It's all about partnerships..

Since  the 1-0 defeat away to Northampton the Daggers have drawn 2 and won 2, scoring 6 goals in the process and only conceding twice.  That means we have only lost one game in in the last eight.

In my last post I eluded to the fact that I thought Daggers were starting to get it right in certain areas of the pitch, especially at the back and that it was only a matter of time before we started scoring goals.

A 3-1 win at home against Cheltenham followed by a 2-0 away win at York showed that the boys certainly knew where the net was.  Don't get me wrong we are not the finished article just yet but the signs  are very positive.

Jamie Cureton scores his 2nd goal against York.

It was good yesterday to see an interview with Wayne Burnett where the manager looked more comfortable and looked as though he was enjoying his role at the club for the first time in what seems like a hell of a long time.   It was also nice to walk to a Tuesday night game with a bit of confidence last night.

Nice to see you smile Wayne!!

Although the home game with Portsmouth last night only ended in a goalless draw there were plenty of positives to take from it.  All over the pitch there were good performances and was in evidence were the little partnerships that were developing.  The best examples of these were the two in midfield.  I like many others thought that Andre Boucaud and Billy Bingham couldn't play as a pair in the centre of midfield as they were similar players but I have to say I was pleasantly surprised last night to see them compliment each other so well in the middle of the pitch.  The other partnership's that are starting to progress are the obvious one of Ayo and Scotty Doe at the back which surely is the main reason for the few number of goals conceded but also there is another partnership on the pitch between Joe Widdowson and Ashley Hemmings down the left hand side which is coming along rather nicely.  I wasn't sure about Widdowson at first but after the last couple of home games it looks as though him and Hemmings have got a good understanding and work well together, all though its early days this good be the best partnership down the left hand side since Griffiths and Ritchie.

Murphy may have left but Ayo is here to the end of the season.

At the moment there seems to be a good balance to the side and every where you look there seems to be another positive.

Up front there is still a slight concern as we haven't found the perfect partnership yet.  When Murphy was up front with Cureton I thought it was only a matter of time before they clicked but with the exit in the transfer window of Rhys it means we have to try something different.. At the moment Alex Jakubiak is partnering Jamie Cureton and a couple of times last night but for a an under hit pass or a bit too much holding on to the ball it may of come off.  The thing is we have options, last night Daniel Carr came on as sub, by all accounts he has been really lively in training and maybe a pairing of him and Cureton may bare fruit.  For me Jakubiak seems to play better as an impact sub, but who knows maybe given time and a run of a few games this partnership may come good.

New loan signing Daniel Carr.

One thing is for sure though the more that Abu Ogogo plays at right back the better, Wayne knows that now is not the time to break up the midfield and I reckon after a few more games there it will all come flooding back to him and yet another partnership this time between Abs and Howell down the right hand side will start to flourish.

In my last post I mentioned about how we are set up on the pitch and on the bench with personnel and how easyit is to make a transition from one formation to another without having to make many substitutes. this is going to become more evident in the upcoming weeks and was shown last night when Jodi Jones came on for Jakubiak and gave the 17 year old his debut making him Dagenham and Redbrige's youngest ever player, we changed our formation and went 4-5-1 with two wingers and one up top.  This change is going to be a more regular thing and the good thing about it is that both the wingers can play with both feet so the option of them switching from each flank during games is a mouthwatering prospect.  It brings to mind another partnership between Sam Saunders and Matt Ritchie, they certainly kept opposition full backs guessing that season.

Some people might think that Jodi Jones isn't ready for the first team and maybe should be put out on loan, I don't agree I think this boy is something special and I think he will get his opportunity to show what he can do in the remainder of the season.  He will be an impact sub for the most part and will be used carefully from the bench when the manager sees fit but I wouldn't rule out a starting place by the end of the season and if we finish this season well he could well be knocking on the door next season.

Jodi Jones.

Mark my words this boy will terrorise defences in this league once he gets used to it.  The thing is if you got something you have got something, it doesn't matter if you show it against Concord in the Essex Senior cup or if he was playing for Dagenham United over Parsloes Park if a player is head and shoulders above all else at that level he is a player.  This boy is a player, if he is managed right he will go places.

The future is looking a lot a brighter and if we carry on progressing as we are we will have a nice end to the season with no worries about relegation and hopefully with  a strong finish we can build on it next season.  We are starting to turn a corner and I really think that its going to click up front sooner rather than later and with the upcoming fixtures someone is going to be on the end of  a tonking,  I am really looking forward to Hartlepool at home.

Finally, I was a bit cautious about the game last night not because I thought we would lose but because last year there was a bit of an incident in the car park between some meathead Pompey fans and some stewards which I and my son got a bit caught up in.  It wasn't anything too serious, but a few Neanderthal fans of theirs were to busy being mindless pricks and not looking what they were doing, which was nearly knocking parents and their young kids over.  Luckily I had my son's plastic stool with me and was poking any fat twat who came anywhere near me or my son with it.  My son didn't accompany me this year as I think it shit him up a bit, but there didn't appear to be any repeat of it this time round, thankfully.  I am sure I can convince him to come next year.

http://youtu.be/ZS5jff8ojz4
Meatheads!!


On to Morecambe on Sunday and hopefully another 3 points although I would take a draw.

Come on you Daggers!!

Derby weekend.

Since the first week of January when the transfer window opened Sky Sports have been working us all up into a frenzy about transfer deadline day.  For weeks we have been shown clips of Jim White getting ready for the big day putting on his yellow tie.

The truth is Sky built all this up and fuck all happened.

Manchester United were not going to do any business nor were Liverpool.  Arsenal had got their South American defender plenty of time before the window closed.  Moneybags Chelsea and Manchester City identified who they wanted and done their business and bought the players they wanted with no fuss, so it left on the final day was the bottom clubs to do some business.  A bit of excitement their you would think, surely 'Arry and QPR will do some business.  Alas no, not even a famous wound down window from the most famous deadline day manager of all just a 2 minute interview about how poor 'Arry had been working on bringing players in all day and found it too difficult.

After all the swearing and dildo wielding from the last transfer deadline day in August there were no supporters hanging about with the Sky reporters this time round so no excitement there either.

Not even the late night shenanigans of Adebayor will he wont he join West Ham or the story of Carlton Cole pen in hand ready to sign for West Brom only to have it colliboshed at the last minute could save the day, nor could West Ham's chairman David Gold's tweet that had urged hammers fans not to go to bed, insinuating that there would be some big deadline day business for the East London club.  As it topped up a later tweet was read out saying that West Ham had failed in attempts to sign no fewer than 8 players.

Instead Sky tried to make a big thing about two players who had made their loan deals permanent.
Big fucking whoop!!

So in the end all the fuss and all the big hoo ha ended up being a big noise about nothing.

What a load of old bollocks!!

I suppose the whole thing was aptly brought to an end when the following day Mr deadline day Harry Redknapp resigned as QPR manager.  'Arry put his decision down to medical reasons put lets be honest the writing had been on the wall for some time and after such a shit deadline day were his club failed to bring in a single player, whether a knee operation was the real reason or not, you can't blame the fella for walking away.


After what had to be the most uneventful transfer deadline day in living history its back to the football this weekend and two massive Derbies.

Saturday afternoon sees Liverpool travel to Goodison Park to take on their Merseyside rivals Everton.

Liverpool come into this game off the back of a late FA cup win against Bolton in midweek.  The Reds will no doubt in confident mood and looking to continue their recent form with a massive derby win against their old enemies.

There have been many memorable games between the two teams including a 5-0 drubbing for the Toffees in November 1982.

http://youtu.be/dwyN9__not4

This was back in the day when Liverpool where the best football team around, they tore teams to pieces for fun.

The Reds team that day was packed full of quality, from Grobbelaar in goal through Hansen in defence, Souness in midfield and Dalglish and Rush up front.

Although tomorrow's game should be a great game I doubt it will be as good as this one was, for Liverpool at least.

www.11v11.com/.../everton-v-liverpool-06-november-1982-86385/

Four goals for Ian Rush in this game ensured he became the first player to score a hat trick in this fixture since 1935,  Mark Lawrenson scored the other Liverpool goal in his famous number 10 shirt???

On Sunday afternoon Arsenal travel to White Hart Lane to face their North London foes Tottenham.

In April 1983 an Arsenal team boosting the talents of such players as Alan Sunderland, Tony Woodcock, Graham Rix, David O'leary and Kenny Sansom visited the Lane and left the victims of a 5-0 drubbing.

A brace each from Mark Falco and defender Chris Hughton and a strike from former Ipswich man Alan Brazil was enough to put the Gunneras to the sword.

http://youtu.be/vtZIYjhNCCU

Here is Alan brazil's opening goal from that game.

http://youtu.be/bRVxw9mfZR4

And here is a sweet volley from Mark Falco from the same game.

Two great derbies this weekend which are bound to be full of incident and hopefully full of goals.

If Aaron Lennon starts for Everton against Liverpool this Saturday he will be yet another player in quite a long list who have played in both these major derbies.

Here is a 1 to 11 of  some of the best who have so far.


1.  Ray Clemence  Goalkeeper

Played for both Liverpool and Spurs making 710 appearances in all between the two clubs.

2.  Christian Ziege   RB

Played for both Liverpool and Spurs.  I needed a right back but considering he only played 16 times for the Reds and only 47 times for Spurs he may not have played in any of the derbies.





3.  Pat Van Den Hauwe. LB

Welsh left back who played 135 times for Everton and 116 times for Tottenham.




4.  Martin Keown   CB

 Played 96 games for Everton from 1989-1993 before his move to Arsenal where he made 311 appearances.





5.  Ray Kennedy  RM  

Ray Kennedy played for Arsenal from 1968 to 1974 before moving to Liverpool he made 158 appearances for the Gunners mostly as a striker and 275 for Liverpool.  Kennedy played mainly as a midfielder for the Reds.




6.  Kolo Toure  CB.  

Central defender who played for Arsenal for 7 seasons racking up 225 appearances.  Kolo joined Liverpool from Manchester City in 2013.  He is a current Ivory Coast international who has played 112 times for his country.





7.  Mikel Arteta.  CDM

Arteta played 174 times for Everton before making the move to North London in 2011.  He is now Arsenal's club captain.  Arteta has played in Merseyside derbies, North London derbies and the Glasgow derby.  He made 50 appearances for Rangers between 2002 and 2004.




8.  Paul Gascoigne  CAM

Gazza moved to Spurs from Newcastle in 1988, he spent 4 years at White Hart Lane and played 92 times.  He left Spurs in 1992 and joined Lazio where he appeared in another local derby against Roma.  Gazza joined Everton in 2000 he was at Goodison for 2 seasons playing 32 times.




9.  Nicholas Anelka  ST

Anelka has scored in the Merseyside derby, North London derby, Manchester derby, Madrid derby and even in a Midlands derby.  Anelka signed for Arsenal as an 18 year old in 1997 he scored 23 goals in 65 games before moving to Real Madrid in 1999.  Anelka spent a year on loan at Liverpool from Paris St Germain in 2001 scoring 4 goals in 20 games.




10.  Gary Lineker  ST

Lineker scored an amazing 30 goals in just 41 appearances for Everton in the 1985/86 season.  His prolific strike rate got him a move to Barcelona where he played for 3 seasons before returning back to England 1989 where he signed for Spurs and scored 67 goals in 105 games.  Lineker has the honour of scoring for Spurs against Arsenal in a FA Cup semi final and scoring the opening goal for Everton against Liverpool in the 1986  FA cup final.  Liverpool won the game 3-1.





11.  Anders Limpar  LM

 Swedish winger Limpar signed for Arsenal in 1990 and spent 4 years at Highbury before moving to Everton in 1994.  Limpar made 96 appearances for the Gunners and played 66 times for the Toffeesbetween 94 and 1997.  He played 58 times for Sweden scoring 6 times.




Substitutes

12.  Kevin Richardson  Midfielder  Played for both Everton and Arsenal.

14.  Nicky Barmby    Midfielder  Played for both Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool.

15.  Bobby Mimms    Goalkeeper  Played for both Everton and Spurs.

16.  Alan Ball    Midfielder  Played for both Everton and Arsenal.

17.  Paul Konchesky  Defender  Played for both Spurs and Liverpool.

18.  Paul Walsh   Striker   Played for both Spurs and Liverpool.

19.  Yossi Benayoun   Midfielder  Played for Arsenal and Liverpool.

Positives and Negatives

Since the last time I wrote about the Daggers the home defeat against Tranmere we have lost 3 games drew 2 and won 1.  We have shipped 6 goals and scored 1.  I think you could safely say they are the negatives.


A positive from this stat though is the fact that up until Saturday's away game against Northampton we hadn't conceded a goal since Boxing day when we lost 2-0 to Stevenage, granted we have only scored 1 goal in that time but surely it is better to be not scoring and not conceding and picking up draws or the odd win then scoring goals but conceding too many and getting beaten every week?

It looks to me as if we are addressing one of our problems of conceding too many goals.  In an ideal world we would be scoring at the other end as well but unfortunately these things aren't magic and they don't just happen.

Anyone would have thought that after the reaction of some fans at losing to Northampton at Northampton, 1-0,to a team incidentally we have only ever gotten a point from in all our meetings with them, that it was the end of the world.  Ok, so by all accounts the team didn't play too well, but think about it if Murphy scores his effort maybe we hang on and get three points.  Of course its disappointing to lose it always is but we lost 1-0 to a very good goal and we are in the bottom two on goal difference.  The way some fans reacted you would think we were bottom of the league 10 points adrift.  I know it's not great at the moment and I know it seems like the manager is making excuses but I seriously believe it is going to get better.  The fact that we have nowhere to train is a major problem and needs to be addressed as soon as possible because giving players days off  because they can't train is unacceptable, but I expect the manager his staff and all at the club are doing their up-most to make sure that isn't a regular occurrence and we are better prepared next time.

In all the years I have watched the Daggers there have been more downs then ups (although the ups have been major ups) but normally in a season where it looks like we are in a struggle, normally  something happens.  It may be a tactical piece of genius by the manager or as in times gone by it might be a total fluke that has come off.   A few examples of this were when John Still was in charge.  He changed Romain Vincelot from a defender to a midfielder, before that he turned John Nurse  from an average striker to a goalscoring, chance creating left winger.  Also a few seasons ago when our backs were against the wall John Still pushed Abu Ogogo into midfield to add some legs and fighting spirit to a very poor midfield.  John Still got quite a bit of credit for these decisions and rightly so, having said that in most of these cases he kind of stumbled across them, and guess what they worked.

I think Wayne Burnett hasn't been given a fair go.  When things have been tough he hasn't just sat there and let it happen he has been proactive.  He has changed formation at times, which incidentally gave us two wins on the bounce.  He has brought in a defender Ayo Obileye on loan and played him alongside new captain and our most consistent defender Scott Doe.  He has also managed the recovery of players coming back from injury very well in the case of Zavon Hines and Rhys Murphy. It would have been so easy to bring these players back too early and have them break down again, but he hasn't, that's despite the fact that we are up against it.  Although he is under pressure as a manager I think he handles it pretty well and doesn't buckle under the uneducated cattawalls of a small number of our wonderful fans.

Surely people can see there has been a change and a change for the better since boxing day but for some it is not good enough, they have already made up their mind about Burnett and they simply don't like him.  He could completely turn around the season and go on an unbeaten run and secure our safety and there would still be some fans saying it was a fluke, get rid of him.  All I am saying is he is trying, he is trying as hard as he can to get this team out of danger and up the league.  Sure he makes mistakes and I am sure he will make some more but I reckon he is very close to getting it right with the right personnel in the right positions.  He has played a few formations this season and although most people wouldn't have noticed, probably because they are to busy moaning we are starting to become a more flexible team who are able to play a number of formations without making substitutions and once we have our players back in the next few weeks I really think people will see a marked improvement.  I have already seen improvements because instead of moaning about it and letting a hate for a man I don't even know cloud my judgement I have been looking for positives in our play.  Don't get me wrong I sometimes query his selections, and if I were manager I reckon I would have Abu Ogogo at right back or right wing back if we played 3 central defenders because he has the engine to do it and if we played 2 strikers with someone in the hole I would play Zavon there.  I'm not the manager though and I never will be but that's the beauty of it we all think we know best and we all think we would be a better manager because we took Daggers to the premier league in 6 seasons and won the double 3 years later but the truth is we done that sitting on our arse without taking one training session.  Only the manager sees what happens in training, only the manager knows what works and only the manager can get the best out of these players.

As for the future I see that as being bright also.  I went along to the Essex Senior cup quarter final game on Tuesday night against Concord Rangers, who by the way deserved their win.  I was most impressed with the performances of our youngsters.  Jodi Jones will get all the plaudits for his unbelievable goal but I thought the performances of Charlie Yexley at right back, Lewis Clark at centre back and Ayo Olokuga who was particularly impressive in the centre of midfield were big positives.  Olokuga is another bright spark for the future he put in  a solid shift in the midfield alongside the returning captain Abu.   Yexley worked hard at right back and defended well when called upon and Clark put in  a good display in the centre alongside the out of form Brian Saah.  Fringe players Joe Widdowson and goalkeeper Liam  O'brien didn't have the greatest of games and the returning Abs and Zav played ok, Abs looks close to full fitness and scored a great volleyed goal, Hines however picked up an injury late on in the game but according to his twitter account it is only a minor set back.  Before the injury he was quite lively early on but faded a lot in the second half, this can only be due to lack of playing time.  Ade Yussuf put himself about a bit and made some intelligent runs, but the only real disappointment from the game other than losing on penalties was George Porters performance.  Here was a golden opportunity for the young winger to grab the bull by the horns and show his manager he is worthy of a starting place in the first team but I am sad to report he failed.  I'm afraid it was a chance missed for Porter and I really don't think many more will be coming his way with his current contract rumoured to be up in February.

Impressive performancefrom young midfielder Ayo Olokuga

Although the Daggers were knocked out of the competition at the quarter final stage the biggest plus to come out of this little run has been the emergence of young Jodi Jones.  He scored a well taken goal in the last round but the goal he scored last night is one of the best goals I have seen by any player.  Yeah it might have only been against a Conference South side but if anyone in the premier league or the championship scores a goal like this it gets shown again and again.    What  a goal!!

http://youtu.be/Mqe_Gcq3OJ8
heres the highlights of the game against Concord Rangers

Do you remember when Pele took the chalk off Michael Caine in Escape to Victory and said "you give me the ball, I do this, I do this, I do this, I do this GOOOAAAL!!!  Well it was like that the only difference being Jodi Jones actually did do that. do that, do that, do that GOOOOAAAAL!!

I do this, I do this, I do this Goooaal!!

This young man has a rare talent he runs at players and scares the shit out of them he is going to be a great player in the future I just really hope he is a great player for us before he becomes a great player for someone else.  John Still was in attendance last night lets all hope he was there as a fan of the Daggers and not in a scouting capacity.

Young and exciting Jodi Jones.

I still think we will survive this season as I think one way or another our goal difference by the end of the season will be good enough.  I also think that the partnership of Cureton and Murphy will come off, what I have seen so far it is inches away from coming off, I know it's an old cliche but it is thin margins.  If we do stay up this season and have a strong run in toward the back end of it who's to say we won't take that momentum in to the following season.  I maybe totally wrong about all this but I can only say it as I see it.

What if it all goes tits up and we get relegated, well if it happens I will be disappointed and gutted but I will be renewing my season ticket and cheering on my Daggers in the Conference.

Come on people have some faith!!

Up the Daggers!!!

What's that sound?

What's that sound?

Is it the sound of  of Wes Morgan getting the ball full in the face?  No that wasn't obviously loud enough or come to think of it obvious enough for a referee of Mike Jones' calibre to even see although he is only 2 foot away.

Mike Jones....Smug Prick.

Is it the sound of Brendan Rogers crying into corn flakes after his one man team's, "one man" Steven Gerrard bagged another brace after he failed to offer him a new contract?

Or is it the sound of the aching bones of athletes in their prime who have had to go to work for four days out of ten over the Christmas period.

Nearly but not quite.

It is in fact the sound of the constant moaning of some Premier league managers and their reaction to the fact that their teams had to play 4 games in 10 days over the festive period.  Anybody would think it was a surprise for some of these bosses, do they not know that Christmas comes once a year and so does this fixture congestion, or are they just moaning, excuse making, ungrateful wankers?

To be fair it is not all Premier league managers having a moan, the main offenders seem to be Louis Van Gaal, Harry Redknapp and Steve Bruce from what I heard.  With Van Gaal it is sort of understandable as he has never managed in this country and never seen his teams play over Christmas, but even so didn't he look at the fixture list when he took over, was he not prepared to meet these fixtures head on.  the thing is he may have a few injuries, maybe a few more than some of his rivals at the moment but hang on surely with the depth of squad and some of the best young talent he has at his disposal he really shouldn't be moaning about it.  Look on the bright side LVG at least your only in two competitions, fuck know's what it will be like next year if you have finished in the top four and have to compete in the Champions league.

Hey Santa, no one told me we have to play at Christmas.

As for Redknapp who doesn't have the the size of squad at QPR that Van Gaal has at Manchester United, but still he should know better.  He has beeen a manager in the lower leagues where when games get called of and postponed due to bad weather the fixture congestion can pile up and by the end of the season teams can be playing up to 6 games in less than 2 weeks.  Redknapp is a serial offender though and a lot of his moaning is his way of showing the chairman that his squad isn't big enough to compete in the premier league, no doubt the weekend before the end of the transfer deadline at the start of February he will name two goalkeepers on the bench just to show Tony Fernandez how much he needs more top drawer players in all positions to give him every chance of avoiding the drop come May.  personally my advice to him would be stop trying to buy or loan some of your old players and start trying to get the best out of the players you have got in your squad already.  It shouldn't be that difficult with the "triffic" players you have at the club already, and besides survival in the premiership is your only concern after you made a load of excuses about being humiliated in the cup at home by Sheffield United.  No excuses now Harry!!

Cherr up 'Arry its Christmas!!!

When it comes to Steve Bruce he should really know better, he played and managed in this division for a long time so he should be totally prepared for it all, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised as when the draw was made for the third round of the cup Bruce was there watching it take place and even though the first ball pulled out of the hat was Arsenal's and the second was that of his own Hull City, he still, even though he had witnessed it live with his own eyes thought Hull City were drawn at home.  An easy mistake to make you might say, yeah an easy mistake to make if you have the attention span of a fucking goldfish.  So maybe that's what it is maybe he had forgotten that over the years as a player and manager there are quite a few games to play over the festive season.  Bless him.

Bruce was well happy the festive season was over.

With all these privileged mangers moaning and trying to protect their burntout over privileged players who in some cases wouldn't know what hard work was if it came down their chimney and emptied its sack in front of them, it was a breath of fresh air to see a manager of a premier league team embrace the fixture pile up and just get the fuck on with it without so much as a bah humbug.

 The thing is Burnley manager Sean Dyche probably has more to moan about then any of the other managers in the premier league, he no doubt has the smallest squad, he no doubt has the smallest wage budget and no doubt he has the lowest transfer fund.  On new years day these deficiencies were shown up when Burnley had to make 3 substitutions in the first half in their away game to Newcastle all because of injury.  The Lancashire side had to play the majority of the game without being able to make any more personnel changes but although they were 2-0 down and then 3-2 down they managed to carve out a much deserved draw as the game finished 3-3.  After the game Dyche didn't sit there moaning about it he just got on with it, here is a man who is is honoured and privliged to manage a team in the premier league, a manager who has to rely on more than just talented players to compete at this level.  He followed this great result with not a whimper but another fighting and grafting performance against an in form Spurs side in the FA cup, coming from behined to earn a creditable replay.  For a team with such limited resources it makes a nice change to see a group of hard working players lead by a hard working manager given there all to stay in England's elite league.

Burnley take on QPR this weekend and I think you can guess which outcome I am hoping for.  Up the Clarets!!

If Burnley survive this season I really hope that Sean Dyche gets the Manager of the year award it would be so deserved.

So Messrs Redknapp, Bruce and Van Gaal why not take a leaf out of Sean Dyche's book and stop your hard done by moaning and just roll your sleeves up and get on with it.

Sean Dyche, doing it the hard way.

I won't hold my breath because come the end of the season Steve Bruce and 'Arry will be still moaning about some shit that was unfair and making some excuse about some old shit whilst a team in the Ryman league are playing their 8th league game in less than two weeks due to postponements over winter, and are trying to stave off relegation or trying to get promoted to the next level of the football pyramid with a squad of 18 players.

Hopefully though Sean Dyche will have a great big smile on his face as his fighting spirit keeps the Clarets up for another season in the top flight.

As a football fan I know I am not alone when I say that I would have given my right nut sack to just once been able to play a game of football as professional footballer so this is why I feel the need to rant about this sort of spoilt behaviour, as far as I am concerned I would much rather live in a football world which had more Sean Dyche's in it than it had Ballotelli's.

 Give me good old meat and potatoes over big Charlie potatoes anytime!!

Doh!! For the Daggers!!

After two wins on the bounce, against Carlisle at home and Bury away the Daggers were going into Saturday's home fixture with Tranmere Rovers with an ever increasing confidence.  They were also looking to show off some of their deadline loan signings to the home faithful.  Defender Joe Widdowson on loan from Bury was on the bench alongside debutant goalscorer against Bury, Watford starlet Alex Jakubiak.  Patrick Agyemang the other deadline signing did however start up front with Jamie Cureton, this made our front two a combined age of  74.

The game itself was a bit of a dull affair, the visitors having the best chances in the first half, Cureton had the best chance for the Daggers in the first period scuffing a shot wide of the post.  The second half was much of the same, again the visitors looked the most likely.

Sitting up in the gods of the TBS in the freezing cold I was beginning to except the game was going to end as a nil-niller unless something special happened, and in the 75th minute it did but unfortunately for me and the rest of the Daggers fans it came from the foot of a Tranmere player.

The Daggers defence were slow to react and Rovers striker and former Homer Simpson alias Max Power picked up the ball, turned and unleashed a powerful shot, that powered toward the goal, powerfully hit the post and powerfully, powered past the despairing dive of Daggers goalkeeper Mark Cousins into the back of the net.  Cousins stood no chance as the power of Power's shot was just too powerful and hit with too much power for the daggers stopper to be able to cope.  What a powerful shot it was, and to be fair it deserved to win the game.

Max Power.  He's the man!!

The Daggers tried to get back into the game, but if I'm honest I think they could have played on until next Christmas and they wouldn't have scored.  The Rovers keeper didn't have a clear shot to save until deep into injury time.

Sometimes these things happen and teams have a bad day at the office, if you look at the positive side the Daggers could have been beaten by more goals if the away side had taken their chances but luckily for us their finishing was poor overall.

After the game I had a little look on the forum as I usually do and can't say I was too surprised by the smug comments of some of our supporters who seemed to be so pleased with themselves about being right about the fact that they knew that we wouldn't win 3 games in a row for the first time in 5 years, stating that  the last two wins were just papering over the cracks.  I wonder what these people will do if we do manage to get it together and go on a decent run, which I still think is a possibility for what it's worth.  Maybe they will hang around or maybe with a bit of luck they will just fuck off and take their negativity back to Upton Park or White Hart Lane or wherever else they came from in the first place.  I'm sorry but I just don't get the point of being right above all else, personally I wouldn't even bet against or predict a loss against my own team, but that's just me, maybe I am the strange one.

One thing I definitely didn't get is the amount of flack Patrick Agyemang is getting.  As far as I am concerned for most of the game I thought he did exactly what he was put on the pitch to do which was to put himself about, hold the ball up and use his physicality to upset the opposition.  At times in the first half they had to double up on him, it is just a shame that some of our other players weren't willing to back him up.  He did this for about 70 minutes of the game until he started to fade, which again is understandable for a player who hasn't been playing regularly.  It's very easy to make someone the scapegoat for a defeat just because you don't like them,  but the people who had the snipers rifle pointed at Agyemang were way off target.

On loan Portsmouth striker Agyemang put in a good shift.

I don't like to slag our own players off but they know as well as we know the performance wasn't good enough and unfortunately too many of the players were not up for it, maybe the week rest did more to hinder the preparation than actually help it.  Certain players on Saturday like Brian Saah and Ashley Chambers looked so far off the pace it was ridiculous.   Chambers in particular looked lethargic, he had a great chance to have a shot on goal after an unchallenged run but he didn't and just played a silly pass and gave the ball away.  Maybe he needs a bit of competition in that number 10 position to keep him on his toes, maybe the returning Zavon Hines could be a player that could  play that role and give Chambers a bit of a kick up the arse.   On the other hand maybe he was just carrying a knock, so i want be too harsh on him.

Personally I just thought it was a an under par performance and as I said a bad day at the office and on another day we would have got away with a point, but Homer Simpsons wonder strike won the day.

I'm sure the future is positive and I think the addition of the loan players Wayne has brought in will be very important over the Christmas period.  I managed to sit through the game on Saturday in the freezing cold and still stay positive, I would hope that others might as well.

On loan Watford striker  Alex Jakubiak scores against Bury.

Anyway it's on to the next one and another tough away game against a very good Plymouth Argyle side, lets hope we can knick a point and nip this little blip in the bud.

Come on you rip roaring goal-scoring Daggers!!