Dartford manager Alan Dowson is already up to speed with the club’s academy players.

The Darts boss watches games weekly and when he wanted to bring youngsters into the first-team environment last week, he knew exactly who he wanted.

There were six current academy players involved in last week’s London Senior Cup win over Tooting & Mitcham with a further three players who came through the system the previous season.

Academy manager Ben Greenhalgh explained: “I speak to Dowse three times a week, whether it’s on the phone or at the club.

“We’ll be constantly talking about players, other players, first-team stuff. To have that relationship between academy manager and first-team manager is brilliant. Obviously, I know that we’re together, we’re in agreement with how things are going on.

“The biggest thing for the boys is not just knowing that opportunity is there, but knowing Dowse. He comes to every Academy game, he’ll be there every day and it’s not a case now of us having to push players onto the first team.

“Now it’s me, Tony Burman and Dowse talking about what player can go through, what player we might need to sign up on forms.

“It’s not Dowse saying ‘Ben, what player can I have?’, it’s Dowse saying ‘Ben, can I have this player’. That’s what worked really well last week. He rang me up and asked for six players. It wasn’t a case of give me any six, he named the six players.

“There’s not that many managers at any club that will be that knowledgeable about their academy so that was brilliant."

Of those six academy players, two were in the starting XI, while the likes of Sam Odaudu and Marvin Herschel have already established themselves in the first team having been given their opportunity by Dowson.

“The biggest thing is that he’s giving players a chance,”added Greenhalgh. “It’s not just a case of sitting on the bench and having a shoutout about being involved in the first team, it's actually a proper chance, he’s playing players and bringing them through.

“His belief is that if a player is not doing it in the first team then why not bring in an academy player who is hungry? It’s proven. Marvin Herschel at one point probably would have said he’s not ready, this was his first involvement in first-team football anywhere and he’s come straight in, has scored goals and been effective.

“There’s still plenty more work to be done, Dowse admits that and Marvin does as well. He’s not the finished article but just giving players that opportunity can work and he’s proven that.

“Last year there were players sitting on the bench but we knew they weren’t going to play. We’re going to add it up at the end of the year, how many academy players from last year or this year have been involved and I think we’re already up to 30-odd appearances in the first team this season.

• Academy duo prove first team is within reach

“That’s quite big in October. Obviously, Sam and Marvin are filling that up but Ali Mansaray is on the fringes of it as well. For us to have that many players involved at the end of the year means we don’t have to push them onto different clubs at first-team level. Instead, five or six of them are going to be wanted by the first-team manager.”