Dartford manager Alan Dowson reacts to 2-1 win over Hampton & Richmond in National League South

Dartford boss Alan Dowson felt his team deserved to beat Hampton after what he described as one of the worst results in his managerial career.

Dowson’s Darts were dumped out of the FA Cup by Isthmian South East Beckenham seven days earlier. But they bounced back as Charlie Sheringham and Marvin Herschel netted in the second half during a 2-1 win over Hampton on Saturday.

“I thought it was a deserved win,” said Dowson. “Gary McCann’s teams are always hard to play against so I’m glad we got the win. We’ve played better than that and lost games.

“We showed a bit of guts. We could have easily folded because it was an awful result last week, probably one of the worst in my career.

“I felt for the directors who have been ever so supportive.

“I could tell in the first half that we kept giving the ball away and I told them at half-time to relax as they can’t play with any nervous energy. You could sense people around the club were a bit nervous.

“I was very disappointed with last week and how we went out of the FA Cup. I felt we let the club down a bit and I’ve had a bad week as we care about things like that.”

Dowson handed teenager Marvin Herschel his first start, and he responded with a goal.

Although Herschel got a telling-off from his boss after stopping for selfies on his way back to the dugout having been substituted through injury in the last five minutes.

“Fair play to young Marvin who came in and scored,” said Dowson. “He’s only 17 out of the Academy so I was pleased for him.

“I’m pleased with how he did. He’s a young kid but he did something a bit naïve when he came off, was clapping the crowd and was hugging them and all that. I had a go about that as I don’t like that kind of thing.

“I don’t mind it when the game