Saturday
6 December 1997 FA Cup 2nd Round
Peterborough 3
Daggers 2
Just a great day out for
all the Daggers supporters, and it must have been quite a good day out for
the Posh ones too. The match was played with the right attitude
(unlike Farnborough in the first round) and with good refereeing.
The Daggers had a good opening 15 minutes that showed that they had
nothing to fear. And I would say that Peterborough's goal was slightly
against the run of play, but they did step up a gear and Paul
Gothard made a couple of saves with his legs that kept the score at half
time down to just the one goal.
A dream start in the second half with Dagenham coming out knowing that
the game was not over and within 3 minutes of the restart Paul Cobb was
able to latch on the end of a goal keeping error to slot home the
equaliser. This sent the already very vocal and happy fans into
raptures. The best was to follow as with 20 minutes to go, Stimson
was substituted, and on came Danny Shipp, and within 2 minutes he scored
the goal of the game from 25 yards, curling the ball around the well
positioned keeper. Posh had had a lot of the possession in the
second half and were of higher footballing skill, but it was Dagenham's
work rate and determination that started to take its toll. This let
the home side back into the game in the last 15 minutes, where Jimmy
Quinn was able to take advantage and net 2 goals to end our dreams.
The Daggers continued to attack and the supporters never let up with their
support.
Just a good day out, a fair result and good luck to Peterboro' in the
next round.
A couple of points, charging the same price for children as adults to
stand behind the goal is not on, and I also wasn't impressed with
having to pay 70 pence for a cup of the worse tea I have ever tasted.
This is one of the reasons I support Non-League football.
Gothard, Culverhouse, Pratt, Bird(Flanagan), Conner, Creaser, Parratt, Cobb1, Stimson(Shipp1)Cole(Double)Broom
December
20th Ryman Prem.
Final
score Daggers 0 Sutton United 2
A crowd of 1214,
Dagenham's largest so far this season, saw a game that never lived up to
expectations. Early exchanges proved to be on equal terms, but the
difference between the two sides was the pace of Andy Salako for Sutton on
the right wing. He turned the defence on numerous occasions and on
one on these times he was able to put a cross into the penalty area that
was firmly headed home. Both teams had chances, Danny Shipp coming
close after a darting run across the penalty area, only to put the shot
just wide. Their was a lull in proceedings around the 30 minute mark and
Dagenham's lack of commitment at this point could have seen them going in
at half time 2-0 down.
The second half started well for the home side, but they were still not
able to penetrate Sutton's well organised back four, this back four did
turn into a back seven or eight as the game progressed, and Sutton
looked good on the break, especially with the pace of both wingers, it
shows that when we are playing teams of slightly higher class than the
rest of the division, our back 3 cannot cope with it, and if it wasn't for
Culverhouse having a superb game the result may have been far worse.
Gothard didn't look comfortable in goal today, maybe because the cameras
weren't there, and in fact it was due to a silly mistake by him that the
game was sewn up, he should have cleared the ball first time, but tried to
control the backpass, missing it totally to let the advancing Sutton
player walk the ball into the net. After this the Daggers did make
some good attacking moves, but although the Fat Lady wasn't actually
singing, the home supporters felt she was humming quite loudly, and any
chances we may have had were now gone.
Tolo Mas, who had such a good start to the season, should be given
slightly longer than 15 seconds to make his mark on the game. Broom
was ineffective and should have been taken off earlier.
I feel Sutton deserved the 3 points, but the 2-0 scoreline was a little
flattering. Still with Kingstonian drawing again, we will know early
in the New Year if this is going to be a 2 or 3 horse race.
Gothard, Culverhouse, Pratt, Howard, Conner, Creaser,
Parratt, Cobb, Shipp, Cole(Bird), Broom(Mas for 15 seconds)
27th
December 1997 Ryman Prem.
Purfleet
4 Daggers 0
The team lacked any
Direction, Formation or Commitment, I can think of a thousand things I
would rather be doing than watch this on a cold Saturday afternoon.
Top position has now been lost and if the team continues to play like they
have since Peterborough, then we will spend another season in the Ryman
League. Make no mistake......Steve Conner was sent off with 8
minutes to go and we can ill afford to lose him in an already depleted
defence,. as we move into the last half of the season
Bah Humbug