Not the week we’d hoped for, but the Dagenham & Redbridge were by no means disgraced in North Wales as they fell to their first defeat of the season.
A Paul Mullin goal after yet another slow start was enough for Wrexham, as Daryl McMahon’s men finally came unstuck and now have further reason to ensure they start strong looking ahead to today’s game.
Dagenham will also be hoping to get back to winning ways through returning to their clinical nature we’ve seen in all but the last game so far this season.
The chances were plentiful at the Racecourse, but a fine goalkeeping display, along with heroic Wrexham defending following a goalmouth scramble or two ensured the likes of Paul McCallum and Josh Walker were unable to find the back of the net.
Those chances came predominantly in the second ’45 where McMahon’s sides so often, especially this season, come into their own – as they did against King’s Lynn most notably this campaign.
That King’s Lynn game saw a slight alteration to the XI put out by the Irishman, enforced or otherwise, yet today I’d like to see an unchanged XI following the latest setback.
I trust in McMahon, as the board do hence his long-term contract extension, to steer clear of any knee-jerk reactions and continue to put out a consistent XI – bound to provide more positively consistent performances.
We as supporters are under no allusions that we will see narrow defeats like last Saturday in spite of performances worthy of victory; as well as periods where we don’t see the rub of the green – but the aim is to stretch this incredible run of form out as long as possible.
So that, come the end of the season we can see the Daggers in those play-offs, anything more I won’t dare talk of at this early stage!
Whichever team he puts out will face a stern test, Neal Ardley’s men unbeaten in four and winning three of those, the likes of Dallas and Rooney providing a constant threat in and around the box.
But, I’ve confidence that the Daggers will deliver in front of the home support at Victoria Road to pick up all three points.
They’ll still be without Angelo Balanta for another week though, despite his return to training, he and Joey Jones hopefully returning for the Altrincham game in a week’s time.
We won’t get too ahead of ourselves though, as it’s still a busy week at Victoria Road, even though there’s just the one match.
There’s a Fans’ Forum on Thursday, which I’ll summarise in next week’s column, there’ll be lots of positivity in the air (we hope, so long as we win today!) and discussions with the panel comprising of co-owners Peter Freund and Craig Unger, alongside Daryl McMahon and Managing Director Steve Thompson.
Here’s hoping we can be in that Fans’ Forum revelling about the Daggers sitting top of the Non-League pyramid after six wins from eight games.
But, there is a resilient Solihull Moors side standing in our way so be the 12th man at Victoria Road today and get behind the boys – helping them get back to winning ways.
Enjoy the game and I’ll see you at the Fans’ Forum on Thursday. COYD!
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