Dartford co-chairman Steve Irving admitted it was a tough call to sack manager Alan Dowson.

The affable Geordie was relieved of his duties by the Darts last Thursday with the club sitting 16th in National League South on the back of a run of just one win in seven games.

Dartford have dropped 21 points from winning positions so far this term and would be in the top five had it not been for a long list of late goals conceded in games.

“It was a very difficult decision,” said Mr Irving, who appointed Dowson in May 2022. “For a long time, we had faith in Dowse and last season was very successful.

“After finishing second, we were disappointed not to go up. We get told by people that we’re not ambitious and we don’t want to go up but I can promise you that we desperately do.

“You’ve known me for long enough that you know how much it means to me to go up.

“This season was disappointing, disappointing for Dowse. Things didn’t quite go right, injuries really crippled us early on and we never really found any rhythm.

“I got on very well with him, I liked the man, but as a board we came to the decision that the time was right to make a change.”

Rather than let the season peter out, the Darts have made the change now so the new man can get a chance at making a late surge towards the top seven.

Over the last 46 games of his tenure, Dowson’s Dartford side picked up 60 points - a tally that would likely result in a bottom-half finish.

Dartford sit seven points outside the play-off places after Tuesday’s postponed trip to Truro. They travel to Bath in the league this Saturday.

Mr Irving added: “We felt we needed long enough to, not exactly gatecrash the play-offs as there’s plenty of games left to do it, but we needed a period of time to get a new manager appointed either temporarily or a replacement.

“But it gives us long enough to get into some sort of rhythm, start winning games regularly and get into the play-off position.

“As you know from the past when we’ve had to make changes, we’re never short of applicants. It seems to be quite a sought-after job which is quite humbling that people really do want the job at Dartford.

“We’ve had in excess of 30 applicants or declarations of interest and we’re steadily working through those now. We put Tony Burman in temporary charge whilst we sift through and look to go to interviews but we don’t feel we’re in any immediate rush to make an appointment.”

Dartford’s initial hope is to make an appointment at the end of this month, which would leave Burman in charge.

But, as happened before when Burman was first appointed Dartford boss, you never know in football what will happen, particularly when it comes to recruiting a new manager.

When asked if Burman could remain in charge for the rest of the season, Mr Irving responded: “I guess there’s always that scenario but that’s not the plan at the moment.

“I think we will have a strong enough shortlist to really make a good decision over the next few weeks but, as happened once before, if the right applicant doesn’t come forward or we can’t make that decision, then perhaps Tony will stay in charge until the end but that’s not the plan at the moment.

“We want to look at the applicants and make the right decision.”

Dartford’s next home game is on Saturday, January 27 against Weymouth. The club are hoping that supporters who have stayed away from Princes Park this season make their return now that there’s been a change of management.

“I went on record earlier in the season that crowds seemingly were down but there’s always reasons at the start of a season with holidays and then the cost of living crisis,” added Mr Irving.

“Certainly up to the end of September we thought that things would improve and the crowds would improve. But with results not improving as much as we hoped, we now can see for sure that the average is down by about 200, which is worrying.

“We really want to get that turned around and I think we can. The crowds have dropped because fans are unhappy and that was one of the factors that we looked at to make the decision that we did.

“I really now pray that the fans will come back and support us, support Tony in the next few weeks, and we can get those numbers back over the 1,000-mark on a regular basis.”