Managers under pressure as deadline day draws near

After watching last nights Monday night football where Manchester City comprehensively beat Liverpool 3-1 I turned the television over to watch a programme about Dave Allen, it confirmed to me what I already thought was true.  Manuel Pellegrini and Dave Allen are the same person, well other than Dave Allen is dead but they don't half look alike.

Pellegrini or Dave as I like to call him would have been very pleased with last nights result and performance, and especially with Aguero's goal, scored 23 seconds after entering the field of play.  Liverpool ended the game with ten men after Glenn Johnson went off with what looked like a bad injury.  What a boost for the reds that is.

Manuel Pellegrini looked quite relaxed in post match press conference.

Everton manager Roberto Martinez seems to be having trouble getting his team across the line in games.  twice in two games now Everton have lead with less than 10 minutes to go and have ended up drawing 2-2.  The last game being against Arsenal where they sacrificed a 2-0 lead.  Very generous from the Toffees.

Martinez asks Wenger if he is happy with a draw.

QPR have started the new premier league campaign rather slowly and after two defeats in two sit at the foot of the table with no points and no goals.  Harry's R's made the short trip to Spurs on Saturday and were on the end of a 4-0 drubbing, not a happy return for unhappy Harry.

Harry Contemplating a move for Gazza

It could be worse for harry though he could be Felix Magath.  The Fulham manager has had an awful start in the Championship and his team are rock bottom after 4 games with zero points and a goal difference of minus 7,  Fulham's latest defeat was a 5-1 thumping at Derby.  Magath must be getting nervous about his future, surely another heavy defeat against Brentford in the league cup tonight will seal his fate.

Oh crumbs!!  Felix Magath is facing the tin tack.

With the transfer window coming to a close many teams will be looking to strengthen their squads.  Brendan Rodgers has already paid 16m for Mario Balotelli, LVG is close to bringing in Angel Di Maria, although I am sure he will be bringing in a few more before next week as he needs some work done at the back.  Everton are looking to bring in Samuel Etoo and no doubt on Saturday QPR will have 2 goalies on the bench as Harrry tries to convince the R's Chairman Tony Fernandes he is short of numbers.

Goal of the weekend

Has to be Mauro Zarate's opening goal for West Ham in their 3-1 away day win against Crystal Palace.  Great strike and great technique.

Save of the weekend

Thibaut Courtois pulls off a one on one save from Leicester City's David Nugent when the game is at 0-0, very important save for Chelsea as they went on to win 2-0.

Pass of the week

Ashley Hemmings back heel pass to Ashley Chambers who's cross eventually found Abu Ogogo for Dagenham and Redbridge against Mansfield in league 2.  Perfectly timed and weighted.

Controversy of the week

The referee's decision not to listen to his linesman after he had flagged for a deliberate handball on the line in the game between Crowborough and Tunbridge Wells in the Southern Counties League.  Tunbridge won the game 2-1 but The Crowborough manager Sean Muggeridge was adamant his team should have had a penalty and Tunbridge should have been reduced to ten man.

Daggers back to winning ways.

The last update about the Daggers had finished with a thrilling 6-6 draw and penalty kick exit in the League cup.  The Daggers then traveled to high flying Burton Albion to try and get their season up and running with a positive result.  Although Jamie Cureton put the visitors ahead in the first half with his first league goal for the club and they held a one nil lead with only 6 minutes remaining in the game, amazingly the Daggers came away with nothing.

Jamie Cureton celebrates his first Daggers League Goal

Then came another dubious penalty decision, Luke Howell was convinced he won the ball  but I can fully understand why the ref gave it as from the angle he was at it looked a pen.  Billy Kee put away the spot kick for the brewers and then in the last minute some poor defending under pressure led to a Burton winner, the ball was on the the right of our box and for some reason captain Abu Ogogo threw himself at an attackers feet head first, the player cooly walked passed the Daggers skipper and passed the ball to Kee in the area who was allowed to turn and fire past O'Brien to complete the smash and grab and leave Dagenham and Redbridge at the foot of the table with no points.

The games come quick and fast in league 2 and on Tuesday it was another away game this time a midweek trip from East London all the way up to Hartlepool,  the football leagues fixture list department certainly gave a lot of thought to this fixture.  Fair play to the 70 Daggers fans that made the trip up there.

Daggers new signing Christian Doidge apparently injured himself slightly in the warm up and as consequence was an unused substitute in this game.

The Daggers started the game on the front foot and were ahead within five minutes, Luke Howell scoring his first goal of the season.  From what I heard of the game it seemed to me that daggers put in a pretty good display and held firm at the back when called upon, it seemed that Pools dangerman Luke James wasn't causing us many problems.  The 3 points were virtually assured in the 64th minute when Abu Ogogo popped up to score his first of the season.  If any blame was attached to Howell and Ogogo for the defeat against Burton, the two goals from them would go a long way toward appeasing that.

Goalscorers Abs and Luke show off the Daggers new shiny away kit

So the Daggers got their first 3 points of the season and their first clean sheet.

The Daggers next game was a home game against Mansfield.  Now Mansfield are a big team with a few players in their side who like to throw themselves about to get freekicks and soft fouls, and as soon as the game started almost any contact from a Dagger player on a Mansfield man resulted in firstly a loud girly scream and then inevitably a soft freekick.  

The Home team had started this game very quickly and at times were playing some very good and very pleasing on the eye stuff, being a Dagenham supporter though you know that it is all well and good playing pretty football and creating chances but if you don't score then you normally get bitten on the arse.  Luckily this wasn't to be the case on Saturday as our penetration and all round good play finally paid off.  On the stroke of half time after a very nice intricate move Jamie Cureton was played in wide in the box, he got there just in time to keep the ball in and fizzed a cross in for Luke Howell to poke home his second goal in two games.

Daggers were deservedly ahead at half time.

The second half was much the same and the football at times was great to watch from the home side, the new Daggers side is starting to gel and this game could have ended 3 or 4 nil.  Mansfield were having great trouble dealing with the pace and attacking prowess of the home side and in the 60th minute the Daggers doubled their lead when another decent passing move ended with skipper Ogogo also scoring his second goal in two games.  Four goals scored and none conceded in two games and it looks like the Daggers are finally getting it together.  Some fans think we are not that good in defence, those 2 clean sheets included a game against Hartlepool were we faced 17 corners and didn't concede. In the league we have conceded 5 goals so far, 2 have been penalties, 1 was a direct freekick and another was a breakaway goal when 2-0 down.  I'll leave you to make your own mind up.

 Sometimes I get really annoyed with my fellow fans, no matter how well your team plays there is always someone moaning about something.  Sometimes it is about a miss hit passed or our goalkeeper kicking the ball straight out for a throw.  This week however it was the amount of abuse that our left back Jack Connors got, I shit you not after he slipped in the first half I heard someone shout out "get him off".  It's disgraceful, Jack Connors is a 19 year old kid who burst on to the scene last season and he is only going to get better and better as a player.  On Saturday he was up against some big players but he was getting cat calls everytime he didn't jump for a challenge with one of these lumps, as far as I could see he was doing the right thing he stayed on his feet anticipated what the player was going to do and didn't get done challenging for a ball he was never going to win, sometimes when your up against a big team it's not about winning the first ball it's all about winning the second ball, something I thought we did extremely well as a team all through the game.

19 year old Jack Connors!!

It looks as though this new team of Wayne Burnett's is starting to click and I for one am looking forward to what could be a very exciting season, there will be disappointment when we lose a game at home we should never have lost, but there will be surprising wins against teams we shouldn't be beating, and I wouldn't be surprised with the attacking way we play if we see a few big wins.   The future looks bright.

Come on you Daggers!!!

Jose top as defeat leaves bad taste in LVG's mouth.

The premier league season has finally started and after the opening games the fledgling table has an already familiar look to it, with all last years top four winning.  Chelsea the pre season favourites were the final team to get started and they gave an early indication to hard it is going to be for the other 19 teams in the league as they came back from a goal down to tear newcomers Burnley apart with an impressive 3-1 victory.  At times they played some great stuff, and with the signings they have made and the formations they are likely play, coupled with Mourinho's tactical knowledge, I can't personally see anyone getting near them this season.

Last years champions Man City also won this weekend although their victory against Newcastle was nowhere near as emphatic as Chelsea's and at times in the game Newcastle looked the better team, City well no doubt be up there again this season, what with their money and wealth of talent, but I think Newcastle will have a good season this year and could surprise some people.  Last years runners up Liverpool did just enough to edge out their feeder club Southampton at Anfield, and in the the Saturday night game Arsenal scraped past Tony Pullisless Crystal Palace with a 2-1 win.  During this game there was an incident with the new vanishing spray, when referee John Moss had a bit of trouble with his canister and sprayed  it straight in midfielder Carzola's face.

The thing is I saw a piece they did on sky sports news about a month back were they showed referees practicing their spraying technique, they were spraying a line on the florr, jogging backwards, spraying another line, jogging backwards, etc, etc...  Maybe Mr Moss missed this session and just practiced at home spraying shaving foam on his bathroom mirror.

With last years top 4 starting well  it was important for LVG's Man United to get off to a good start, but unfortunately for them they started the campaign with a shock home defeat to Swansea, and even more unfortunate for Ashley Young who's first game of the season began when some bird shat in his mouth or something.

You will have to except my ignorance of this incident as whilst this game was on I was at my first premier league game in about 3 years.  I was sitting in the second from last block on the left hand side of the upper tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking stand watching West Ham piss all over Tottenham.  Other than a couple of chances for the away team West Ham were the better team and certainly deserved more than they ultimately got, if only Mark Noble had put away his penalty or Hugo LLoris hadn't made a fantastic one handed save the points would have gone to the home side.  From where I sat I could hear they noise from the away fans who were directly below me,  it is always a weird feeling when the sound of the away fans rises up to the home enclosure and for a split second you can't work out where it is coming from.  I also had a perfect view of all the antics of the home fans housed in the old chicken run stand, it was like being transported back to the 1980's as he you could clearly make out what was being said from the home fans towards the away fans, it was quite amusing, especially when one bloke puffed out his cheeks and then mimed himself retrieving crisps from what appeared to be an imaginary sack and then shovelling them into his mouth.  The only thing missing was a rendition of  "Alan Devonshire, Alan, Alan Devonshire".  Or as my mate Hula Hoop used to think it went "Alan, gives a shit, Alan, Alan gives a shit".   I was so engrossed in this that I nearly missed the funniest bit of the whole weekend.  When James Collins was dismissed for a second yellow card and the ball was placed for the freekick, out of the corner of my eye I saw a fan jump over the barrier of the far end of the chicken run and start running really fast toward the goal in persuit but some way behind were two stewards , the second of which took 2 steps and fell over much to the delight of the crowd.  This bloke then sprinted all the way to where the ball was spotted past Andros Townsend and Christian Erickson and wellied it up and over the West Ham wall who for some reason were still standing there and into the safe arms of Adrian.  The crowd cheered and then booeed as the fan was wrestled to the ground and eventually carted off down the tunnel.  Christian Erickson then took the freekick and whacked it  over the bar, he probably should have taken a run up at least then he might of got it on target.

Andros Townsend looks gutted as he wanted to take it.

The saucepan lid and I were already on our Bromley by Bow's and walking down the Barking road when Spurs centre back/right back Eric Dier found himself furthest forward to round Adrian and give Tottenham an injury time win.  As I walked toward Barking all the West Ham fans were talking about was the incident with the fan, only joking, they were talking about sacking Big Fat Sam and why don't they play 2 up front and that Enner Valencia did more in 10 minutes than Carlton Cole did in a whole game.  Oh well it was nice to be part of a 35,00 crowd for a change, shame about the result, that's 3 games attended this season and 3 losses.  Next week it is back to Victoria Road and being part of a 1,500 crowd and this time I won't be leaving early.

Goal of the weekend:  Aiden Mcgeady's fine strike for Everton against Leicester.

Save of the weekend:  Hugo LLoris' fantastic one handed one on one save that thwarted Stewart Downing at Upton Park.

Pass of the weekend:  Cesc Fabregas' first time side foot volley pass to set up Andre Schurle for Chelsea's second goal against Burnley.

Controversy of the weekend:  Stuart Atwell's decision to disallow Albert Adomah's wonderful overhead kick for Middlesborough against Leeds in the Championship for a high boot.  If Wayne Rooney or Aguero or Costa scores this it stands.  Disgusting decision.

Shouldn't be too surprised that Atwell got it wrong though as he once famously awarded a goal when a ball crossed the line for a corner.  The famous phantom goal for Reading against Watford at Vicarage Road in September 2008.

Daggers certainly not blunted

The Premier League may kick off this Saturday, but for mine and the other 71  league teams it all started last weekend.  My team Dagenham and Redbridge have already scored 6 goals, conceded 9 and missed 2 penalties, all this whilst Louis van Gaal was still deciding who would be his club captain and what number Tyler Blackett was going to wear.

Daggers began their campaign with a home game against old rivals Morecambe (Eric as I like to call them).  As I walked to the ground I was feeling quite optimistic about the game and the season in general mainly due to the fact that manager Wayne Burnett was building a new look side and had been very busy over the summer and had brought in no less than 12 shiny new additions during the close season and I was excited to see what they would bring to the team.

The first half of this game may have ended 0-0 but there were positive signs and the new look daggers had finished the half in control without really creating too much, as for Eric they really hadn't had a sniff of a chance.  It looked as though there would only be one winner in this game, but how wrong I was.

Morecambe came out on the front foot in the second half as the daggers began slowly, within 4 minutes of the restart the Daggers had given away a trade mark soft free kick on the edge of their box.  Former Rotherham player Kevin Ellison walked up and curled into the bottom corner and put the visitors ahead.  Ellison always gets a lot of banter off the Daggers fans due to the fact that it was his deflection as a Rotherham player that ended up winning the Daggers the league one play off in 2010.  After scoring Ellison pulled out his left shin pad and waved it at us all.  Fair play to him though he takes and gives the banter in jest and it is always good to see him at Victoria Road, although I wish he wouldn't score everytime he bloody comes here.

Things then got worse as 5 minutes later Eric were given a penalty, I still don't know why they were given a pen as other than the ref and a few desperate Morecambe fans nobody in the ground saw the foul.  Maybe Referee Mr Miller had been distracted, just made a mistake or maybe he had Morecambe in his accumulator, anyway it was given and Eric went 2-0 up.  The Daggers continued to press and ultimately they conceded a breakaway goal in the last minute and Morecambe somehow walked away with 3 points and a flattering 3-0 win.  Not a great start.


On to Tuesday night and an early chance for the Daggers to bounce back, although it wouldn't be easy as the home program so cheerily pointed out that Dagenham and Redbridge were the only club taking part in this years League Cup who had never made it through to the second round, this was going to be made even harder as our opposition for this tie were newly promoted Championship team Brentford.

 It looked as if the writing was on the wall as the Bees went into a 2-0 lead in less than 10 minutes, then on 17 minutes Daggers scored their first goal of the season, new boy George Porter sliding in to convert from another new boy Ashley Hemmings fantastic cross. soon after the heavens opened and there were memories of last seasons crazy game with Scunthorpe that ended 3-3 after the daggers had been 3-0 down.  Then on 32 minutes Brentford regained their 2 goal advantage when a mix up between new goalkeeper Liam O'Brien and experienced and reliable centre back Scott Doe ended with the latter putting through his own night, the goal was credited to a Brentford player but it was Doey's OG all day long.  The final goal of the half was for the Daggers and it was for another new signing Ashley Chambers who had pounced on a Brentford mistake went one on one with the keeper before nicely chipping over him to bring us back to within a goal.

It took only 10 minutes of the second half before it was all level and yet another new signing Andre Boucaurd hit a 30 yarder which the Bees goalkeeper Richard Lee couldn't hold and all of a sudden the home fans dared to believe it might be our night.  That was until the 83rd minute when former Luton striker Andre Gray put the Bees ahead for the fourth time on the night, but the daggers did not give up and were rewarded in the 90th minute when Ashley Hemmings got free down the left hand side and thumped over a cross come shot that lobbed the keeper and nestled in the far right corner of the net, unbelievable it was now 4-4 and a game that looked like it was over after ten minutes was now going to extra time.

Both teams came out in extra time looking for the win none of them were happy just to go to penalties.  Brentford took the lead yet again halfway through the first half of extra time but the lead only lasted 3 minutes as sub and yet another new signing 38 year old Jamie Cureton ceased on yet another mistake to score his first goal for the Daggers and bring it level again at 5 a piece.  Then in the second period of extra time a quick throw from Jack Connors found Ashley Hemmings again free on the left hand side this time the winger cut inside and shot passed Richard Lee to give Dagenham the lead for the very first time in the game, Victoria Road went mental.  The Daggers had only to hold on for 7 minutes to progress to the second round of the league cup for the very first time.  It is hardly a surprise that they didn't though as in the 116th minute just as they did against Eric on Saturday they gave away a silly free kick on the edge of the area.  The ball was floated into the crowded box our goalkeeper came flying out and missed it and there was former Daggers player Harlee Dean to guide the ball into an unguarded net.  Full time 6 flipping 6.  Penalties.

Although we won the toss and the penalties were taken at the home end Brentford showed great composure and scored all four of their penalties unfortunately for the Daggers they could only score two.  An amazing game an amazing night and an amazing score line but ultimately after 2 games Dagenham and Redbridge sit bottom of League 2 and out of the league cup at the first hurdle for yet another season.  The Daggers travel to Burton on Saturday and hopefully the fighting spirit and Tuesday nights experience will spur them on to get a positive result there.

As for me I am off to the Boleyn ground Saturday to see the Iron's take on the Spurs, after witnessing a defeat and a draw surely I am due to see a victory, although I would settle for another 6-6er.