Dartford manager Alan Dowson cut a dejected figure after what he described as a “head-loss” by winger Brandon Barzey on Saturday.

The Darts winger gifted Farnborough a National League South point at Princes Park after giving away a 97th-minute penalty with a needless foul in the penalty area.

It denied his team a first win of the season and left Dowson hapless on the sidelines.

“You can’t do that, can you?” said Dowson. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Mourinho or whoever, you can’t legislate for things like that happening.

“You can go and say sorry to the lads or whatever, but you can’t do that. It’s killed us to be honest.

“We gave a throw-in away which was a bad throw-in to give away in that area. We’ve been dealing with them all the time but we were nowhere near the first header.

“I couldn’t see them scoring. All of a sudden you get a mistake like that, it’s scandalous to be honest. We’ve got to move forward next week but it’s a massive disappointment.

“If it was something I feel I could have done myself then I’ll be the first one to tell you but what can I do as a manager when something like that happens? I can’t do anything.

“I’ve put a sub on who doesn’t get anywhere near a header. The two wingers have been poor but he’s had a head-loss, obviously.

“You’ve just got to stand up, he’s not going anywhere and to dive in like that is scandalous. He’s devastated in there but I can’t really say much (to him).”

It was a challenge not in keeping with an improved defensive display from Dartford.

On-loan Oxford centre-back James Golding again looked a class apart at the back but another late goal ended up costing them.

Dowson was disappointed with his team as an attacking force as they lacked any presence until Lewis Manor came on with 20 minutes left.

“I thought the back four did alright to be honest but apart from that there were too many 5/10 performances for me going forward,” said Dowson. “We were non-existent until Lewis Manor came on and shook things up.

“I’ve got some senior players in there who aren’t doing it at the minute.

“We’ll have a go at them and we’ve just got to make sure that we’re better.

“We’re sloppy at the minute, we’ve made sloppy mistakes and we can’t keep a clean sheet for toffee. It’s the same problem that we had last season in terms of keeping clean sheets.

“It’s 97 minutes and it’s a killer, I’m just devastated. It’s defensive sloppiness, it sums up the first three or four weeks of the season.

“I thought we were alright defensively, we didn’t do too bad. But that’s a winger doing that at the end, not a defender. Further up the pitch I didn’t think we did enough at all, I thought the two wingers were awful and we didn’t create enough.

“It was only when Lewis Manor came on that we showed a bit more aggression. I’m very disappointed with how some of them did further up the pitch.

“It’s just lack of form at the minute as some of them are decent players. The two wide players didn’t create anything which is disappointing.”