Boss Alan Dowson will hand his National League South manager-of-the-month award to one of Dartford’s kitmen currently in hospital.

The Darts won all bar one of their seven matches in all competitions in October and briefly topped the table, albeit having played more league fixtures than promotion rivals Ebbsfleet and Havant.

But Dowson wasn’t in the mood for congratulatory messages on Monday after winning the league gong, having seen his side lose 3-1 at Farnborough in National League South on Saturday to end their 11-match unbeaten streak.

This week, he will give the award to Barry Bell, who has been unwell in hospital.

“I will be giving it to my kitman,” said Dowson. “Barry has been in hospital, I will be taking that up on Thursday.

“He has been poorly the last couple of months.

“He has been in contact but not been able to get out, so I will give it to him and say ‘That’s for you’.”

Centre-back Tom Bonner was suspended for the defeat at Farnborough and Dowson, who admitted they missed their captain’s leadership, is looking to sign a defender this week to challenge regulars Bonner and Connor Essam for a starting berth.

He said: “We need competition at the back. I’m trying to bring in another centre-half, that’s what we will be working on.

“Tom Bonner will be back this weekend but Tom and Connor play all the time.

"We need competition for places. At the minute, we have not got that [in defence].”

There was at least one positive for the third-placed Darts at Farnborough with defender Kristian Campbell, out of the squad in recent weeks, coming off the bench to score after Dowson’s team had trailed 2-0 at the break. But any hopes of a comeback were quickly ended by the home side’s third.

Dowson conceded he had picked the wrong starting line-up.

“We didn’t start and we didn’t finish,” he reflected.

“They had good footballers and I made the wrong decision. We missed Tom Bonner. You can have two or three having a bad day at the office - but not the whole team!

“We did a bit better, second half. We got back into it but then their lad scored from a free-kick.

“They deserved it. I have no complaints about them, no complaints about the referee, I was just annoyed with ourselves because we had a chance to go top of the league.”

Dowson will be looking for a response from his players this Saturday when the Darts visit Southern Premier South outfit Swindon Supermarines in the FA Trophy Second Round.

Asked if a break from league action had come at a good time, the boss said: “I think so, but there’s never really a good time.

“There will be extra training this week. I just had a bad week as a manager last week.

“They are a decent side.

"They are doing well in their league and they will be hard to break down. It will be a tough test.”

With last season’s player-of-the-year Dan Wilks back from injury but not yet able to regain the No.1 shirt from on-loan Wolves goalkeeper Joe Young, Wilks has joined Hayes & Yeading United on a one-month loan. But he had a nightmare start at the weekend after seeing red in a 3-1 loss at Plymouth Parkway.

Dowson said: “He got sent off in his first game! But Dan has been out for 11 weeks so he has gone out to get some games.

“Joe’s done well. Dan is a good keeper, as well, but he’s not a good keeper when he’s not playing.

“Hopefully he’ll come back fitter after a month and then it’s game on.”

Dartford are at Oxford City on Tuesday in the league.