Dartford took the derby day spoils as they won at Dover in National League South on Tuesday night.

First-half strikes from Samir Carruthers, Luke Coulson and Maxwell Statham put the Darts in command and, despite a goal from Dover midfielder Luke Baptiste, Whites have now lost five of their past six matches, having fallen to a 3-1 home loss.

Prior to the contest, a minute’s silence was observed as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

There was a cagey start to the action at Crabble in front of a crowd of 626 and it took six minutes for the first chance of any note to be created. Alfie Paxman’s long throw fell kindly to teenager Baptiste who blasted high and wide.

It was an encouraging start by Andy Hessenthaler’s men, though, and a Paxman corner in the 12th minute just evaded centre-back Jake Goodman.

Soon after at the other end, the Darts went close for the first time, as Keiran Murtagh fired wide.

Both sides then went close midway through the first period in a matter of minutes.

Luke Wanadio, who was at Dartford last season, clipped the ball in from the left for the hosts and the hard-working George Wilkinson - on his first start this season - saw his header land on the roof of the net.

For the away team, Adam Lovatt drove forward, only to drag wide from a good position.

But Alan Dowson’s side drew first blood against the run of play in the 28th minute. The returning Carruthers cut in from the left and saw his shot loop over the head of Dover goalkeeper Stuart Nelson and into the roof of his net.

Four minutes later, Nelson was dinked again as the Darts doubled their advantage. Murtagh picked out Coulson who beat the offside trap and home right-back Myles Judd couldn’t get back in time to clear off the line, with 28-year-old Coulson getting his first goal for Dartford.

Things went from bad to worse for Dover just before half-time when visiting full-back Statham was allowed to cut inside and his strike was deflected past Nelson who, once again, was rooted to the spot.

The match appeared to be getting away from the home side, although Baptiste pulled one back for them as he impressively drilled beyond Dartford goalkeeper Joe Young after a quickly-taken corner for his second goal this season. That gave Whites some hope as they trailed 3-1 at half-time.

Nevertheless, Dover’s players headed off at the interval to boos from some of their own fans.

Eight minutes after the restart, a string of home corners saw one of them only half-cleared to Mitch Brundle and he volleyed straight at Young.

The Darts keeper - on loan from Wolves - was back in the thick of the action soon after as Chike Kandi broke through. But Kandi couldn’t fire home when, arguably, he should have done better.

Dover’s first change just past the hour mark saw striker Alfie Pavey replace Wilkinson.

But Whites were struggling to threaten, Judd failing to seriously test Young from long range midway through the second period.

With 12 minutes to go, Noah Carney was thrown on by home boss Hessenthaler, with Carney replacing Kandi.

Substitute Pavey came close to setting up a grandstand finish in the 86th minute. He unleashed a snapshot, although Young got down low to make a good save.

Pavey again went close at the end, however Young was equal to his header, and Dartford held on with the final whistle being met by more boos from home supporters.

The result moves Dartford up to 10th in the table while Dover are 19th, just two points clear of the relegation zone, with the result putting Hessenthaler under more pressure after a poor run of form.

Whites had made four changes from the team which lost at Eastbourne - albeit that match was 10 days ago, with all games last weekend being postponed after the death of the Queen.

Player-assistant manager Brundle and Jordan Higgs were back from injury while Goodman and Wilkinson also returned to their starting line-up, Tyrone Sterling, Arjanit Krasniqi and Pavey dropped to the bench while Will Moses missed out totally.

Dartford made three changes themselves. Carruthers, ex-Bromley and Ebbsfleet man Coulson and on-loan Crawley frontman Davide Rodari replaced Kristian Campbell, Luke Allen and Dan Roberts.

On-loan Dartford midfielder Kwaku Frimpong was on the bench. The 19-year-old recently joined the Princes Park outfit on a one-month loan from League 2 AFC Wimbledon and came on for his debut in the second half.

Dover Athletic: Nelson, Judd, Paxman, Goodman, Brundle, Higgs, Martin, Wanadio, Wilkinson (Pavey 61mins), Kandi (Carney 78mins), Baptiste. Sub not used: Sterling, Krasniqi, Grant.

Dartford: Young, Statham, Wynter, Essam, Bonner, Carruthers (Frimpong 56mins), Murtagh, Lovatt (Campbell 92mins), Coulson, Rodari (Sheringham 70mins), Fonkeu. Subs not used: Wall, Wray.

Referee: Steve Parkinson.

Attendance: 626.