Come on you Daggers!!

Sometimes supporting your team of choice can seem like hard work.  Sometimes when your surrounded by fellow supporters who would rather slag off the players and the manager than get behind the team and show some solidarity can really get you down.  Sometimes you question your sanity when your standing in the pissing down and the cold and the snow and the hail watching your team lose, but sometimes you will witness something that will make you realise why you go through it all.

Having been a Daggers fan  for more years than I sometimes care to remember I have seen some of the shittiest performances but also I have witnessed some of the best footballing moments a football fan could ever experience.

Back in the mid eighties when Dagenham and Redbridge were just Dagenham and the chance of playing league football was so far away it was regarded as more of a wish than a dream, I and my friends used to watch the Daggers get outclassed by the likes of Northwich, Enfield, Sutton and Nuneaton Borough so much that if someone said to me then that in 30 years time I would be watching my team beat Carlisle 4-2 in league 2 whilst sitting in a fancy stand at the Pondfield end of the ground, me and mates would have picked him up swung him a few times and threw him down the big hill that used to be next to the sieve at the Bury road end calling him a twat as we let him go.  We also would have asked him what the fuck was league 2 but that's by the by.  What I am trying to say though is that as a 12 year old kid watching Devon Gayle, Terry Sullivan, Dave Pearce, Paul Goyette and George Dolarto wearing the red of my home town team the thought of playing in the football league was so far away from reality there would have been more chance of me cracking one of the clues Ted Rodgers read out on 321 that night.

Bar rhymes with Car, so you might have thought it was the car but bar also rhymes with far, and that is where you would want to be from this, you guessed it it's Dusty Bin!!

The thing is having seen some of the dross served up over the years, I sometimes have to pinch myself to believe that we are really in the position we are in.  The year we got promoted from the Conference I remember sitting there not able to comprehend what had just happened in front of me.  The feeling took so long to sink in.  It felt surreal, as I watched the players walking around the pitch I was replaying in my head the near misses and the relegation's of years past, I saw Ashley Vickers score at the Pondfield end with his right foot against Boston in front of a capacity crowd, I saw George Dolarto falling over on the goal line and missing an open goal from back in 1985, I saw Junior Macdougald scoring against Ipswich to give us the lead in the FA cup 3rd round, I saw Paul Cavell scoring for fun and Mark Stein and Steve Potts getting sent off against Southport, I also saw us fail to score a winning goal against Hayes where the visitors had their keeper sent off and only had 4 subs, no sub keeper and had to put an outfield player between the sticks and we still couldn't beat them.  By the way if we had of won that game we would have beaten Boston on points that season and not come second on goal difference.  See we have always struggled against ten men, its not a recent thing.  So even when we won promotion I never forgot where we came from and what we once were.  Sometimes it's worth taking a step back and realising how far we have come as a club.

Ashley Vickers!!

Don't get me wrong I am not saying that I don't get upset about losing games, and that I don't think that sometimes the manager gets it wrong and I could have picked a better team or played a better formation, I do, and I'm not just talking about this manager here either, I'm talking about Still, Hill, Hardy, Carr all of them but I have never booed a team off the pitch, never called one of our own players a C##t and never called for the manager to be sacked.

Although things at this club are not going great on the pitch at the moment and I understand that fans are pissed off with things, it really isn't that bad.  Going out of the FA cup with what may have seemed to be an easy route to the third round is a big disappointment, however this feeling isn't one I am unfamiliar with and to be honest we have had more cup disappointment then we have ever had cup success, so although it is frustrating in a financial aspect, shit happens!!   Alright we may be 21st in the league but we are not bottom.  It could be so much worse!!  In the past it has been so much worse.

 The thing is now and it may sound a bit cliched but our main focus is as it should be on the league, we also have a little cup competition on the side in the form of the Essex senior cup and although it is not a major competition it is a perfect opportunity to give players games and try out a few of the youngsters.

I went to see one of these games on Monday night it was nice to see a bit of football being played and to see a few youngsters get a run out that I would not have seen on Saturday afternoon in the league.  A couple of these youngsters really stood out.  Young winger Jodi Jones looks like another of our rough diamond collection, it took him a while to find his feet but once he did he looked an exciting prospect, he took his goal very well and nearly scored again with a thundering shot that hit the bar.  Another kid on show was the right back Ayo Olukoga, the full back looked at times confident and composed on the ball and looked to get forward whenever possible, maybe a future wing back in the making.  The only negative from the game was skipper Luke Howells sending off.  Howell who is already serving a 3 match suspension for a red card against Southport in the cup made a rash decision to run from the centre circle to the touch line to make a lunging tackle on a Waltham Abbey player.  The player had to be stretchered off and probably couldn't go to work the next morning.   Howell may have seen a foul not given by the referee seconds before the incident  but what goes through a players mind to do what he did, an experienced player as well who is wearing the armband for god's sake.  Sometimes the mind boggles.  After Howell's sending off the Daggers reverted to 3 at the back and Jack Connors was pushed into midfield, where he seemed to thrive on the space and time afforded to him, maybe another positive, maybe midfield is young Jacks future position. Yes young Jack, sometimes I think people forget he is only 19.  The Daggers ran out 2-1 winners although it could have been more,but a pleasing performance and the Daggers are safely through to the next round.  Who knows a bit of success in a competition like this could bring more confidence to the team than say an away defeat in the FA cup 3rd round to Bournemouth. So long may it continue.

                                                             Jodi Jones and Ayo Olukoga

As for Wayne Burnett some won't agree with me here but I think he is the right man for the job, I also think he was right to vent his frustrations in "that" interview.  The man has been slagged off all over the place and it was about time he spoke his mind.  I have a lot of time for Burnett and his backroom staff, I think the kind of football he wants to play is just what fans have been wishing for, I hope he continues with his philosophy and I hope that the team continues to improve under his leadership.

Wayne Burnett tries to talk with the fans at Southport!!

The 4-2 win over Carlisle at the weekend was a very welcome result and at times the Daggers played some nice stuff, granted there are still some defensive issues to be eradicated and some sloppy fouls were given away but to be fair in all the years I have watched this club we have always given stupid fouls away outside the box, unfortunately it comes with watching the Daggers.  It was good to see Chambers playing so well in his preferred role of number ten and it was a pleasure to watch Yusuff up front with Cureton, at times they ran Carlisle ragged.  Billy Bingham was again pulling the strings in midfield and the 3 centre backs worked pretty well considering it was such a brave decision to play that way.  Again the manager has to be given credit for that.  It is a formation that I like to see from time to time, especially at home where we need to be putting crosses in  and playing 2 up top.  I think the flat back four and three midfield or 442 diamond is better suited away from home.  Just my opinion.  The game could have been any score and if Cureton puts his spot kick away and makes it 5-1 then it could have easily have been 7 or 8 but a wins a win and Saturday showed the benefits of having wide players and more attacking options at home.   A special mention as well for on loan defender Ayo Obileye who fitted in perfectly alongside Doe and Saah.  The Charlton player put in  a commanding performance at the back.  The more the boys work on this formation in training the more confident they will become in their ability to play it out in competitive games, if we can get this to work as a system we could well see some high scoring games this season, just the sort of thing Daggers fans have been screaming out for.  Although their will still be some that will moan, especially as major change in formation like this will take time, but after it's first outing it have to say that I for one was impressed.

So after what had been a few weeks of doom and gloom, personally I have seen some positives that I hope will spark the Daggers season and get us back up the league, there is a long way to go yet and I hope we can build on these foundations and make the second part of this season a good one.


Come on you Daggers!!!