Dagenham & Redbridge’s record appearance holder Tony Roberts was set for a shock return to action, before the Gunners pulled the plug

Daggers legend Tony Roberts was close to a sensational return to the first team this week, boss John Still has revealed.

Still was juggling a goalkeeping crisis ahead of the trips to Plymouth and Morecambe, after an appeal against regular custodian Chris Lewington’s two-match ban for his second sending-off of the season against Cheltenham was dismissed and they were left with just one senior goalkeeper – Dave Hogan – who has never started a league match.

But Roberts, who hung up his gloves last summer to concentrate on full-time coaching duties with Arsenal, was keen to come to Daggers’ rescue and add to his record 507 club appearances.

However, Still revealed a last-minute intervention from the Gunners denied Roberts a shock return between the sticks and Daggers instead signed 18-year-old Jonathan Bond on an emergency loan from Watford.

“We had a bit of a problem because we just assumed and Tony Roberts assumed that he would be playing,” said Still.

“Arsenal, unfortunately, didn’t comply with that.

“At five o’clock last Saturday (after the Cheltenham game) Tony was on the phone saying ‘here I come’, but Arsenal didn’t comply, so we had to move on.”