Daggers back to winning ways!!!

Dagenham and Redbridge came into Saturday's home came with York City on the back of a creditable draw away against Cheltenham Town.  The Daggers had led through former Robin Jamie Cureton, unfortunately the Whaddon Road club's second half pressure finally told and they managed to salvage a point with only 3 minutes remaining.  Although Wayne Burnett would have been disappointed to concede so late in the game a point away from home is always welcome, especially after being on a bad run of 3 defeats on the bounce, it was nice to stop the rot.

Saturday's was the first TBS Combo game of the season.  This is were season ticket holders who paid an extra £30 on top of their season ticket price get a chance to see their team from the best stand in the ground, the away stand.  This means that the club pick 10 games out of the season where home supporters can share the stand with away supporters.  Obviously the crowds are at separate ends of the stand so as to curtail any bad feeling between the two sets of fans, in other words the opposing fans are segregated so there is no fisty cuffs.

TBS stands for Traditional Builders Stand who of course are the name of the sponsers, this is the second name the stand as had, originally it was the MJ stand named after the former dead prince of pop Michael Jackson who died just as the stand was reaching completion in June 2009.

A Traditional Builder!!

I always arrive slightly earlier for the TBS games (this is unless we go with my mate Trigger then we turn up 5 minutes before kick off) as this gives my son a chance to eat his burger and then make his way to the front of the stand to get some autograph's from the players as they go back to the changing rooms after their warm up.  Normally my son is the only one doing this but this week he was joined by a middle aged York City fan who was intent on getting everybody's signature from either team.  My son was happy enough though and managed to get about 15 Daggers signatures which is fair play to the players, a bit of time for the younger fans doesn't go unnoticed and their kindness adds to my sons enjoyment of the matchday experience.  When my son returned to his seat with a big smile on his face I asked him if when he grew up would he still be getting autograph's like the York City supporter was, he didn't answer me but instead throw me a look that said "don't be such a twat dad" it was ever this or indigestion after just wolfing down his burger.

As the teams walked out it was good to see former Dagger and somewhat cult hero Olafemi Ilesanmi "Femi" return to his old club, the York left back had been a bit of hero at Victoria Road what with his marauding forward runs, his strong build and his sometimes inexplicable knack to do the seemingly impossible.  However he also had a tendency to think too much and decision making was never one of Femi's strong points, but it was nice to see him back getting the ball on the left handside with his mouth wide open with that concerned and slightly confused look on his face.  As I said everybody loved Femi at Dagenham but to be fair after the emergence of Jack Connors last season it was always going to be hard for the surprised one to get into this team, and although some of his antics will be missed I am sure the decision to let him go at the end of last season was a good one for all parties concerned.

Welcome back Femi!!

York came to Victoria Road a point and two places above the Daggers in the table despite this the Minstermen had  lost 3 out of the last 5 games and had only won once away so far this season, so if the Daggers could create a few chances the win should have been forthcoming.

In a first half with not many chances and not much to talk about incident wise Daggers took the lead on 35 minutes with a tidy finish from midfielder Joss Labadie, the former Torquay and Notts County man netting his first goal for the Daggers.

Daggers had set up slightly different, at times playing like a diamond and sometimes playing with five men in midfield.  From the lofty heights of the TBS stand you see the game from a totally different perspective and you notice things that you wouldn't normally from the Sieve (the terraced standing area).  What I noticed most of all was the movement, positioning and tireless work of Jamie Cureton, he may be 39 years old but he is one classy player.  He gives you everything you want from a striker, he gets out wide, he can cross, he links up play, he can play a pass, he makes intelligent run after run and we already know he can finish, by far the best attribute he has other than his finishing is his constant pestering of defenders, opposition players have to be switched on at all times otherwise one mistake and he is in.  I sometimes think we are so lucky to have players like him at our little club, the fact that he must have taken a pay cut to play for us is testament to the player but the fact that Wayne Burnett managed to get him in the first place is just unbelievable really what a coup for the Daggers this deal has been.  His play was so good off and on the ball during the game I found myself watching him more than the actual game itself, at times his football is pure poetry in motion.

The Daggers went in at half time deservedly leading as the defence and goalkeeper Mark Cousins had had little to do.

Second half and as expected York came out a bit more but other than a few crosses into the box and at times some poor finishing the Daggers never looked like given up this lead, and probably unsurprisingly it was the home team who increased the lead just after the hour mark when a Chambers freekick was pin-pointedly placed on Joss Labadies head to score his and Daggers second goal of the game.  From where I was sitting I could see we were going to score as I said to my son just before the kick was taken, Chambers is going to put that right on Labadies head and he is going to score again.  I love it when the plan comes together, not only did we take a two goal lead but now my son thinks I am some sort of Psychic set piece caller, ever that or some sort of Psycho middle aged bingo caller, either/or I'll take it.

So it was back to winning ways for the Daggers and although not the greatest game I have ever seen it was nice to be back in the TBS and nice to see a win.

It was great to see Labadie score his first goals for the club too and it went down well with the players who were sitting out the game in the same stand as us.  Rhys Murphy, Ian Gayle, Christian Doidge and Billy Bingham were all in attendance.  A special mention for Rhys Murphy as well as he was the only one of the players to stay to the final whistle, fair play Rhys hope to see you back soon.

So on to the next match, another home game and another TBS one, but this one is on a Friday night, I love a night game lets hope we can continue this unbeaten run and get ourselves back up the table.

Come on you Daggers!!

 

How many did the Daggers score Mickey J?