Dagenham & Redbridge are third from bottom of League Two, but Abu Ogogo believes their fortunes will soon change

Captain Abu Ogogo feels it’s too early for Dagenham & Redbridge to revise their hopes of a top-half finish, despite their winless start to the League Two season.

Following Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Essex rivals Southend United, Daggers are third from bottom of the table with just two points from their opening five matches.

Having struggled for so much of last season, the Daggers players were determined to spend this campaign at the right end of the table with several players, including Ogogo, talking of a potential play-off push during a healthy pre-season programme.

Results so far have conspired to contradict those early hopes, but with back-to-back home games against Accrington Stanley and Northampton Town to come in the next seven days, Ogogo feels Daggers’ season could be about to take off.

“Sooner or later we’re going to smash someone,” he said.

“It’s still early doors, only five games. We haven’t got off to the best of starts.

“We need to put a run together and I think we will be alright.

“We’ve been playing well and not picking up points. Maybe if we start playing rubbish we’ll start getting some points!”

Ogogo was distraught as he trudged off the field at Roots Hall on Saturday, knowing he had missed two glorious chances in front of goal.

With the score at 2-1 the skipper twice missed the target from promising positions inside the box.

And the 22-year-old admitted he should have done better and fired his team back into the game.

“I’m very frustrated,” said Ogogo. “At 2-1 down I had two great chances and (Scott) Doey had a good chance. If we would have scored then I think we would have held on and got a point.

“For my first chance I couldn’t sort my feet out quickly enough, it came off my heel and it went wide.

“But I thought my second chance was even better. I could see the defender was closing me down, so I took it early, but still should have hit the target.

“We played well as a team, so we’re disappointed, but we can take a lot of positives out of the game.”