Manager Alan Dowson admitted Dartford’s mentality has to change after another season of play-off heartache.

The Darts have been knocked out of the play-offs four times in the past six year in National League South.

They lost 5-3 on penalties to St Albans on Sunday, after a 1-1 draw following extra-time, with the Hertfordshire side now travelling to Oxford City next weekend to decide who wins promotion to the National League.

“Good old Dartford again, we’ll just stay where we are - that’s what we do,” said Dowson. “That’s what happens.

“I can’t complain about the performance, all I can complain about is the mentality a little bit which we’ve got to work on.

“We need to change the mentality and get players in that want to play 45 games a season, they’re quite comfortable on the treatment table here.

“Just little things that I’ve got to try and change, that’s what I’ll do. We need to change the mentality of the place.”

Dowson had few complaints with Dartford’s overall display against St Albans, feeling his team were the better side.

But they failed to take their chances and conceded a soft equaliser just before half-time.

“We had loads of chances, you can’t miss that many chances to be honest in games like this,” reflected Dowson.

“The gameplan was brilliant and I’ve no problems with our performance. We gave a goal away from a corner which went two foot off the ground so I’m massively disappointed.

“Again, we had chances in the second half and if you’re not taking them then you don’t win the game.

“We should have been two or three goals up. Their goal was their only shot in the first half and they put it away.

“The performance was very good but sometimes it’s not enough. You’ve got to win games, score goals, defend better. We should have won it 1-0, it’s heart-breaking but we’ve got to move on.”

Dowson admitted his players were “devastated” and had particular sympathy for captain Tom Bonner, who was immense during the game.

“They’re devastated,” said Dowson, when asked about his squad. “There’s a couple of crocodile tears but a couple of them it really means something, they’ve been great. They’ve overachieved this year.

“I feel for Bonner, it’s his club and you can tell it really means a lot to him as well.”

Dartford didn’t practice penalties ahead of the shoot-out, Dowson deciding that they can’t recreate that pressure on the training ground.

He did it before at Hampton but then saw his team knocked out on spot-kicks back then as well.

“It’s impossible to practice those penalties,” he said.

“I remember making that mistake at Hampton, we looked a million dollars in practice and then got beat on penalties. It’s the luck of the draw.

“Their penalties were excellent weren’t they. Ours were mainly good. It’s a lottery.

“In games like that you need senior players to do things for you and we missed a few chances. The goal we conceded was poor but the performance was very good.

“I believed we would go up this year, I really did. I thought we were the better side. It hurts a lot.”