League Two: Dagenham & Redbridge 0 Morecambe 3

Two goals in the space of five second half minutes saw Daggers fall to an opening day defeat against Morecambe at Victoria Road.

The hosts had looked promising in the first half, but the evergreen Kevin Ellison’s free-kick on 49 minutes put the Shrimps on their way, before Padraig Amond’s penalty doubled their lead.

And substitute Jack Redshaw rounded it off deep into stoppage time as the Daggers were comfortably beaten in the end.

Daggers gave first-team debuts to no fewer than five players , and after a spell of early pressure from the visitors the hosts soon got going.

Brian Saah often found himself unchallenged as he ran into the Morecambe half on several occasions, and this time his lovely throughball found Ashley Hemmings but his cross was put behind for the first corner.

Chances were at a premium though despite plenty of the possession in the final third and Jamie Cureton headed Damian Batt’s centre wide.

It was Cureton in the thick of the action just after the half hour mark when his cross-come-shot was tipped over the bar by visiting goalkeeper Barry Roche.

It remained goalless at the break, but the Daggers got off to a sluggish start in the second period and they were made to pay by an efficient Morecambe side.

Scott Doe gave away a free-kick two minutes into the half in a dangerous position on the edge of the area, and if you give Ellison a chance, he usually sniffs out the target.

And he did so this time as he drilled it low round the outside of the wall and past the outstretched dive of O’Brien.

It was almost two when Sampson engineered some space on the edge of the Daggers box and the home stopper didn’t know too much about it, but kept it out.

However, he was up against it as Daggers gave away a penalty when Sampson was pushed over in the box by Doe.

Padraig Amond made no mistake from the spot on 54 minutes despite O’Brien going the right way.

Nothing would quite click for the Daggers going forward now and if it wasn’t for the former Brentford man in the home goal then they would have been 3-0 down.

And it was that man Ellison once again as he tried his luck right footed and O’Brien did well to tip behind for a corner.

Dagenham tried to get back into the game and Roche denied Cureton a debut goal after pushing over his fierce effort from just outside the box.

Jamie Devitt thundered an effort from distance straight into O’Brien’s arms while his deflected free-kick narrowly evaded the target, and Brian Saah curled a stoppage-time effort wide.

Morecambe substitute Jack Redshaw was denied by the feet of O’Brien late on as the visitors looked to add a third.

And they did just that when a quick breakaway saw Redshaw play in Devitt and the former was waiting in the box to round off the match in style for Jim Bentley’s side.

Daggers: O’Brien, Batt, Saah, Doe, Connors, Boucaud, Ogogo, Howell (Porter 59), Hemmings (Goldberg 76), Cureton, Chambers.

Unused substitutes: Cousins, Labadie, Partridge, Gayle, Raymond.

Morecambe: Roche, Beeley, Kenyon (Wright 85), Hughes, Sampson (Redshaw 65), Ellison, Goodall, Fleming, Wilson, Parrish, Amond (Devitt 78).

Unused substitutes: Arestidou, Williams, Mullin, Doyle.