Midfielder Cameron Brodie has left Dartford for Kent rivals Margate on loan to gain match fitness.

Brodie, who spent last season on loan at Isthmian Premier Cray Wanderers, barely featured in pre-season due to injury and Dartford boss Alan Dowson is keen to get him up to speed.

Brodie has joined Margate for a month, working with boss Andy Drury, who was assistant manager at Cray in the first half of last term.

“Cameron needed to go out on loan,” said Dowson. “He’s only had three training sessions and only played half a game.

“We don’t know how fit he is so he might have to go. He missed a lot of pre-season and a lot of game time so he might need to get four or five games and then come back to push.

“He’s a good player and just like Sam and Marvin, he was looking to get involved but he’s been injured and I can’t do much about that.”

On potential new signings, Dowson added: “We’re looking to get a player in from a League 2 side. We’ve got fit players but we haven’t got much legs and I found that out quite quick.

“If we get some legs in the team then we’re not bad at all. If we do that it will get the best out of our better players. Could I have done it in pre-season? Possibly, but I wanted to see players in league games as that’s when it is going to count.

“I’ve found out what they’ve got, I know what we need and hopefully we can kick on.”

Dowson will make changes for this Saturday’s home National League South clash with Worthing but he wants to stay consistent in his team selections.

“It's not going to be last season, making six changes every game, I’m not like that,” said the Darts boss.

“If we win games then you stay in. There were a couple of people who dropped themselves last Saturday.

“It’s not managers who drop players, if you’ve had a good game and you win a game of football then it’s not often you’ll get dropped - that’s the way I look at it.

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“If I was a player I wouldn’t be very happy if I’d won a couple of games. I’m not into massive changes, I’m just into better players and getting my side and sticking with it - as long as it wins games.”

On the prospect of facing Worthing, Dowson added: “They’re a good side, they haven’t been beaten but if we want to be at the top end challenging then we need to do well against sides like this.

“There will be a reaction and I’m sure there will be. It’s a big weekend for the club but it’s not major, it’s not a crisis or anything like that. We’ve lost a couple of games by one goal, very unlucky at Havant and very sloppy at Taunton.

“There’s not that much wrong, we’ve tried to play good football and some of the football we’ve played has been very good.”