Dartford manager Alan Dowson admits he needs to win local derbies against Welling United following 3-0 home defeat to St Albans in National League South

Dartford boss Alan Dowson has admitted their two festive derbies with Welling are now must-win games for him.

KentOnline understands Dowson retains the support of the Dartford board but many fans left early during Saturday’s 3-0 home loss to St Albans and boos greeted the final whistle from those that remained in the ground.

While Dartford sit six points outside the play-off places, they are the same distance away from the relegation zone and are 18th in the table. The St Albans defeat followed a 4-0 humbling at Tonbridge seven days earlier.

Dowson knows his team have to deliver against Welling, who knocked them out of the FA Cup earlier this season as well.

“Obviously, it’s big for me, if people look at it then I’m going down the table a bit,” admitted Dowson.

“The honest truth is we can’t not get results forever, we can’t get beat by fours and threes and keep losing.

“Of course, there’s going to be a few shouts about that, I respect that and understand that, and I feel sorry for people. They’ve paid good money to watch and it doesn’t look good on me. So, yes, I think I need to win these two games as well.

“I think everybody knows how big they are now, for me and for them. I’m not daft. If you concede four and a three and you haven’t scored a goal it doesn’t look good reading.

“I’m not daft on that and it’s up to me and the players to pick it up and crack on, that’s what we’ve got to do. It’s just disappointing to concede these goals.”

It was a fairly even contest against St Albans until the visitors opened the scoring with 20 minutes left.

Dartford’s heads seemed to drop at that stage and the visitors quickly added a second before scoring a stunning third goal in stoppage time.

“I felt whoever got the first goal would