Caretaker Dartford boss Tony Burman admitted Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat to Aveley was a “bitter pill to swallow”.

The Darts were in control for large parts of the National League South clash. But they pressed the self-destruct button once again, conceding two goals in a mad four-minute spell.

“It’s the same old story, unfortunately,” said Burman. “I’m so disappointed that we’ve lost the game.

“I think it’s team mistakes not just individuals and people have got to take responsibility and try to organise things across the backline. We’ve been punished and that one is a bitter pill to swallow.

“We’ve tried to address it and it hasn’t worked. It’s been there all season, it’s been a lack of concentration.

“They’re where they are for a reason, they’ve got a togetherness about them and get balls into good areas.

“We’ve played better going forward but at the same time you’ve got to win games and we’ve got to pick up points.”

Dartford’s cause was not helped by an injury to centre-back Paul Rooney with 20 minutes remaining. His presence was sorely missed and the subsequent reshuffle clearly upset a threadbare home side.

Burman admitted: “I think Rooney and Manny (Adebowale) did well and when Rooney’s come off we had to reshuffle and instead of doing just one (change) we had to do two or three.

“It didn’t help the situation at all. The lack of concentration in the last 12 minutes is not acceptable, we have to say that. It keeps happening. We have worked hard and it really hurt.

“That’s what happens when you’re at the wrong end of the table. I could stand here and give so many excuses. Results have just not been good enough.”

Burman, who has picked up just one point in four home games during his temporary spell in charge, felt it was an improvement in many ways.

“It’s probably the best we’ve played at home,” he noted. “We’ve done well away from home in a lot of the games but we haven’t got that over my dead body attitude and it takes time to get that.

“It’s a difficult situation that we’re in and if there’s anything to go wrong, then it’s going wrong here at the moment. It’s a tough time, it’s very disappointing that we find ourselves on the losing side.”

Report: Dartford 1-2 Aveley

On the two goals Dartford conceded, Burman said: “They got a corner, they had two out so we sent one out but you can’t let someone just run, at some stage you’ve got to challenge the person on the ball – you can’t do what we done.

“The second goal, it’s our free-kick and it’s a breakaway yet again. The ball’s played behind and we didn’t have enough strength to get it back to the keeper.

“Billy (Terrell)’s a good keeper and he pulled off a couple of saves beforehand but did he need to make the challenge? But it’s a penalty and that’s it.”