Dartford manager Tony Burman has backed his defenders to come good after they shipped another three goals on Tuesday night.

Darts have now conceded 12 goals in their last four games and haven’t kept a clean sheet in the league since early September.

Burman blasted his team after they conceded twice in the first 13 minutes against Wealdstone, but he believes their quality will shine through.

“They will come good, without any shadow of doubt,” said Burman.

“They will respond to what I’m telling them. If you don’t talk and you don’t communicate, then you’re going to end up defending like that.

“When someone has got the ball in the box, to show people inside so they’ve got all the goal to hit, is criminal.

“It’s disappointing because we’re so much better than that defensively. There’s one or two that have got to have a look (at themselves). We’re normally so tight.”

Burman believes confidence is low among his backline – and knows the quickest way to bounce back is by keeping clean sheets.

“We’ve got to get back to not conceding goals which means we need to be better defensively and have that confidence back again,” he added.

“When we do take the lead, we’ve got to keep it and that’s what teams who win leagues do. We’ve fought back brilliantly and deserved to take the lead as they didn’t get forward anywhere near as much in the second half.

“They’ve come here and got three goals. I can’t concede three goals home or away, so we’ve got to do something about it.”

Dartford, who remain top of National League South, travel to Bostik North Brentwood in the FA Trophy third qualifying round on Saturday.

It appears the perfect opportunity to put in a solid defensive display, but Burman warned: “I’ve seen Brentwood and had reports on them, it’s not going to be easy.

“They knock the ball around well and they’re going to have a go at us.

“The character that we’ve shown throughout the game against Wealdstone, we’ve got to show that again if we want to progress to the next round.”