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FA Trophy 3rd Round Replay
Farnborough Town 1 Daggers 1 aet (Daggers won 4-2 pens)
This was another great cup performance. The highlight of the evening was seeing Lee Matthews take control of a free kick situation and strike the ball with power past the defending wall and beyond the reach of the keeper. Once again leaving it so late in the game leaves lot to be desired but no real complaints!
It was a lively start and even though a couple of the Dagenham players were a bit over exuberant in their challenges, the referee had a word and the game settled down into a good cup tie. Although in the early stages both teams had even play it was Kirk Game who managed the first shot of any note. On the break and after a combination of some nice passing Kirk was able to collect and shoot from 25 yards. It was with pace and the ball struck the underside of the bar, bounced down onto the line and then out to relative safety.
The first half showed commitment from both sides but it was the Daggers who finished the half the stronger of the sides.
The second half carried on at the same pace but even though the outfield play was impressive neither team got close enough to goal to create any real chances. David Pratt who looked really up for the game made a run down the right and forced a impressive one handed save which was then scooped in by the keeper to remove any further danger. But, at the other end, Gothard also saved well from a very awkward lobbing shot that he pushed out for a corner from right under the bar.
It was at this stage that we looked as if we may have burnt ourselves out and Farnboro' appeared to be taking the game to us. This may have been the time for a couple of substitutions but perhaps Ted Hardy knew that we were heading for extra time! This may have been avoided, as, from a Farnboro' corner Danny Shipp managed to flick the ball towards our goal. I think we can count ourselves lucky that Gary Blackford was alert and cleared from the line.
During the first session of extra time it was the home side that played their best football of the evening. Moving the ball around well with some accurate passing. The first goal came from one of those very situations. Two of their substitutes were involved. Justin Day out paced our defence as he took the ball down the right. His shot wasn't good enough but another fresh pair of legs owned by Mark West, appeared from nowhere and finished from close range. For the rest of that period of extra time our heads did drop, which was a shame, but Lee Matthews lead by example at the beginning of the last period and the whole teams work rate went back up. But still no breakthrough. In the 121st minute we won a free kick on the edge of the oppositions area. The rest is history and has been chronicled earlier in this report.
The Penalty Shoot Out
Gothard did his job and took the pressure off of the rest of the team by saving Farnborough's first penalty. It was Cobb who put away our first but he kept it a little tight as the ball clipped the inside of the post and then hit the opposite side netting.
0-1 after one penalty each.
Gothard couldn't make it any easier for us although he came close but when Matthews stepped up you knew that the back of the net was about to take a hammering, and it did!
1-2 after two each
Farnborough scored again and then Danny Shipp made no mistake.
2-3 after three each.
Gothard picks his moment to pull off great saves and he did it again. This meant that all Tim Cole had to do was score. There was reduced pressure as we now had a 2 goal cushion. Tim had already had an outstanding game and he didn't let us down.
2-4 and through to the next round to meet Telford at home.
A couple of words about Farnborough...Unlike last season in the FA Cup there was no ground segregation and this is appreciated by all supporters. The playing surface, unlike ours, was excellent. The chips from the tea hut were something else and the tea wasn't bad either. I was a bit confused by the difference in price between te different huts though.
Gothard, Blackford, Goodwin, Cole, Matthews1, Game(Seymour), Pratt(Terry), Cobb, Shipp, Broom, Bird(Janney)
Ryman League Premier Division
Daggers 3(0) Enfield 3(1)
In all honesty I found the first 80 minutes of this match very hard work. That along with and the fact that I have no telephone line and therefore cannot update the site makes it even harder to write this report. Please forgive me.
Early on it was Enfield that looked more composed and when a ball broke through to Mark Bentley it was only because Paul Gothard stood up well that gave him the chance to save Bentley's shot. Dagenham's commitment was higher than my expectations and they had a fair ammount of play in the first 25 minutes. It was a bad back pass from Lee Matthews and the subsequent mis-understanding that enabled Steve Darlington to get his toe on the ball to edge past a bewildered Gothard. 1-0 to Enfield. It was at this point that we managed to string a few passes together but towards the end of the half we lost our way. Who knows? Perhaps the players had other things on their minds'!?
A slightly better start to the second half but one of our problems was that the ball was being passed into space. This would normally be effective but unfortunately there wasn't anyone moving into it. David Pratt did get himself into a great position when he collected a square pass from midfield, he then ran past the defence towards goal but his final mis-kick was ten yards high and ten yards wide!
When we did penetrate the defence and get into the penalty area our chance came. Paul Cobb collected a neat flick and controlled the ball well, Andy Pape came out and Cobb pushed the ball to his right. I thought he had taken it too far and given himself too tight an angle. But I was wrong as he neatly flicked it inside the post.. It was now 1-1 and it promised to be a great second half.
Of course Enfield had to spoil it and in particular Steve Darlington again as he put them back into the lead. Then, not being content with that, they decide to push forward and as the Daggers failed to clear, I watched the ball go between Gothard's legs into the back of the net to finish us off!
No, a little resilience from the boys, Cobb once again got into the box and slotted the ball past the advancing keeper. The best was to come... David Pratt laid the ball into the right corner of the penalty area where Paul Cobb was being marked by three players. Paul recieved the ball and with a quick twist had turned all three inside out, he looked up and made a deep far post cross. Danny Shipp was there...waiting...and he spectacularly volleyed home in a similar fashion as last week against Farnboro'. It was now 3-3 and that's the way it finished.
Enfield could have finished us off, but I believe that Paul Gothard's confidence is improving game by game and he pull off a superb low save from John Richardson in the dying seconds.
I'm not so sure we deserved the point...I don't know maybe we did, if just for Shipp's goal!
Gothard, Cole, Pratt, Howard, Goodwin, Matthews, Broom, Cobb, Shipp, Bird, Blackford
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FA Trophy 1st Round
Daggers 1 Farnborough Town 1
It was bright & sunny to start with but it did drop a little cold towards the end. I had to do some work in the garden in the morning and the ground was very sodden. The groundstaff and volunteers, who had been working all morning, had achieved a reasonable playing surface, so all credit to them.
This is the first game for a while where we started the match with a real positive attitude. But we have to make it hard for ourselves as ex league player Dennis Bailey collected a ball from somewhere and placed perfectly passed Gothard. I didn't see the actual build up as I was deleting pictures from my camera. Bailey had already looked dangerous in the 90 seconds before he scored and it could be seen that he was going to be a problem.
For the next twenty minutes Dagenham were in total control and if someone had missed the opening goal it would've been difficult to convince them that we were 1-0 down. Shipp looked sharp and on his toes as he turned and shot well on two seperate occasions. Matty Bird had some outstanding touches and put some thought into his game, instead of just passing the ball along the ground he chipped it with the outside of his boot, just lobbing the defence but we were unable to take advantage.
Farnboro' had no real attacks on goal in the first quarter except on one occasion when, once again Bailey turned and with a neat back heel set up an advancing midfielder for him to put the ball over the bar. After this the Daggers game once again settled down but although everyone was working hard we didn't get close enough to goal to be effective or indeed dangerous.
The visitors did begin to put us under pressure and, as is the norm, it was from this that we equalised. Gary Howard collected the ball on the left; took it to the byeline and with a very deep far post cross picked out Danny Shipp who volleyed home from close range much to the delight of me! Oh and a few others. We could have scored again but when Lee Matthews rose and firmly headed towards the far post from a corner his shot was cleared from the line.
In the second half the story was slightly different, some of our players looked tired but the spirit was still high. Mind you spirit doesn't stop the opposition and Farnboro' had a few good moments. Phil Wingfield made a mazy run at our defence and managed to break through, his final shot was fierce but veered away from the upright at the last second.
'Seymour the Saviour', was a comment being bandied around after he cleared the ball off of the line. 'I' have always like him' Tom said. Both teams had equal possession and chances in the second half, Jason Broom forced a save from Stuart Mackenzie and shortly after Phil Wingfield hammered the ball over our bar. But it wasn't long before we had to wait for the inevitable goalmouth scramble when not one of our six palyers in the penaly area can get the ball into the back of the net. Not even when given five or six chances. Still it gives me a chance to swear, spin around in disbelief, take my hat off and pull my hair.
Our work rate stepped up a cog and after a flurry of activity the ball fell to Gary Howard 25 yards out, he looked up and with a half volley he struck the ball towards goal. Well, that's not strictly true, yes he did strike the ball but towards goal...not as such!
In the last ten minutes the home side once again had control and if it wasn't for Stuart Mackenzie being so alert and quick off his line then we would have scored at least two goals. Paul Cobb only had him to beat and should have flicked the ball over his body but Cobb needed too much time and was well saved. Then with two minutes to go Gary Seymour floated the ball in from a free kick. It was then headed to Matty Bird who tried to flick it past Mackenzie but once again he got a hand to it to push the ball out for a corner.
This was a much better performance from us and the level of committment was excellent. The players did everything right but didn't have the luck to go with it.
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Ryman League Premier Division
Sutton United 3(0) Daggers 1(1) Att. 959
We had a good journey to the ground and we could be seen from the puddle covered car park that the area had had some rain recently. This was borne out by the fact that the pitch was waterlogged in places and was cutting up during the match.
The Daggers had the better start of the two teams with Hewes collecting from David Pratt and hitting the outside of the post. Shortly after Lee Goodwin released a ball to Jason Broom who in turn set Paul Cobb free, he held the ball and took it wide enough to give himself a good angle with a reverse shot inside the post. This put us one up with just five minutes gone.
Sutton built their attacks well but a combination of the Daggers' more stable looking back four and the homes sides inability to create anything in the penalty area meant that there wasn't any final danger to us. Towards the end of the first half the home side could have grabbed an equaliser that they probably deserved. They were being more persistent and we were producing our now standard period where we can't clear the ball. I become fascinated and watch mesmerised as the ball is sliced away, miss-kicked and falls to the feet of our attackers on five or six occasion but still we come out on top.
The first real Sutton shot took a while to come and when it did it was from the defence. Danny Brooker ran down the right and managed to wrong foot a deep playing Jason Broom, he then brought the ball inside and shot from 25 yards with his left foot, Gothard was equal to it and comfortably held onto the ball.
The game had mediocre moments in this first period but did liven up in the last ten minutes with Dagenham's approach play looking good but with no serious shots at goal.
Sutton were a better looking prospect at the beginning of the second half and it was from one of there attacks that they forced Paul Gothard to give away a corner. From this the ball fell to the edge of the area where Danny Brooker half volleyed through a very crowded area to bring the scores level.
For the first fifteen minutes of the second period Sutton were in the driving seat. They played football across the park and not with their fist half tactics of just knocking the ball high down the middle. In fact the only time that Dagenham got near the oppositions penalty area was when home side passed the ball back!
We had a good chance when Nigel Hewes who by this time was playing wide on the right collected an intelligent pass from Paul Cobb. Nigel then put an early high cross to the far post that caught the whole of Sutton's defence with their guard down but although Jason Broom had positioned himself well he wasn't able to direct his header towards goal and the ball went just wide.
With the quality of the players in both teams I felt that we had the makings of some great end to end football. It happened but for very short periods of time but never lived up to my expectations.
Sutton again pressed forward and after collecting a ball from a free kick, Andy Salako slotted home from ten yards placing the ball just inside the right upright. This was after some nice football from the now confident looking players. Just a couple of minutes later and from a free kick thirty yards inside their own half the ball was sailed forward to the Sutton no. 12 who pulled the ball back across the face of goal from the by-line for the Mark Watson to head home. (It looks to me like a couple of inspired substitutions.)
My interest was now beginning to wane, which was a shame because when we went 3-1 down we started to play our best football. Our work rate went up and we created a couple of chances in time added on with Kirk Game coming the closest.
Still, our league challenge is now fading fast so we can concentrate on the FA Trophy and the Essex Senior Cup!!!
Gothard, Culverhouse, Cole, Blackford, Goodwin, Matthews, Broom, Cobb1, Hewes (Mas), Game, Pratt.
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