Manager Alan Dowson is waiting to find out the extent of Dartford keeper Dan Wilks’ injury.

The Darts signed teenage keeper Joe Young on loan from Wolves, and he made his debut in a 2-1 home defeat by Worthing on Saturday in National League South.

Wilks injured his ankle in the 2-1 loss at Taunton last weekend and with Young signing until the start of January, it provides competition for places regardless of how quickly Wilks returns to fitness.

“We don’t know how far Dan is off so we can’t gamble,” said Dowson. “To give competition for places, we brought Joe in and Dan needs competition. I thought he did well with his kicking.

“It could be a week, two weeks or two months so we have to make sure we’ve got cover and competition all round.

"The keeper didn't have much to do apart from pick the ball out of his net.”

Dowson also gave a debut to on-loan Sutton midfielder Adam Lovatt while striker Alex Wall made his first start of the campaign with Davide Rodari ruled out by injury.

“I think Alex tired and he’s got to get fitter,” said Dowson. “He can be a handful going forward.

“I took on a senior team but I brought Adam in to get younger legs in there. I was trying to get into the team people with more legs who get around the pitch.

“We’re close but not close enough. We’ve got to get a run together and once we get a few results we’ll be fine. We haven’t quite got there at the minute.

“We’re lacking an edge. They’ve only had two chances at goal and we had the better chances, Luke Allen should have scored. It’s frustrating when it’s like that.

“I thought we penned them in for a bit in the second half but once it went in our six-yard box and penalty area. If we concede goals in the six-yard box like we did today, at Taunton and against Havant then we’re going to come unstuck.

“We can all moan at the ref but it’s my responsibility to get results.”

The bottom line for Dowson, however, was mistakes and a lack of concentration for Dartford, who have now lost their last three matches by the same scoreline, conceding twice in every game.

“We started off very well, how we wanted to start,” reflected the Dartford boss.

“We said at half-time that we need to keep the ball better and it wasn’t until Keiran Murtagh came on that we kept the ball. I said if we keep concentration levels (high) then we win the game.

“Our right-back loses his man for a header and then the last goal, when it’s a deflection, they’re bad goals to concede where we’ve lost the ball.

Report: Dartford 1-2 Worthing

“But defensively, we’re conceding two goals every game and it’s mistakes. Last week was the centre-halve, this week my right-back. It doesn’t matter how hard you work on the training ground, it’s the mistakes that kill you. We should be keeping clean sheets in games like this.

“In the first half we had chances and we’ve got to score but we never took them.”