if they want to sign new ones during the run-in.

Darts, who visit Havant & Waterlooville this weekend, have several players out injured but manager Tony Burman can’t afford to bolster his squad.

The club didn’t play any pre-season games at home last summer because a new pitch was being laid and bedded in at Princes Park. And with Dartford exiting the FA Cup and FA Trophy without any prize money, the cupboard is bare.

Burman said: "I’m not going to lie to anybody, the budget is very tight. Players will have to go before we can bring players in, otherwise it’s favours with people I know.

"I don’t particularly want to let anybody go and it’s difficult to let people go if they’re injured. We’ve got four players out now who would have a good chance of being in the starting XI.

"It’s a tough time for us at the moment.

"If we’re still within that top five or six and in with a chance of the play-offs come the end of March, I’ll be pleased and then we attack April.

"But it’s frustrating for me wanting to improve things. I can’t do that, simply because the cashflow at the moment is not good.

"That starts with the pre-seasons and the cashflow from there and the FA Cup run."

Millwall’s Keaton Wood made his debut on Saturday, having joined on loan for a month. He was one of four 20-year-olds in the backline as visitors Whitehawk came from 2-0 down to win the game 4-2.

Burman said: "They’ll learn. It’s an experience and these things are frustrating, especially when you’re in pole position and winning 2-0.

"The younger players, we knew we were taking a chance and they’ve not found themselves in a position before where they’ve been trying to get into play-offs. It puts pressure on them.

"There’s different stages of a season. I don’t think we had a bad start.

"We know the history of the FA Cup game (losing at home to Uxbridge) and that sent us into the doldrums.

"We know the happiness when we’ve gone 12 games unbeaten.

"We keep getting into the top five but we haven’t been able to win so we’ve dropped out of it. At this moment, things are just not going quite right for us."