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Dartford coach Martin Tyler admitted they had only themselves to blame after derby defeat at Maidstone on Tuesday night.
The Darts missed the chance to move into the top half of National League South after two goals in five second-half minutes proved decisive.
Luke Coulson’s penalty put Dartford ahead at the break but they were undone by two set-piece goals.
“A lot of good things from a Dartford point of view but what was decisive was an inability to defend two set-pieces which is pretty basic football,” bemoaned Tyler.
“We should be doing it better. A lot of the defending was good but you can’t switch off for crucial moments.
“The difference is that Maidstone, even though they made quite a few changes from their cup tie, they had that extra edge of discipline and they gave us very little in return.
“We have lost the game by our own shortcomings rather than being beaten by a football club that is obviously bubbling at the moment and congratulations to them on what they’ve done.
“We feel that we’ve thrown it away, we were in there with a good chance, we played well in the first half.”
Report: Maidstone 2-1 Dartford
Dartford twice led at Weston-super-Mare last Saturday before returning with a point after a last-gasp equaliser from the hosts.
Tyler admitted they can’t keep conceding two goals per game on the road.
“I feel that we had a chance to make a headline tonight as Maidstone have been in the news and to have beaten them would have been a nice statement,” he added.
“But it hasn’t happened. We’ve done okay but we need to get better and we’re not trying to disguise that. We can’t come away and concede two goals in every game, and that’s what we’ve been doing.
“To get three to win any match is tough, in an away match it’s even tougher. We have the opportunity to maybe strengthen the squad. The players put a lot in but they’ll be judged by the result, as we will be.
“I think we were in the game right to the end. George Elokobi (Maidstone manager) is a smashing guy but I don’t think he will feel that he’s won the game tonight in the sense that we have allowed those two goals. It is very frustrating.
“All the charts are drawn up before the game but things change in a game, substitutions happen and I think they made a couple of clever changes tactically as well so there’s a bit of discussion going on about who is fault. It’s an attitude that we’re just a little behind on that discipline that clicks into place.
National League South table
“All coaches will say at any level that for all the good play, in the end set-pieces do matter and not just scoring from them, defending them as we found to our cost.
“But we can’t keep letting in two goals and that’s what we’ll be talking about on the way home and that’s what we’ll be addressing at training on Thursday and Saturday.”
Dartford are without a game on Saturday but return to action at Truro on Tuesday night.
Tyler, who is expecting to scout Truro when they host Worthing this Saturday, wants the squad to pay extra attention to detail.
“I hope the game is on because they share with Plymouth Parkway and hopefully the weather relents as the Plymouth game was called off on Tuesday,” said Tyler.
“We want to play it and get some reward for the effort, I don’t think anyone can’t fault the players for effort but the detail is the difference in football and we came up short in that respect.
“We’re frustrated and we share the disappointment with the fans. We ask them to bring their support. I hope they can accept that sometimes you have to feel the pain to get the gain and there is a bit of pain around at the moment but it’s not anything we’re going to suffer too much from.”
