Despite losing his starting place in recent weeks, Daggers striker Bas Savage insists he is ready to help his side secure survival, if called upon in their final four games of the season.

The 29-year-old target man has had to settle for a place on the bench in each of Daggers last four matches, with fit-again John Akinde preferred in attack.

But with Akinde unwell, the former Tranmere forward was introduced 35 minutes into Saturday’s defeat at the hands of his former employers and Savage feels he can play a part in the run-in, as he vies with Akinde for a starting berth.

“There’s competition for places and that’s what you want. I think you get the best out of your team-mates when there’s competition,” he said.

Virus

“John’s come in and done really well. He was a bit under the weather, he started, he was brave, but he’s been feeling a bit down during the week. He’s had a bit of a virus, but he did well to start the match and it was taking its toll on him.

“But the gaffer’s got me in reserve to come on and to try and change the game.”

Daggers were already trailing 2-0 by the time Savage was introduced and were limited to just a handful of chances in a tired display.

Savage, sporting his new Spiderman-inspired hairstyle, admitted his side were second best.

“We were a bit tired, we started off quite sluggish and they went goals up early on. We battled well, but we were second to everything in the first half, we didn’t really get our game going,” he said.

“But in the second half we showed what we can do, we dug deep and the lads are fit here. We work hard, we were running on empty at the end, but we were still trying to get a goal and give our supporters something to shout about.

“There were a few that were tired. We’ve had a lot of games recently, we’ve played Saturday then Tuesday for a while now, but that’s it until the end of the season and we’ve got to keep battling for the cause.

“We know what we want, we want survival and that means hard work. We need to pick up some points. We’ll have a few days off and then we go again against Plymouth.”