Dagenham & Redbridge boss Daryl McMahon says they are relishing their National League meeting with Barnet this weekend.

The Bees visit Victoria Road on Saturday, sitting three points above McMahon's men in ninth place but without a win in three games.

Daggers, meanwhile, bounced back from heavy defeats against Notts County and Wrexham to beat lowly Altrincham last weekend.

McMahon missed the last two matches following the birth of his third child and told the club website: "It's been great to be back in with the group this week.

"Obviously I had to take care of matters at home with my family, that's really important to me, but it's been great to be back in with the group.

"Doing it as long as I have, 20-odd years, coming into work I never take it for granted."

Barnet drew 1-1 at Solihull Moors in their most recent outing, with their last win coming against Eastleigh on August 29, but McMahon added: "It doesn't matter if they haven't won for three, or won three in a row. We've seen in this division, every single game is hard.

"I don't care what anyone says, you can look at the results every Saturday. This league is a tough league.

"We know Dean [Brennan] has put together a good team, he's someone I know really well and have got a lot of respect for.

"He's got a lot of good players there, they're a very good team I think in terms of they've probably lost some individual magic in terms of [Ephron] Mason-Clark, who they've lost this year [to Peterborough] who was a big player for them.

"But they've got [Sean] Shields, [Harry] Pritchard - they've got dangerous players all over the pitch. We know they're a good side and it's one we're looking forward to testing ourselves against.

"They will be competitive, they'll press high, work hard, play with freedom. They will be aggressive like he [Brennan] is! I think that's what Deano demands from his team.

"We know it's going to be a proper game and it's one we're relishing and looking forward to."

Manny Onariase, Mauro Vilhete and Josh Walker were on target in Dagenham's 4-1 win over Altrincham, with Ross Barrows also scoring an own goal, and McMahon admitted it was vital to get the three points after losing by the same margin at Wrexham in midweek.

"The win was really important," he said.

"The performance against Wrexham, even though it wasn't the result we wanted, I didn't think it was a terrible performance.

"The boys put a really, really good shift in, considering the amount of players we've got out injured.

"Even on the day of the game, Manny dropped out with an illness, so it hasn't been easy for us really.

"But I thought we built on the good bits of that performance on Saturday. The front three were a handful.

"We still need lots of things to improve on if we're being honest, in terms of some of the opportunities we gave away, but it's a new system and we'll improve I'm sure."

As to what Daggers were able to learn from their performance against Altrincham, McMahon was clear about where improvement is needed.

"We've learnt how good our front three is, in terms of a threat, which we knew anyway," he added.

"It's always going to be difficult to fit everybody into an attacking system and anybody who knows me knows I'm an attacking coach, so I do try and squeeze everybody in.

"There's got to be a balance in the team as well and I hope that from the good bits we see last week in terms of the attacking play, and some of the defensive play as well, I think we need to be structurally better defensively as a team.

"That's something we've got to get right on Saturday."