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Dartford boss Alan Dowson says away wins mean little if they don't make most of home advantage this season

05:00, 12 August 2022

Alan Dowson has urged Dartford to build on their opening-day win at Bath by picking up points at home.

The Darts host newly-promoted Cheshunt this Saturday and Havant on Tuesday night at Princes Park, with boss Dowson keen to build on their impressive start to the campaign.

Dartford manager Alan Dowson wants Princes Park to be a fortress this term. Picture: David Holmes
Dartford manager Alan Dowson wants Princes Park to be a fortress this term. Picture: David Holmes

“We’ve had a decent start but it will be pointless if we don’t do anything this week,” said Dowson.

“Cheshunt have just come up, were 2-0 down last weekend and won 3-2, Craig Edwards knows what he’s doing. Then Havant are a big, strong side and Paul Doswell has won this league before.

“I’m not daft, it’s a tough start but we’ve got to win as many games as we can.

“I thought Havant would be favourites, because of what they’ve done [in the summer] and how good their squad is.

"They’re two tough games against different sides, one who has won promotion and is used to winning games, and the other against a team who will be challenging at the top end of the season.

“We’ve got to build on Bath, there’s no point going away and picking up points if you can’t do it at home.

“It’s the home games that will get you where you want to be, if you pick up points away you’ve got to win your home games.”

Dowson revealed that two-goal forward Pierre Fonkeu was set to sign for National League Yeovil before Dartford managed to land his signature.

Fonkeu, 25, has had spells at the likes of Weymouth and Hemel Hempstead but has never found a settled home since leaving Norwich, a club he first signed for five years ago.

“The one thing that people are telling me here is that I haven’t got a centre-forward who’s going to get 20-odd goals,” said Dowson. “But I believe I have.

“He’s a centre-forward but we played him on the wing and he did a great job. If we get him in the right positions then he’ll score goals.

"We’ve got a lot of options up front but other people don’t think we have.

“He's got pace and power, and he can finish. We effectively played three centre-forwards on Saturday as we wanted to get at Bath.

“We were lucky to get him, we were waiting for him to come as he was down at Yeovil and they were going to have a punt on him.

“But we managed to persuade him that he needs to play games and needs to score 20 goals a season if he wants to have his dream to play in the Football League.

“I think he’s got a chance, he’s got everything a centre-forward should have and he's a nice kid as well.

"Someone has to give him a chance, I liked the look of him in the friendly against Boreham Wood but we needed to try and find somewhere for him to live, he’ll have to pay his own rent of course, but that’s sorted from next week now.”

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