Dartford manager Alan Dowson has stood by his decision to send goalkeeper Dan Wilks out on loan.

On-loan Wolves keeper Joe Young has been ruled out for the next fortnight through injury but that doesn’t mean a swift recall for Wilks, who joined Hayes & Yeading on loan earlier this month.

It’s Wilks’ first action in three months after an ankle injury and that lack of game-time was underlined by a red card on his Hayes debut.

Dartford played youngster Tom Wray in last weekend’s 4-0 FA Trophy defeat at Swindon Supermarine and Dowson has filled Young’s absence by bringing in Norwich keeper Archie Mair on a month’s loan ahead of Tuesday night’s National League South clash at Oxford City.

“Joe got injured last week in the game at Farnborough, he did a bit of ligament damage and will be out for two to three weeks,” explained Dowson.

“You’d think we have Dan Wilks but he got sent off in his first match on loan after 72 minutes so we couldn’t call him back as he was banned for Saturday.

“We knew on Friday that Joe wasn’t going to be available. I can call Wilks back now but he needs to have five or six games, he might not think that now but he’s had two training sessions and not played for 11 weeks and then in his first game back he got sent off.

“He needs to go and play five or six games, then hopefully he can come back in the team. He needs to do that because he needs to play matches.”

Dowson tried to land Mair, a 21-year-old Scottish youth international, for Saturday’s Trophy defeat but circumstances again worked against him.

“We thought we had the keeper from Norwich in before the weekend,” added the Darts boss. “But he had an injection and didn’t know we were coming in for him and then he had to rest for 48 hours.

“Young Tom will be fine, he’ll be a good goalkeeper one day, but he’s 17 years of age and it was a big game to come in for.

“Sometimes football goes against you but you just have to get on with it.”

Dartford were without Connor Essam (concussion) and Alex Wall (ankle) last weekend while on-loan Stevenage midfielder Jack Smith suffered a foot injury in a challenge that left Dowson fuming at Swindon.

Despite their limited resources, Dowson was shocked at the level of performance on the back of a league reverse at Farnborough seven days earlier.

“Jack Smith had a horrible tackle against him and the referee just gave a yellow card,” said Dowson. “We thought he’d broken his foot but thankfully it’s not that bad.

“On Thursday night, Alex Wall tripped over the ball and did his ankle and Connor had concussion from the previous week so couldn’t play.

“There were a few problems but I put out a team that I thought could win the game and that’s the honest truth but we didn’t. The back four got pulled apart by a very good centre-forward.

“Someone had to put in a seven out of 10 but nobody did. After going 10 games unbeaten I knew we would have a dip but not twice, and not like that against a team who were on their knees as well.

“We haven’t done very well in the cups. It’s massively disappointing for me. I’ve had FA Cup runs and played the likes of Watford and Swindon.

“In the FA Trophy we believed if you can get a good run in it then you’ve got half a chance so it’s disappointing. I was gutted for the supporters who went all the way down there to watch.”

Darts host Concord this Saturday but their Kent Senior Cup tie against Ebbsfleet has been put back to January 10.