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Ryman
Premier League
Saturday 18th December1999
Daggers 4 Hitchin Town 1
An impressive work like performance. After going one down with three minutes on the clock it meant that the team would have to pull out all the stops. And they did.
The equaliser didn't arrive until just before half time and was slighly against the run of play for the first half. Hitchin, as with a lot of teams playing against us this season, were quite a competent team and used the offside trap quite effectively. Of course, with the quality of some of the officials at this level, that can be a dangerous game to play and thankfully the Daggers have dropped this aspect of their game.
Mark Janney, who worked very hard and selflessly throughout the match, was the supplier of the first goal with a good run toward the goal from then right edge of the penalty area. The keeper came out to narrow the angle and just as you thought that Mark was about to fire the ball into the side netting he pulled the ball firmly square for Danny Shipp to bury the ball from short range. 1-1 at the break.
Hitchin continued to be impressive n the second half but started to break down around the hour mark as Dagenham's relentless gameplay continued. They just keep working hard and chipping away at the opposition and with their undoubted fitness this seems to pay off as goals 2, 3 and 4 are scored without reply. All of them being well worked with Janney setting up a two of them.
The whole team is showing a great attitude at present and as teams come to Victoria Road wanting to prove themselves against the league leaders are having to pit their wits against a polished and professional looking outfit.
The big one is Monday night when we all travel to St. Albans in a true six pointer, a very important match indeed.
See you there.
Newell, Cole, Naylor, Bodley, Goowin, Terry, Janney, Nabil (Broom1), Shipp2, McDougald1, Heffer
Ryman
Premier League
Saturday 4th December1999
Daggers 4 Hendon 0
A strange game all round. The Daggers starting the way that most games have commenced this season and taking the lead fairly early on. But even though they tried to continue with the pressure it was breaking down too often in the midfield area.
This is not to say that we didn't, during the match, see some interesting and entertaining football it is just that it is not flowing as well as it was four weeks ago.
It was good to see Youness Nabil settling in so well, he created chances from short, precise and accurate passing and scored what to me was in my top five individual goals this season, turning three defenders inside out with a little shimmy and placing his shot perfectly out of the reach of the keeper inside the far post netting. It may have been a cross though!!
Dagenham were 2-0 to the good with three minutes to go and it was after another 20 minute (as there had been in the first half) bout of pressure from Hendon that they were able to capitalised on defensive errors to end up 4-0 winners.
On reflection the result was a bit unfair on Hendon who showed some promise up front even though they never looked like scoring. Dagenham & Redbridge were not at there best today and still managed to win by a very comfortable margin. With Payne, Jones & Matthews on the sidelines things are looking fine and everything is going to plan.
Newell, Cole (Conner), Naylor, Bodley, Goodwin, Nabil 1, Janney, McDougald 1, Shipp 1, Broom 1(Payne), Heffer