Dartford manager Alan Dowson salutes players after side pass test of resolve in 4-3 National League South win at Worthing

Dartford manager Alan Dowson praised the character of his players after they won a seven-goal thriller at Worthing on Tuesday night.

Without suspended duo Harvey Bradbury and Joash Nembhard, the Darts dug deep and recovered from conceding early on and then letting a 3-1 lead slip to score the winner with seven minutes left.

“The work-rate and the character was really pleasing,” beamed Dowson. “Before we went 1-0 down, Luke Coulson had a one-on-one you’d expect him to finish and he didn’t. A few minutes later, we’re 1-0 down.

“Our character to come back from that was very good to then go in 3-1 up at half-time.

“Worthing are not a bad side, though, and they got back in it with a worldie goal, then a sloppy goal made it 3-3. So, for us to go again and go 4-3 up shows a lot of character.

“We’ve lost seven games, all by one goal, and we’ve never been far away in any game. We’ve got to turn the screw a little bit and hopefully the Worthing win will help us push on. We should have had a couple of penalties as well at the end.”

With personnel missing through injury and recent decisions going against his players, Dowson took advantage of Saturday’s postponed trip to Truro.

He wants to create a siege mentality among his squad, and admitted: “The whole session on Saturday was about that. You’ve probably hit the nail on the head.

“It wasn’t about how we trained, it was the meeting we had. We said it seems almost everyone or everything is against us at the minute.

“We weren’t expected to go to Worthing and win, we’re not expected to beat Maidstone in the FA Trophy this weekend, and people think we’ll just be steady all season.

“I’ve got things wrong this year, listen, I’m the first one to admit that I haven’t got it perfect at this