House of Flying Daggers

[CFuller]

JULY 2030

Excluding my first season at Dagenham & Redbridge, we have always improved on our league standing year-on-year. It takes some going to keep moving forward for seven years in a row, and our 6th-place finish in the Championship last time out even took me by surprise.

 

This season, I'm being a bit more realistic. It took an incredible late surge to power us from mid-table mediocrity into the play-offs last time out. With so much strength in depth in the Championship, I'm not expecting us to finish in the top six again this term. Anywhere in the top half would suit me fine.

 

The biggest reason for my lowered expectations is that we no longer have Gavin Dalton - our central defensive cornerstone for the best part of five seasons. We've also recruited a number of new, mostly young players from abroad who will need time to settle in England. Give them a year or two, and then they'll be able to fire us towards the Premier League.

 

The one recruit that I was most excited about was teenage striker Mario Tortora, signed on a free transfer from Inter Milan. Even at such a tender age, he had pace, agility, lethal finishing, and tremendous spirit. He would be battling with experienced namesake Mario Djokic to be our main striker this season.

 

We still had inspirational captain Mark West in the target man role, but sadly, we could no longer call upon Ollie Pert. The 21-year-old Geordie's contract had expired, and after failing to agree terms with us, he signed for Premier League new boys Derby County. We received £700,000 in compensation from last season's Championship champions.

 

With Pert out the door, we were now lacking a young number 10 to compete with West, for whom this was likely to be his final season in Dagenham. I decided to try out former Liverpool striker Kevin Watts for that role, taking him on trial for pre-season.

 

Meanwhile, we sent a couple of midfielders out on loan until the end of January. Dennis McCann went to League Two outfit Kingstonian, while Lloyd Bailey would be playing for Ebbsfleet United in the Conference South.

 

We began this pre-season much like the last, with a home game at Craven Cottage against Belgian opposition. After losing to Anderlecht twelve months earlier, we looked to get a better result against AA Gent, who finished 3rd in the Belgian Pro League last term.

 

6 July 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs AA Gent

Gent won a corner in the third minute, and Belgian youth international Ghislain Benteke fired a half-volley wide six minutes later. Despite that, it was us who had the first real scoring chance. After 13 minutes, Lucky Okoli volleyed the ball from the right flank into the Gent area, where Mario Djokic headed it against the bar. Djokic then pounced on some hesitant defending from Michael De Ridder to stroke the rebound into the net!

 

Mario missed a chance to double our early lead about a minute later, and then the Buffalos charged at us. Polish winger Radoslaw Filipiak cut the ball from the right to his opposite winger Salvador Romero, who struck the far post!

 

We later survived a couple of Gents corner before Mark West threatened to make it 2-0 in the 38th minute. Unfortunately, Mark's half-volley from a Marvin Green delivery was kept out by Ellis Kane - a former Belgium Under-21s goalkeeper of English parentage.

 

Another great chance went begging two minutes later, as Djokic headed wide from an Okoli cross. Mario collided with Frederik van der Meer in the process, leaving the Dutch right-back with a knock. After Brazilian midfielder Nadson and Benteke missed late chances for Gent, we went into the break still leading narrowly.

 

Both sides had injury concerns early in the second half. Romero needed some attention from the visitors' physios after 47 minutes following a firm tackle from Daggers left-back Marc Hopkins. Two minutes later, Nadson collided with our trialist forward Kevin Watts. While Watts lay on the floor hurt, Gent went up the pitch and Sam De Vriese tapped in a 'goal' that was disallowed for offside. Kevin was thankfully not too badly injured, but De Vriese was soon looking to cause us some more serious pain.

 

De Vriese - capped once by Belgium five years ago - headed a Filipiak corner over the bar in the 54th minute. On 65 minutes, he used his attacking knowledge to turn past our youthful centre-half Shaun Johnson and hammer in the Buffalos' equaliser.

 

De Vriese would be celebrating again barely a minute later. Esteban Damestoy's pass into the Dagenham area was shinned by Joeri Buyse to De Vriese, whose tame shot whistled past Kieran Whalley. Shaun once again looked sheepish at the back, missing an interception that could've stopped Gent from turning the game around.

 

The match almost took another turn in the 70th minute. Mitchell Paratusic's deep cross from the touchline flew over the Buffalos' substitute keeper Felix Lacazette before bouncing off the bar and back into play! Six minutes after that, Johnson's living nightmare continued. De Vriese showed the teenager a clean set of heels before somehow wasting a great opportunity for his hat-trick.

 

Though De Vriese couldn't make it 3-1 to Gent, he did set up their third goal for Filipiak in the 85th minute. That effectively consigned us to defeat, although Mario Tortora did score a last-minute debut goal for us to slightly reduce our disappointment.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Djokic 13, Tortora 90)

AA Gent - 3 (De Vriese 65,66, Filipiak 85)

Friendly, Attendance 2,503

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Ryan), Puustinen (Banton), Darvill (Johnson), Busetto (Wood), Hopkins (Warren), Okoli (Paratusic), Verratti (Virgo), Cousins (Cochet), Green (Honeyball), West (Watts (Ganfield)), Djokic (Tortora).

 

To be honest, I couldn't argue with that. A little bit of defensive naivety had cost us in the end, but otherwise, we played quite well against a strong Gent side.

 

After a promising start to pre-season, we played the first of three successive away friendlies. The first of them was against Corby Town - now playing in the Conference Premier after three successive promotions. Multi-millionaire owner Grzegorz Trakul and manager Tommy Spurr were now dreaming of bringing League football to their little corner of Northamptonshire.

 

Corby's Steel Park stadium was undergoing expansion work, so the Steelmen would be playing their home games at Rockingham Road in Kettering for the time being.

 

9 July 2030: Corby Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Corby striker Derek Osman headed a left-wing cross from team-mate Brian Wilson into Dagenham goalkeeper Daryl Ryan's hands after four minutes. I wasn't too concerned by that, although - in retrospect - I should have been. A 12th-minute counter-attack was a sign of things to come from the Daggers, as Dean Martin met Arran Banton's cross with a woeful header.

 

Our attacks were laboured, but the Steelmen's attempts had more substance. Wilson found Osman with another excellent pass on 19 minutes, and Ryan had to save our skins again. Daryl also had to catch a header from Willie Budrys in the 32nd minute. The Irish custodian looked reliable, and our defenders did their best to withstand the Corby tide.

 

After Wilson wasted a couple of opportunities of his own, Town went forward for one more attack in the penultimate minute of the first half. Wilson and Osman were once again at the heart of it, with the former's left-wing cross finding the latter on the edge of our area. Osman drilled a shot past centre-back Josh Charles, and the ball squirmed underneath Ryan before finding the net. Corby had squeaked an unlikely 1-0 lead, which remained intact after another poor Daggers header - this time from Mario Tortora - in added-on time.

 

Four minutes into the second half, Marco Verratti stepped up to take a free-kick that could possibly restore some sense of normality. The Italian's swinging attempt struck the bar, and Tom Virgo then fired the rebound straight at Corby keeper Ollie Baronet from an offside position. That miss, along with a couple of José Cochet attempts that went off target, heightened our sense of frustration.

 

Banton and Virgo both went into the book as our tackling grew wilder. By the 62nd minute, I was as wild as anything on the touchline. Jesse Colwell played an excellent long ball to Dave Evans, who cut the ball back for journeyman striker Darren Swann to tuck away. 2-0 to Corby.

 

Swann's next shot was fired straight at our reserve keeper Kieran Whalley in the 66th minute. Similarly, Mario Djokic's 76th-minute attempt for Dagenham caused Baronet few problems in the Corby goal.

 

A minute after that, we fell apart completely. David McCord intercepted a Verratti pass and powered it up the pitch ahead of Osman. The striker got to the loose ball before our schoolboy defender Larry Wood, who showed some schoolboy defending when he tripped Osman in the box. Corby captain Wilson confidently struck home the penalty, and the Steelmen were feeling good vibrations. We felt wiped out, and the final score of 3-0 was utterly humiliating for our travelling supporters.

 

Corby Town - 3 (Osman 44, Swann 62, Wilson pen78)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Friendly, Attendance 2,115

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan (Whalley), Banton (Puustinen), Johnson (Darvill), Charles (Wood), Warren (O'Reilly), Cochet (Cousins), Virgo (Barnes), Ganfield (Verratti), Green (Dam), Martin (Honeyball), Tortora (Djokic). BOOKED: Banton, Virgo.

 

In 18 years as a football manager, I had never been left so exasperated by a friendly result. How on Earth could we have been thrashed by a non-league team - a team ranked three divisions below us? When a few of my players complained at full-time that they were 'tired', I let rip.

 

“I don't care if you're f***ing tired! You are Championship footballers, not 12-year-old kids! A lot of you know what it takes to beat Nottingham Forest, Wigan Athletic, Swansea City, Bolton Wanderers... but you come to little Corby Town, and what do you do? You make THEM look like the Championship team and make US look like a group of moaning pansies who don't know how to play football!!

 

“You lot had better shape up, and you'd better do it fast. We've got Leighton Town (a Conference South team) next, and if you lose to THEM as well, then you might as well just f*** off and play golf instead! Is that understood?”

[CFuller]

JULY 2030 (continued)

If our first two friendlies suggested anything, it was that Shaun Johnson was not ready to make the step up to first-team regular. After a troubled start to his season, I sent the 17-year-old centre-back out on a six-month loan to League Two side Gillingham.

 

I was now looking to sign an experienced centre-half on loan. However, my first choice would not arrive in time for our next match.

 

We continued our mini-tour of that notional region of England unofficially known as the South Midlands with back-to-back games in Bedfordshire. Before facing that county's big boys Luton Town, we paid our new feeder club Leighton Town a visit.

 

The football-supporting folk of Leighton Buzzard were buzzing, and with good reason. The Reds had just won the Southern League and were about to embark on their first season as a Conference South club.

 

13 July 2030: Leighton Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge

When recent signing Ashley Cousins gave away a free-kick close to our goal in the first minute, I was fearing the start of another horror show. Thankfully, Gerry Ennis' free-kick missed the target, and Leighton would later be on the wrong end of the first goal. After three minutes, Mario Djokic latched onto a slide-rule pass from Victor Dam and fired an excellent finish into the far corner.

 

Leighton had more reason for concern in the fifth minute, when left-winger Michael Price picked up a knock. On 11 minutes, William Barnes fired wide a speculative shot for the Daggers. The Reds had their first attempt three minutes later, but Spencer Cummins' strike was brilliantly punched away by Daryl Ryan. Daryl also made surprisingly light work of a piledriver from Glenn Adams in the 23rd minute.

 

Josh Charles then sustained a dead leg as our defence came under increasing pressure, but we held onto our lead... just. A 40th-minute free-kick from Price found the head of Michael Craig, whose attempt on goal was well caught by Ryan. Two minutes after that, Dagenham captain Mark West played a superb through-ball to Djokic, who hammered in his and our second goal!

 

We looked more confident and more comfortable going into the second period. That said, we would have to play on without either Will - who picked up a groin strain just before half-time - or Josh.

 

Substitute Kevin Watts had a shot deflected behind for a corner in the 50th minute. Shortly after that, another sub - José Cochet - saw a long-range attempt fly into the hands of Gary Lucas. Leighton's goalkeeper produced another fine save in the 56th minute to deny Djokic a hat-trick.

 

One Mario then came off for another, but Mario Tortora couldn't quite beat Lucas with a swerving effort in the 67th minute. On 71 minutes, Tortora set up a chance that Dean Martin blazed well over the crossbar. Will Baxter then wasted a rare Leighton opportunity in the 77th minute.

 

The Reds' fleeting hopes ended shortly afterwards, as their captain saw red. Left-back Liam Moloney had been booked earlier on for fouling Watts, and another altercation with Kevin led to his dismissal. We comfortably kept a clean sheet after Moloney's exit, but we couldn't quite build on our two-goal lead. Tortora grazed the bar just before the 90-minute mark, and he then struck the post in stoppage time.

 

Leighton Town - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Djokic 3,42)

Friendly, Attendance 2,150

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan (Glasgow), Busetto (Wood), Banton (Judge), Charles (Darvill), Puustinen (Okoli), O'Reilly (Warren), Cousins (Green), Barnes (Cochet), Dam (Martin), West (Watts), Djokic (Tortora).

 

William Barnes picked up a groin strain in that game and was likely to be out for three weeks. Josh Charles sustained a dead leg and would miss only our next match, but his injury coincided with the arrival of another centre-back.

 

I wanted more experience and height in my defence, and 28-year-old Silvo Kovjenic definitely had both of those qualities. The 6ft 7in Slovenian man mountain joined us on a season-long loan from Aston Villa. He didn't come cheap, mind you - we had to pay Villa £5,000 per month, plus half of Silvo's salary, to secure his services.

 

Kovjenic went straight into the Daggers side that took on Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. Luton finished just outside the League One play-off places last season under their new manager Mark Wilson.

 

16 July 2030: Luton Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge

As first impressions go, Silvo Kovjenic's was like turning up to a children's birthday party dressed as Freddy Krueger. The game was less than a minute old when Kovjenic's interception from a Curtis Cryer flick-on was cut out by Luton striker Andrew McCready, who tucked away the opening goal.

 

Thankfully, Silvo would wake up after that early error. In the 20th minute, Kovjenic headed away a couple of Sol Abbey corners in quick succession to prevent the Hatters from going further ahead. He intercepted another corner, from Cryer, in the 23rd minute, but the subsequent volley from Luton left-back Calvin Knott flew too close to our goal for comfort.

 

Silvo continued to limit the damage, despite the hosts' best efforts to increase it. At the other end, striker Mario Tortora was almost starved of possession, and we failed to register a single shot on goal before half-time. This was not looking good...

 

...and there was worse to come. In the 53rd minute, Maison Taylor played a free-kick along the floor to Darren Crouch, who then found Abbey. Victor Dam made an excellent slide tackle on Abbey, who turned down a move to Dagenham six months ago. The teenager wasn't regretting that decision a single bit when Crouch latched onto the loose ball and struck a curling effort that Kieran Whalley could only help into the net.

 

At 2-0 down, I became increasingly desperate. Whalley, Kovjenic and Tortora were all subbed immediately, and by the 66th minute, our entire starting XI had been sacrificed. Four minutes before then, substitute keeper Daryl Ryan caught an Andy Speight header that could've inflicted yet more pain.

 

More frustration was to follow in Luton's half. We took 68 minutes to fire our first shot at goal, which Mark West made a complete and utter hash of. Nine minutes later, Hatters defender Graham Vince miscued a headed interception from Marc Hopkins' first-time cross. That led to our only shot on target, but Lucky Okoli's angled attempt could not beat goalkeeper Peter Petrus.

 

Luton were all set for a surprise win, and they completed it with a third goal in injury time. Some awful positioning from Daggers right-back Heikki Puustinen left Taylor in far too much space, and the Hatters' left-winger smashed home Thomas Summerfield's through-ball to make it 3-0. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...

 

Luton Town - 3 (McCready 1, Crouch 53, Taylor 90)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Friendly, Attendance 3,162

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Ryan), Banton (Okoli), Busetto (Darvill), Kovjenic (Wood), O'Reilly (Hopkins), Watts (West), Cochet (Green), Dam (Virgo), Martin (Verratti), Honeyball (Puustinen), Tortora (Ganfield). BOOKED: Cochet.

 

How could this have happened again? The Corby Town result looked like simply a terrible day at the office, but another heavy defeat to lower-league opposition raised some very serious questions.

 

We looked far from promotion contenders as things stood, and the pre-season odds seemed to suggest that. We were rated at a middling 40-1 - well adrift of favourites Burnley, Newcastle United and Southampton.

 

Our next game was a chance to prove our doubters wrong. As part of the deal that saw Gavin Dalton move to Huddersfield Town, the FA Cup runners-up agreed to visit us for a pre-season friendly.

 

20 July 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Huddersfield Town

We started with a counter-attacking approach against the Premier League side, but I was soon having to think things through again. A clever flick-on from Rafik Rebika in the fourth minute set up a volley that Maikel de Winter hooked dreadfully wide. Moments later, Algeria striker Rebika was on the end of a superb slide-rule pass from Victor Dione, and his powerful finish got Huddersfield off the mark.

 

When Rebika sent a long-distance shot just wide in the 9th minute, I decided to throw my team much further forward. Marvin Green showed real gusto six minutes later, when his left-wing cross was tipped behind by Terriers goalkeeper Francois Touré for a corner. Heikki Puustinen chipped the corner over Huddersfield captain Théo Forster to Ashley Cousins, who squared the ball for Green to lash it in!

 

We had equalised, but Huddersfield were soon pushing us back. Rebika drove an edge-of-the-area shot wide in the 23rd minute. Two minutes after that, Jakub Kotora's corner found Forster, and the Swiss centre-back's header rattled the bar! Rebika then had a couple more chances, one of which was saved by Daryl Ryan, before we broke free from the shackles.

 

On 31 minutes, Daggers midfielder Victor Dam passed forward to Djokic, who turned past Forster and drilled the ball underneath the diving Touré! We'd gone 2-1 up against the run of play!

 

We were almost celebrating again in the 38th minute, when Mitchell Paratusic found Dam in a great position, but Huddersfield's Ivorian goalkeeper pulled off an excellent save. Had we wasted our chance to cause a major shock?

 

When Djokic fired wide another opportunity to make it 3-1 in the 49th minute, it looked like we had missed a trick. Two minutes later, Dagenham veteran Matt Warren hit a poor pass that was intercepted by Huddersfield's most experienced player - Ziya Yilmaz. The former England Under-21s midfielder stroked the ball ahead of teenage striker Warren Shearer, whose finishing was - fortunately for us - nothing like his famous namesake Alan's.

 

On 58 minutes, a powerful strike from de Winter deflected behind off Cousins for a Terriers corner, which went to waste. Gavin Dalton had come on for Huddersfield at half-time, but a rare lapse from him in the 70th minute allowed us to go 3-1 up. Dalton was unable to stop Djokic from jinking past him and drilling in his fifth goal of an impressive pre-season campaign!

 

Victory was rarely in doubt from that point onwards, although Forster almost beat Ryan with a header on 79 minutes. We kept tight in the closing stages, and when the final whistle blew, we celebrated a first-ever win against Premier League opposition! Dalton and his Terriers returned to Yorkshire with their tails between their legs.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Green 15, Djokic 31,70)

Huddersfield Town - 1 (Rebika 4)

Friendly, Attendance 6,328

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan (Glasgow), Puustinen (Banton), Darvill (Busetto), Kovjenic (Charles), Warren (O'Reilly), Paratusic (Okoli), Cousins (Verratti), Dam (Martin), Green (Honeyball), West (Polomat), Djokic (Watts).

 

As historic as this win was, it left me feeling bemused. How can you explain us losing to Corby Town, and then beating Huddersfield Town just 11 days later?

 

Football can be a funny old game...

[CFuller]

JULY 2030 (continued)

We travelled to Roots Hall for our next friendly against Southend United, who were back in the Football League after a 15-year absence. Our pre-season form had been so erratic that I had absolutely no idea how we would fare against the Shrimpers.

 

23 July 2030: Southend United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Matt Warren was certainly alert from the start, striking an excellent half-volley at goal in the opening minute. Southend goalkeeper Seamus Cavill just about got his hands to it. The Shrimpers' former Millwall midfielder Jordi Blyth also had a half-volleyed chance in the second minute, but that drifted wide. We later failed to make the most of a couple of corners, leaving us more and more frustrated.

 

Then, in the 30th minute, Southend almost gifted us an opener. Centre-back Mark Dyson tried to head it behind, but Joel Honeyball kept the ball in play, cut inside, and left himself with just Cavill to beat. Joel panicked, however, and Cavill blocked his shot with ease.

 

Two minutes later, Dagenham defender Alex Busetto fell hard on his elbow after being slide-tackled by Southend's Barry McGonigle. Alex came off in some discomfort, and another Dagger had to receive treatment shortly after that. Jacques Polomat was 36 minutes into his first Dagenham start when a tackle from Blyth left him with a knock that he couldn't shake off in time for the second half.

 

We went into that second period trailing 1-0, as Brian Wise scored from point-blank range in the 39th minute after having his first shot saved by Kieran Whalley. Surely we weren't going to lose again?!

 

Warren was unlucky not to restore parity on 52 minutes, when his free-kick was caught by Cavill. Our next attack came four minutes later. Derek Wright's cross was flicked on by Mario Tortora ahead of Victor Dam, who prodded in a goal that eased some of our tension.

 

We were back level, and had Shrimpers captain Kyle Herron not blocked a shot from Tom Virgo in the 59th minute, we could well have gone ahead. We would create a couple of attempts from corners over the next six minutes. Teenager George Darvill nodded wide on 61 minutes, while the more experienced Josh Charles had his 65th-minute header tipped behind by Cavill.

 

Southend tightened up for the latter stages, and for a long time, it looked like we would have to return home with only a draw. Then, with just a smidge under two minutes to go, Marvin Green swung in another Dagenham corner. George got to the delivery and headed it against the crossbar, but Tom then bundled the ricochet across the line! Virgo's first senior goal gave us a 2-1 win, although we had to survive a late half-volley from Shrimpers striker Jocky McKay before we could be certain of victory.

 

Southend United - 1 (Wise 39)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Dam 56, Virgo 89)

Friendly, Attendance 2,341

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Glasgow), Puustinen (Banton), Charles (Kovjenic), Busetto (Darvill), Hopkins (Dam), Okoli (Virgo), Warren (Butterfield), Cochet (Paratusic), Honeyball (Green), Watts (Tortora), Polomat (Wright).

 

Tom Virgo's winning goal certainly impressed Southend United, because they immediately offered to take the teenage midfielder on loan for six months. Tom was also the subject of offers from several other League Two clubs, so I would have to make a decision over the coming days as to where his short-term future lay.

 

Derek Wright was another young Dagger wanted on loan. I accepted an offer from Milton Keynes Dons, and so the 17-year-old striker would be playing in the Conference North until mid-January.

 

Alex Busetto's elbow injury ended his pre-season early, so we would have to try and cope without him for our annual spanking at the hands of Fulham. Our parent club and landlords finished 7th in the Premier League last season and were looking to continue their excellent record against us.

 

27 July 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Fulham

Dino Kelava almost got the sadomasochism underway in the first minute, when Fulham's Croatian striker flicked over a cross from Chilean right-back Iván Varas. When it came to his next chance in the fourth minute, Kelava received support from the other flank. Left-sided midfielder Lefteris Nasiopoulos centred to Kelava, who chested the ball, turned away from our centre-backs, and drilled a shot in off the post.

 

That could've started a rout... but there wasn't to be a rout. With the giant Silvo Kovjenic at the back, we were able to deal with almost anything the Cottagers could throw at us. The closest Fulham came to scoring again was just before half-time, when Holland forward Johan van Keulen rounded off an excellent solo dribble with an inaccurate finish. As far as Dagenham chances went, our only one was a spectacular Daniel O'Reilly drive that flew over the bar in the 40th minute.

 

van Keulen made another run at goal in the 47th minute, although he couldn't get his shot past Daggers goalkeeper Daryl Ryan. Daryl then denied Kelava a second goal after an hour, tipping over a 30-yard strike from the Croat.

 

Kelava went close again in the 69th minute, as his diving header from Nasiopoulios' flick-on bounced inches wide. Two minutes after that, ex-Burnley captain Nasiopoulos attempted to head home from a very tight angle, but he never looked like beating Ryan.

 

While Daryl and the outstanding Silvo continued to frustrate Fulham, our attackers' struggles never looked like ending. Every time we tried to launch a counter-attack, the Cottagers kept breaking our moves up with some strong tackling. As a result, we only registered one solitary shot in the second half. That was Mark West's strike in the opening minute, which was caught by Christian Allinson.

 

When the full-time whistle blew, we had just two shots at goal to our name. In contrast, Fulham had two GOALS to their credit. Our fortress was finally breached for a second time in the first minute of injury time, when van Keulen skated past George Darvill and slotted the ball beyond a rushing Ryan. We'd been outclassed by our parent club for the fifth pre-season in a row.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Fulham - 2 (Kelava 4, van Keulen 90)

Friendly, Attendance 12,043

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Banton (Puustinen), Charles (Wood), Kovjenic (Darvill), O'Reilly (Warren), Cousins (Green), Virgo (Cochet), Verratti (Dam), Polomat (West), Martin (Atta), Tortora (Djokic).

 

We were still a little short on confidence, so I hastily arranged one more friendly before we kicked off the season proper.

 

A mixture of reserves, youth players and out-of-form first-teamers arrived at the Chelmsford Sport & Athletics Centre for a meeting with Chelmsford City. The Clarets had declined rapidly since losing in the 2027 Conference Premier Play-Off Final, and they only just finished in the top half of the Conference South last term.

 

Oh, and before I forget, we've signed another defender. 18-year-old centre-half Philip Duru was released by his hometown club Norwich City last season, but he has a professional attitude that should stand him in good stead.

 

30 July 2030: Chelmsford City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

New boy Philip Duru showed his qualities after just two minutes, when he headed away a very early Chelmsford corner. Our other central defenders Ashley Cousins and Larry Wood also fared well against City's attackers, but they almost let their guard slip in the 12th minute. Chelmsford striker Adie Eckersley managed to turn past Cousins and Wood before pulling his shot wide.

 

Ollie Reynolds had our first real chance five minutes later, but the 16-year-old's shot was blocked by defender Francis Caughter. Reynolds then curled wide a 20-yard attempt after half an hour. About a minute after that, Eckersley cleared the Dagenham bar with a long-distance strike of his own.

 

This match had been surprisingly close, but in the 35th minute, we decided to take it by the scruff of the neck. Kevin Watts spotted Nigel Atta in space, and the youth midfielder drilled in a deft finish from the edge of the area!

 

Nigel had scored his first ever goal for the senior team, and after 44 minutes, he was looking for another. He picked up an excellent pass from Jacques Polomat and curled it just past the far post. Although we were still only 1-0 up at the interval, we were at least starting to assert our dominance over the Clarets.

 

I brought on Mark West to bully the Chelmsford defence, and he could've scored with a swerving shot in the 50th minute. Conor Clayton caught it for City and then rolled it out to his left centre-half Adam Paton. Polomat and West were quickly all over Paton, with Jacques making the tackle and Mark taking the loose ball, which he easily tucked away! Mark had finally scored his first goal of the campaign, and his new French colleague's confidence had also gone up a notch.

 

On 59 minutes, Polomat fired in a free-kick that cannoned off the bar before Clayton caught it. Jacques' creativity was also coming to the fore, as he set up a 62nd-minute opportunity that Dean Martin sadly wasted. Another Polomat free-kick three minutes after that found its way into Clayton's hands.

 

West then missed a couple of chances to boost our lead before he was rested with ten minutes to go. Mario Tortora got a late run-out, and although he wouldn't score, he did at least end pre-season with an assist. In the last few seconds of added-on time, Tortora curled in a superb corner that defender George Darvill finished with a strong header. 3-0 to Dagenham.

 

Chelmsford City - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Atta 35, West 50, Darvill 90)

Friendly, Attendance 2,158

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Glasgow), Duru (Paratusic), Cousins (Darvill), Wood (Charles), Banton (Judge), O'Reilly (Hopkins), Polomat (Honeyball), Virgo (Cochet), Atta (Martin), Watts (West (Tortora)), Reynolds (Cotterill).

 

Four wins, four defeats - it had certainly been an up-and-down pre-season campaign!

 

Despite his assist for that first goal, I decided not to sign trialist forward Kevin Watts permanently. He returned home to Liverpool to continue his search for a new club.

 

After making seven signings over the summer, I've pretty much settled on my squad. It is now up to my players to prove that they aren't one-season wonders as far as the Championship is concerned.

[CFuller]

Dagenham & Redbridge squad - Start of 2030/2031 season

(All ages correct as of 1 August 2030)

GOALKEEPERS

1. Daryl Ryan (age 25, Irish)

Daryl is now very much part of the Dagenham & Redbridge furniture. His unwavering concentration and strong positioning have helped him to nail down the number 1 jersey, despite fierce competition.

13. Kieran Whalley (age 19, English)

Kieran is developing steadily and has been compared to Peter Shilton, who wasn't a bad goalie in his day!

DEFENDERS

2. Heikki Puustinen (age 29, Finnish)

With his stamina and excellent crossing ability, Heikki should be our first-choice right-back for the foreseeable future. 'The Flying Finn' has had a rocky pre-season, but I'm confident he'll settle very soon.

3. Daniel O'Reilly (age 22, Irish)

Daniel had been on the cusp of a breakthrough for a while, but he's finally emerged as our leading left-back. He's become much more tactically aware recently and is now making his mark for the Republic of Ireland.

5. Josh Charles (age 29, English)

Despite a few injury problems, Josh has remained a solid presence at the back. I have very rarely seen the big centre-half make any defensive errors, and indeed, he's only got better since we were promoted!

6. Silvo Kovjenic (age 28, Slovenian)

Aston Villa have really helped us out by loaning Silvo to us for the season. Capped nine times by Slovenia, the 6ft 7in giant is almost unbeatable in the air and has been swatting away opposition crosses in pre-season!

17. Matt Warren (age 33, English)

Left-back Matt's not a regular starter anymore and his pace may have dwindled, but his class still remains.

22. Alex Busetto (age 24, Italian)

Alex is in the last year of his contract, so it's now or never as far as becoming a Daggers regular is concerned. The centre-back's inconsistency is a worry, but he is a fantastic tackler and a determined character.

23. Arran Banton (age 20, English)

Versatile and ambitious full-back Arran is slowly being groomed into a first-team regular.

30. Philip Duru (age 18, English)

Philip's got potential, but the ex-Norwich City trainee is currently little more than a backup centre-half.

MIDFIELDERS

4. Ashley Cousins (age 32, English)

Strong-tackling central midfielder Ashley is a short-term replacement for former stalwart Geraint Harding.

7. Lucky Okoli (age 27, Nigerian)

Whenever I play with wingers, Lucky - now with an appropriate squad number - is always likely to feature. He scored a couple of excellent solo goals last season but needs to do much more creatively for the team.

8. Victor Dam (age 25, Danish)

This might be the season where Victor finally emerges as a key player. The attacking midfielder's passing accuracy has improved steadily, as has his creativity, so I'm expecting big things from the great Dane.

11. Marvin Green (age 20, English)

Left-winger Marvin has shown that he can also adapt his game to become an adequate trequartista.

12. William Barnes (age 21, English)

His disciplinary problems notwithstanding, William is probably our best player technically. The former England youth international is an all-action midfield who can do almost anything that is asked of him.

14. Matthew Fraser (age 23, Scottish)

Injury-hit Matthew suffered his biggest setback yet when he broke his leg in April. When he returns in approximately October, the deep-lying playmaker may need some time to get back into vogue.

18. Dean Martin (age 22, English)

Attacking midfielder Dean has drifted down the pecking order and could well struggle to regain his place.

20. José Cochet (age 18, French)

José is a promising defensive-minded midfielder but is not yet reliable enough to throw into the senior side.

21. Jacques Polomat (age 18, French)

Creative attacking midfielder Jacques is excellent off the ball but could do with some bulking up.

36. Marco Verratti (age 37, Italian)

Player-coach Marco is back for a second year, which will probably be his last on the pitch. The playmaker does not have the stamina to play regularly anymore, but his qualities will always be useful when he does appear.

FORWARDS

9. Mario Djokic (age 31, Montenegrin)

13 goals in 20 Championship games was not a bad return for Mario, who arrived midway through last season. The ruthless poacher has his first full campaign ahead, and I reckon he'll challenge for the Golden Boot.

10. Mark West (age 32, English)

Mark has topped 15 league goals in every season since he signed for us. This is the burly skipper's seventh with us, and it could well be his last, so can the Daggers icons go out with a bang?

15. Joel Honeyball (age 22, English)

Although he's not the greatest finisher, local boy Joel is still a useful option when I look for backup.

16. Mario Tortora (age 19, Italian)

Mario scored in his first Daggers friendly but hasn't found the net since. The spirited striker perhaps needs a bit more time in England before he can start fulfilling his exceptional potential.

24. Roy Ganfield (age 20, English)

Roy's been disappointing and could be released if he can't rediscover his killer instinct.

 

RESERVE & YOUTH PLAYERS

Goalkeeper: Colin Glasgow

Defenders: Jonathan Butterfield, George Darvill, Marc Hopkins, Shaun Johnson (on loan at Gillingham), Wesley Judge, Victor Sarun, Larry Wood

Midfielders: Nigel Atta, Lloyd Bailey (on loan at Ebbsfleet United), Joseph Gerken, Dennis McCann (on loan at Kingstonian), Mitchell Paratusic, Tom Virgo

Forwards: Jon Cotterill, Ollie Reynolds, Derek Wright

 

BACKROOM STAFF

Manager: Christopher Fuller

Assistant Manager: Fabio Saraiva

Coaches: Jamie Cochrane, Danny Keohane, Lewis Proudfoot

Fitness Coach: David Wheater

Goalkeeping Coach: Scott Carson

Physios: Sam Cutler (head), Adam Hutchings

Scouts: Callum Donnelly (chief), Goma Lambu, Chris Lewington, Dylan McGeouch, Nicky Reynolds

 

Head of Youth Development: Curtis Langton

Under-18s Manager: Tom Ince

Under-18s Assistant Manager: Aaron McEwan

Under-18s Coach: Joseph Yoffe

[JayR2003]

CFuller, any chance you could put positions in your roster review?  I like to see who you have in the "two deep," and without that it is hard to see where some of the guys fit in depth-wise.

The squad is looking solid for another good run.  The preseason struggles, while a bit troublesome, might just be down to guys getting on the same page as you turned over some of the players from the run at the end of the year.

[CFuller]

41 minutes ago, JayR2003 said:

CFuller, any chance you could put positions in your roster review?  I like to see who you have in the "two deep," and without that it is hard to see where some of the guys fit in depth-wise.

The squad is looking solid for another good run.  The preseason struggles, while a bit troublesome, might just be down to guys getting on the same page as you turned over some of the players from the run at the end of the year.

I'm happy with how the squad review looks (pretty much every player's position is displayed in their individual paragraphs), but I can do a rough depth chart by position if you'd like.

GK: Ryan / Whalley

D/WB L: O'Reilly / Warren / Hopkins / Barnes
D C: Kovjenic / Charles / Busetto / Duru / Banton / Darvill
D/WB R: Puustinen / Banton / O'Reilly / Charles

DM C: Barnes / Cousins / Cochet / Charles / Warren

M/AM L: Green / Honeyball / Warren
M C: Barnes / Fraser / Cousins / Martin / Dam / Verratti / Cochet
M/AM R: Okoli / Martin / Atta / Paratusic

AM C: Dam / Martin / Polomat / Green / Honeyball / Verratti

F C: West / Djokic / Tortora / Honeyball / Polomat / Ganfield

One more thing: could you explain "two deep" to me - is that a phrase used in US sports terminology?

[CFuller]

AUGUST 2030

We'd sold a record 4,922 season tickets, and most of our most loyal supporters were in attendance for our first league game at home to Northampton Town. The Cobblers had recently won promotion via the League One play-offs, and so a poor result against them would not bode particularly well.

 

We had mixed news on the injury front before that game. José Cochet suffered a back strain in training and would not be able to make his full debut until the latter part of August. Another midfielder, William Barnes, was back from a groin strain and ready to come off the bench if needed.

 

3 August 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Northampton Town

With little over a minute gone, Marvin Green swung a promising Dagenham corner to the far post, where Josh Charles had a header saved by Northampton keeper Gareth O'Connell. Another Dagger aimed a header at goal in the 7th minute, but Mario Djokic couldn't keep his on target.

 

In the 9th minute, our former loanee Mason Bennett could've come back to haunt us. Thankfully, Daryl Ryan made a solid save to keep his old colleague at bay. Shortly after that, Northampton's defensive midfielder Arron Spilman was forced to come off injured. He had strained his knee ligaments after a clash with Dagenham midfielder Victor Dam, who in the 26th minute fired a long-range strike just over the bar.

 

On 36 minutes, Cobblers striker Robbie Killick was unlucky to fizz a shot wide. We would have two more chances over the next three minutes, but Mark West's header was caught by O'Connell, and Lucky Okoli followed up a promising solo run with an awful finish. Northampton's last opportunity of the first half came when Goran Plimon intercepted an injury-time throw-in from Matt Warren. Plimon headed the ball square to Killick, whose cross was fired wide by Bennett. We had been let off the hook.

 

I wanted a much-better performance in the second half... but that wasn't forthcoming. The Daggers' debutant midfielder Ashley Cousins - who, let's not forget, was born in Northampton - aimed a piledriver at goal in the 58th minute and smashed it against the crossbar.

 

Apart from a couple of blocked shots later on, Cousins' miss would be our only serious attempt on goal in the second period. Northampton were arguably even worse, as they failed to seriously stretch Ryan. This was turning out to be a very tense affair in which the defences ran the show.

 

Silvo Kovjenic was unsurprisingly one of our better performers, but our Slovenian centre-half's game was ended by injury in the 89th minute. Silvo pulled his hamstring after making a full-blooded tackle on Killick, leaving us with just 10 men for the dying moments. The game fizzled out into a goalless stalemate, and Kovjenic was subsequently ruled out of action for at least the next three weeks.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Northampton Town - 0

Championship, Attendance 7,442 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Northampton 15th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Puustinen, Kovjenic, Charles, Warren, Okoli (Martin), Cousins, Dam, Green, West (O'Reilly), Djokic (Honeyball). BOOKED: Cousins.

 

Ugh... what a mediocre start to the season. Both sides looked like they were still on their holidays, and the spectators were probably wishing that THEY still were.

 

After that, erm, 'contest', I allowed Tom Virgo to join League Two's Forest Green Rovers on loan. The promising midfielder would continue his apprenticeship with six months in Gloucestershire.

 

I'd also planned for George Darvill to go on loan to Bristol Rovers, but Silvo Kovjenic's pulled hamstring prompted me to pull out of that deal. Instead, George took Silvo's place in the centre of our defence when we travelled to Southampton.

 

Southampton finished bottom of the Premier League last season, but they couldn't have started this campaign any better. Jack Rodwell's Saints marched all over Swansea City and recorded a 7-1 win at the Liberty Stadium - in fact, six of their goals came in the first half! Only God knew how much damage they would wreak on us.

 

6 August 2030: Southampton vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Southampton winger Danny Hannigan fired wide a shot from a tight angle after 11 minutes. A minute later, Jacques Polomat missed the target with our first meaningful effort. Saints defender Benjamin Ashton also wasted a chance in the 15th minutes, flicking Takanori Ishizuka's corner past the far post.

 

Both teams would get closer to the target later on. Southampton's teenage striker Hasney Mitchell showed promise with a 19th-minute shot that Dagenham goalkeeper Daryl Ryan had to push away from his right-hand post. Daryl's opposite number Mitch Beckett produced his first save after 25 minutes. Polomat stretched out a leg in the Saints' six-yard box to try and turn Victor Dam's centre over the goal line, but Beckett brilliantly flung himself in front of the ball!

 

The hosts then upped the tempo to create their best chance yet on 34 minutes. Alfredo Orlando Portillo swung a cross to the far end of the box, and Hannigan leapt above Arran Banton to head it just over the bar. A close first half ended with a great chance for William Barnes to get us off the mark against his former club. Will's 30-yard drive in the 41st minute unfortunately skimmed the crossbar, but we went into the interval feeling confident that we could cause an upset.

 

In a bid to make good use of our aerial advantage, I brought Mark West off the bench and switched to a direct, counter-attacking strategy in the second half. That inadvertently allowed Southampton to push further up and put us firmly on the back foot.

 

Daryl kept the game level when he pushed away a strike from Milan Svoboda in the 48th minute, but the in-form Irishman would be beaten just four minutes later. As our defence tightened up, Saints skipper Jason Pack swung a far-post cross into space. Hannigan used his pace to exploit that space, and there was little Ryan could do about the former Norwich City man's diving header. 1-0 to Southampton.

 

Ryan did well to prevent Svoboda from making it 2-0 in the 56th minute, but his heroics would be in vain if we didn't strike back quickly. However, we were unable to break into the Saints box with any regularity, and ended up having to hit and hope from distance. Captain West wasted a couple of long-range punts, but in all honesty, Mark couldn't be blamed for his team-mates' failure to give him alternative options.

 

Our best opportunity, in the 87th minute, only came about after Ashton conceded a free-kick for a sliding foul on Ashley Cousins. Polomat chipped the free-kick into the box, where Josh Charles planted his header straight into Beckett's hands.

 

That came in between a couple of close shaves at our end, as Svoboda missed two opportunities to boost Southampton's winning margin. The fact that we kept it down to 1-0 was down our impressive back four, and especially Daniel O'Reilly, who was named man of the match. Even though the final outcome was a disappointment, our overall performance certainly was not.

 

Southampton - 1 (Hannigan 52)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Championship, Attendance 21,879 - POSITIONS: Southampton 1st, Dag & Red 19th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Banton, Charles, Darvill, O'Reilly, Martin (Cousins), Barnes, Verratti (Honeyball), Polomat, Dam, Djokic (West). BOOKED: Honeyball, Barnes.

 

While I was relieved that our defence had held up pretty well against Southampton's onslaught, I was concerned about our lack of sharpness up front.

 

It was of real importance that we got on the scoreboard in our next home match against Doncaster Rovers. The newly-promoted South Yorkshire side had, like us, drawn their opening game before losing their second.

 

10 August 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Doncaster Rovers

Lucky Okoli was quick out of the blocks, having a pop at goal after just 15 seconds. Doncaster keeper Nathan Thomas pushed the shot away, but his goal would soon come under further pressure. In the fourth minute, Marvin Green swung a deep first-time cross to Mario Tortora, who aimed a header at goal from a tight angle. Mario's attempt rattled the bar before Rovers left-back Dale Porter cleared it into touch.

 

The visitors then steadily worked their way into the match. On 11 minutes, Canadian forward Milan Bazina set up a chance for Huddersfield Town loanee Troy Turner, whose shot was kept out by Daryl Ryan. Bazina caused us more bother in the 19th minute. The former Swansea City man went down under a challenge from Josh Charles in the area, and as Dean Martin hoofed the ball clear, the referee blew his whistle and pointed to the spot!

 

Our players angrily surrounded the ref, and a couple of Daggers fans charged onto the pitch to confront him as well. It took well over a minute for order to be restored... and then Charles Catchpole fired Doncaster into a 1-0 lead.

 

Tensions were now running rather high at Craven Cottage. Bazina and Don Stanley forced Ryan into a couple of saves before combining to create a second Donny goal in the 26th minute. Aussie Stanley played a one-two with his Canuck colleague and then delicately dinked the ball over Ryan's hopeless dive.

 

I swiftly made major changes, replacing my 4-4-2 formation with the 'Christmas tree', and bringing on Marco Verratti for Okoli. Despite those changes, we couldn't turn things around, and at half-time, the travelling Rovers supporters were feeling like Christmas had come extremely prematurely for them!

 

Another Dagenham change at half-time saw Joel Honeyball come on for captain Mark West. Our first chance of the second half, four minutes in, actually came from centre-half Josh Charles, who headed over from Verratti's corner. We would have to wait until the 63rd minute for our next chance, which Dean blasted wide. That was to be our last attempt at goal, as our game fell to pieces in the final half-hour. Our passes kept going askew and the players didn't seem to know whether to retain possession or just hoof it up to Tortora.

 

Doncaster, meanwhile, simply kept their shape and continued doing what had brought them a 2-0 advantage. That lead would be extended to 3-0 in the 81st minute. Bazina received an excellent long ball from his compatriot winger Sandro Franco, and he drilled the ball across our six-yard box before Stanley tapped in his second goal.

 

Bazina had been excellent all game, and he would finish it with a richly-deserved goal on 87 minutes. Stanley found his strike partner in space, and a cool finish into the corner of the net rounded off a 4-0 away win.

 

After congratulating Donny boss Will Grigg at the final whistle, I charged down the tunnel and kicked our dressing-room door open. I broke a couple of bones in my foot in doing so, but the physical pain I felt then didn't come close to the emotional agony of losing 4-0 at home and dropping to 24th place. I was literally at rock-bottom.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Doncaster Rovers - 4 (Catchpole pen21, Stanley 26,81, Bazina 87)

Championship, Attendance 7,641 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 24th, Doncaster 7th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Banton, Busetto (Duru), Charles, O'Reilly, Okoli (Verratti), Cousins, Martin, Green, West (Honeyball), Tortora. BOOKED: Cousins.

 

This could be a long, hard season...

[JayR2003]

15 hours ago, CFuller said:

One more thing: could you explain "two deep" to me - is that a phrase used in US sports terminology?

Yes, American lingo strikes again.  In our version of football, the depth chart usually lists the starter at each position and then the primary backup (just like you did in response).  That is what we refer to as the "two deep."

And my request was no knock on your write-up.  Each paragraph did cover their positions, I just found myself scrolling back through to find the guys that were mentioned in each position.  Thanks for the depth chart!

[CFuller]

20 hours ago, JayR2003 said:

Yes, American lingo strikes again.  In our version of football, the depth chart usually lists the starter at each position and then the primary backup (just like you did in response).  That is what we refer to as the "two deep."

And my request was no knock on your write-up.  Each paragraph did cover their positions, I just found myself scrolling back through to find the guys that were mentioned in each position.  Thanks for the depth chart!

Thanks for the explanation. I know plenty of US sports lingo through the NFL, fantasy football and OOTP, but that phrase was completely unfamiliar to me.

I'm glad you like the depth chart. I could add it to my annual squad reports from now on if that helps. 

[CFuller]

AUGUST 2030 (continued)

Our frankly awful start to the season highlighted just how badly we were missing Matthew Fraser. Without the Scottish midfielder, our long-ball game was about as effective as pushing custard up a hill with a fork.

 

I was delighted that we managed to convince Matthew to commit his long-term future to the club by signing a new four-year contract. However, until he had fully recovered from his broken leg, we would have to abandon our direct strategy for something much more methodical. We needed to be more patient in order to create more shots on target.

 

We put our new approach to the test in our League Cup Round 1 game at home to Bristol Rovers. The Pirates had made an okay start to their League Two season, but I felt confident that we could record a morale-boosting win.

 

13 August 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Bristol Rovers

Over 7,500 attended our previous home game... but barely 900 were in attendance for this one. Those who did turn up saw Mario Djokic rediscover his pre-season magic within two minutes of kick-off. Mario picked up a Mark West pass from the middle of the park and then proceeded to dribble to the edge of Bristol Rovers' penalty area. Once there, he sharply turned past Rovers full-back Scott Glover and hammered home our first goal of the season!

 

A poor start for the Pirates got worse after four minutes, when winger Blaine Ruddy came off with a groin strain. The visitors almost scored four minutes later, though, as an excellent Glover cross found Duncan Roberts, who headed it just over. Victor Dam also went close for us in the 10th minute, when his piledriver skimmed the crossbar.

 

Our next effort in the 24th minute was more disappointing, as Djokic blazed over a flick-on from William Barnes. Will would later miss the target with a couple of free-kicks that suggested he wasn't quite match-sharp.

 

Bristol Rovers' teenage striker Elliot Winters certainly wasn't sharp when he wasted a chance to level after 40 minutes. Another Winters error in the 43rd minute saw us start off a counter-attack that ended with Djokic's shot being saved by Tyler Sercombe. We still held a 1-0 lead, but we were barely out of second gear.

 

We accelerated further five minutes into the second period. Midfielder Nigel Atta - making his first competitive start - passed the ball forward to West, who played a first-time square pass to Dam. Victor hammered in an unstoppable shot, and we were 2-0 to the good!

 

Nigel hadn't played too badly on his full debut, but I took him off after he was booked for fouling Rovers substitute Thomas Dryden in the 58th minute. On came Jacques Polomat, who failed to get near the target with his first shot two minutes later.

 

Dryden then gave us a warning on 70 minutes, when he nodded a Nicky Sutcliffe cross inches over. We didn't learn anything from that narrow escape. When we failed to deal with Sutcliffe's free-kick in the 78th minute, 19-year-old Dryden punished us with a close-range finish that halved our advantage.

 

We were now very much on edge, and that was evident when Polomat missed an opportunity to kill Bristol Rovers off with six minutes remaining. The Pirates went on the attack for the closing moments, and in the first minute of added-on time, they pillaged an equaliser. Winters beat George Darvill to a centre from Rovers full-back Tony McGuigan, pulling the visitors from the brink of defeat. We now had to steel ourselves for 30 more minutes of football that we didn't really want to play.

 

Extra-time was torturous for us. Mario Tortora struggled in particular, as the substitute striker was well off target with his only shot at goal in the 96th minute. We would have a couple more opportunities either side of half-time. Unfortunately, Barnes and Polomat were each denied by excellent saves from Sercombe.

 

Our attack soon ground itself into the ground, and Bristol Rovers were able to sit back and run the clock down. A match that arguably should've been all over after regulation time was going all the way to penalties... and we were bricking it.

 

Bristol Rovers won the coin toss and took the opening penalty, which Sutcliffe dispatched with some ease. Sutcliffe fired to the goalkeeper's right-hand side, as did Djokic with our first kick. Alas, Sercombe went the same way and pushed it clear. Winters then powered in the Pirates' second penalty before Dam fired ours straight at Sercombe. When McGuigan scored moments later to give Rovers a 3-0 lead, it looked like we were going to have the worst possible penalty shoot-out. Barring a miracle, we were heading out of the League Cup with a whimper.

 

Tortora had to score his penalty to keep alive our very slim hopes, and thankfully, he did exactly that. That started off an extraordinary period in which Whalley saved potentially decisive penalties from Glover and Franklin Eboh, and Barnes hammered in our fourth spot-kick. We'd suddenly pulled it back to 3-2, and if Darvill could convert his kick, the fightback would be complete. George stepped up knowing that he could not afford to miss... and, to the 17-year-old's credit, he didn't. It was now 3-3 - sudden-death time.

 

Both sides converted their sixth spot-kicks, and Bristol Rovers captain Oliver Kent did the same with his team's seventh. The pressure was now firmly on Daniel O'Reilly's Irish shoulders. The left-back blasted the ball to Sercombe's left... but the goalie palmed it away to leave Daniel crestfallen. We had lost to a League Two team on penalties. Brilliant.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Djokic 2, Dam 51)

Bristol Rovers - 2 (Dryden 78, Winters 90)

[Bristol Rovers win 5-4 on penalties]

League Cup Round 1, Attendance 915

PENALTY SHOOT-OUT: Sutcliffe 0-1, Djokic saved, Winters 0-2, Dam saved, McGuigan 0-3, Tortora 1-3, Glover saved, Barnes 2-3, Eboh saved, Darvill 3-3, Gardner 3-4, Polomat 4-4, Kent 4-5, O'Reilly saved.

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Duru, Busetto, Darvill, Puustinen, Warren (O'Reilly), Atta (Polomat), Barnes, Dam, West (Tortora), Djokic. BOOKED: Atta, Polomat.

 

That was a clear sign of a team with absolutely no self-confidence. At 2-0 up with not long to go, we should have been safely in Round 2. Instead, we somehow managed to choke on our lead before losing in a shoot-out.

 

We were now out of the League Cup, and bottom of the Championship without a league goal to our name. Worse still, our next game was at Bramall Lane against 8th-placed Sheffield United, whose former Daggers midfielder Paul Hart had started the season with one goal and four assists. Oh joy.

 

17 August 2030: Sheffield United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

It seemed like it was written in the script that Paul Hart would make an immediate impact against his old club. Sure enough, after less than five minutes, his assist for Cameron Bagshaw resulted in an early opening goal for Sheffield United.

 

The Blades would cut us open again about a minute later. Defender Mikael Nordnes pumped a long ball ahead of striker Karl Tierney, who dragged it into the net from a difficult angle.

 

Worse could have followed when Bagshaw found Jim Dearden in our penalty area on 9 minutes, but the midfielder's shot could only find the side netting. Then, in the 13th minute, our luck appeared to change. It was a case of 'The Italian Job', as Marco Verratti's corner was headed in by Alex Busetto, who bagged his first Dagenham goal!

 

Verratti had helped to halve our deficit, and he could've had an even more important second assist two minutes later. Marco slipped a pinpoint pass to Mario Djokic in the area, and when Mario rounded Blades keeper Albert Flynn, he looked odds-on to equalise. Much to our horror, though, Djokic thumped the upright! That would be a crucial miss.

 

Sheffield United were soon putting us under pressure again, and after half an hour, Hart bit the hand that used to feed him. Bagshaw crossed from the left, and Hart beat Dagenham centre-back Philip Duru to slide it across the goal line. 3-1 to the incisive Blades.

 

Paul nearly caused further consternation amongst the travelling supporters in the 34th minute, when he sent a free-kick inches over. On 44 minutes, Tierney struck the woodwork from point-blank range as United threatened to run riot. Our hopes of getting back into the game then suffered a major setback just before half-time. An untypically late challenge on Dearden resulted in Verratti being ordered to take an early bath, and we would have to play the entire second half with 10 men.

 

Mark West came on at the restart, but it was Victor Dam who had our first scoring opportunity of the half. Sadly, Victor's 56th-minute piledriver never went close to the target. Tim Demetriou and Dearden were similarly wayward with attempts for Sheffield United later on, but it wouldn't be too long before the Blades drew more blood.

 

Predictably, Hart played a key part in giving United a 4-1 lead after 73 minutes. Our old friend set up a second goal for Bagshaw, who slid home his through-ball. It was a moment to forget for teenager George Darvill, who had replaced the very disappointing Duru earlier in the half.

 

Our strikers would also be keen to erase this game from their memory banks. Djokic sent an awful shot flying into the stands after 77 minutes, while West missed the goal with a couple of late attempts. United ultimately ran out comfortable 4-1 winners, although the post denied Alexandru Barladeanu a fifth Blades goal in added-on time. We remained rooted to the foot of the Championship table.

 

Sheffield United - 4 (Bagshaw 5,73, Tierney 6, Hart 30)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Busetto 13)

Championship, Attendance 22,927 - POSITIONS: Sheff Utd 5th, Dag & Red 24th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Banton, Duru (Darvill), Charles, O'Reilly, Verratti, Busetto, Dam, Green (West), Martin, Djokic (Honeyball). SENT OFF: Verratti.

 

At least there was one Dagger who was smiling at the end of the afternoon's play. Reserve striker Roy Ganfield had been sent on a six-month loan to our feeder club Leighton Town, and he scored on his Conference South debut as the Reds won 3-2 at Maldon & Tiptree.

 

Back at Bramall Lane, Marco Verratti's rush of blood would see him receive a three-match suspension. That meant we were without THREE first-team midfielders for our final two games of the month.

 

Could August really get any worse for us?!

[Black and Yellow]

Ouch - not the best of starts, but plenty of time to address problems! 

[CFuller]

On 1/13/2017 at 14:34, Black and Yellow said:

Ouch - not the best of starts, but plenty of time to address problems! 

Indeed, there is plenty of time to turn things around. This next update will see a change of strategy - hopefully, that'll get us moving back up the table.

[CFuller]

AUGUST 2030 (continued)

Ahead of the Essex derby at home to Colchester United, I decided to try something a bit different tactically. The 5-3-2 formation had generally brought about our best results in recent months, but there was still a clear disconnect between our midfield and our attack. I opted to move one of the midfielders further forward, just behind the front two, to create what was essentially an unusual 5-2-1-2 formation.

 

That new tactic made its debut when Colchester arrived at Craven Cottage. The U's had won both of their home games and lost both of their away matches in the league so far, so if history was to repeat itself, we would come out on top.

 

20 August 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Colchester United

We quickly set about stroking the ball across Colchester's half, and by the fourth minute, we were off to a dream start. Daniel O'Reilly delicately chipped the ball towards Mark West's run into the penalty area, and a weak interception from U's defender Eric Ball couldn't keep it away from our skipper. Mark kicked off his 200th league game for Dagenham with his 110th league goal, further enhancing his legendary status among our fans!

 

Worryingly, William Barnes picked up a knock in the 10th minute, though he would quickly return unaffected. On 16 minutes, Will helped to create an opportunity for Jacques Polomat, who struck from long range but couldn't beat United goalkeeper David Croft.

 

Our goalie Daryl Ryan's first save of the day was also a comfortable one, from Ford in the 22nd minute. Polomat had another pop from distance two minutes later, with a superb reflex save from Croft denying us a more comfortable lead. That would be a turning point.

 

On 32 minutes, a shot from U's striker Matt Peters deflected off Daggers centre-back Josh Charles and into a dangerous position in our area. United's other frontman Regan Stroud beat our other centre-half George Darvill to the loose ball, which he fired in off the near post. “Just our luck,” I said to my assistant Fabio Saraiva as our 1-0 lead went up in smoke.

 

When we last played Colchester in December, we went into the second half with the scores level at 1-1 before eventually winning 4-1. Eight months on, to quote Dame Shirley Bassey, there was "just a little bit of history repeating". West headed a first-time cross Heikki Puustinen cross against the bar in the 47th minute, but Heikki's follow-up delivery was nodded in by Mario Tortora. Mario's first competitive goal for the Daggers had put us back in front.

 

Three minutes later, Polomat - another of our recent foreign imports - chipped the ball in front of the Italian striker, who ran through and scored his second! Incredibly, we would score again another three minutes after that! Polomat's clever pass was slotted into the target by Daniel O'Reilly, and just like in December, we were leading our county rivals 4-1!

 

We weren't yet assured of our first win of the season, however. We survived a major scare after 63 minutes, when Colchester captain Casey Phillips missed the post with his header from a Harrison Atkins cross. United didn't waste their next big opportunity ten minutes later. Atkins turned in a corner from Joel Edwards at the near post, and we were now only 4-2 up.

 

The tension at Craven Cottage increased further when Jacques missed a couple of chances to restore our three-goal cushion. Eight minutes from time, Colchester midfielder Jon Howard intercepted a pass from Matt Warren. Our anxiety grew as the U's went on the counter, but Ryan crucially saved Peters' shot to keep us in a comfortable position.

 

Alex Busetto broke up another Colchester counter-attack two minutes after that, and we proceeded to hit the visitors on the break. Polomat's excellent ball to West was played first-time to the feet of Tortora, whose shot was parried by Croft. Mario then buried the rebound to seal his hat-trick - and a 5-2 victory that took us off the bottom of the Championship!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 5 (West 4, Tortora 47,50,84, O'Reilly 53)

Colchester United - 2 (Stroud 32, Atkins 73)

Championship, Attendance 6,293 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 22nd, Colchester 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Charles, Busetto (Okoli), Darvill, Puustinen, O'Reilly, Dam (Cousins), Barnes (Warren), Polomat, West, Tortora.

 

After our first victory this season, most of our players should've been confident about leading us further away from trouble. However, centre-backs Alex Busetto and Josh Charles remained concerned about our poor start. They each expressed their concerns to me after the following day's training session, and I had to reassure them that we would soon be back on the right track.

 

Alex and Josh would keep their places at the back when we finished the month with a trip to unbeaten Bolton Wanderers. I went for another new formation in this match, adopting a narrow 4-3-1-2 to try and wrestle midfield control away from the Trotters. Would it be anywhere near as effective as the 5-2-1-2?

 

24 August 2030: Bolton Wanderers vs Dagenham & Redbridge

On-loan Liverpool striker Grant Swan had Bolton's first scoring opportunity in the 7th minute. The youngster latched onto a corner from Joe Donoghue, but his shot was parried by Daryl Ryan.

 

Four minutes later, Donoghue swung in another corner, which Dagenham defender Josh Charles headed away. Jacques Polomat then charged down an attempted piledriver from Trotters winger Callum Fordham and started off a Daggers breakaway. William Barnes played an excellent final ball for Mark West, who sadly couldn't quite keep his effort on target.

 

Bolton's next attack after 17 minutes saw left-winger Jimmy Guy cut inside and blast the ball over. Polomat hit an awful long-range shot for us six minutes later.

 

The action then died down somewhat until Victor Dam conceded a Bolton free-kick in a dangerous position after 36 minutes. Victor was penalised for tugging Donoghue's shirt, and he would pay a heavy price. From just outside the corner of our penalty area, Republic of Ireland midfielder Donoghue curled in an excellent free-kick that bypassed his international colleague Ryan and put the Trotters 1-0 up!

 

That Donoghue special was a rare highlight in a match littered with dreadful shooting. Bolton were particularly profligate in the opening stages of the second half, as Swan missed a couple of chances to give them daylight.

 

Shortly after Swan's second miss, in the 51st minute, we registered our first shot on target. Daniel O'Reilly cut the ball back from the byline to William Barnes, who then flicked it into the penalty area. The recipient of his flick-on was captain West, who beat Trotters centre-back Simon Smith to flick it past goalkeeper Bill Miveld!

 

Mark wasn't able to celebrate his equaliser, having hurt himself in a collision with Smith. He was thankfully okay, and with the Trotters continuing to waste chances, our defence wasn't in too bad a shape, either.

 

Portuguese substitute Ricardo missed two of Bolton's best opportunities in the 59th and 80th minutes. When Ricardo was felled by Charles in the 87th minute, though, the hosts smelled a big opening.

 

Donoghue played the free-kick quickly to Charlie Gordon, and the substitute winger caught us out with an excellent finish into the far corner! Gordon wheeled away in delight... only for the officials to disallow his goal for offside. Bolton's players were furious, but we were mightily relieved to have got away with our lapses in concentration. Despite being far from our best, we held on for our first away point.

 

Bolton Wanderers - 1 (Donoghue 37)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (West 51)

Championship, Attendance 24,858 - POSITIONS: Bolton 7th, Dag & Red 21st

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Puustinen, Busetto, Charles, O'Reilly, Dam, Cousins (Warren), Barnes, Polomat (Martin), West, Tortora (Djokic).

 

That single point saw us climb out of the relegation zone, but with just one win from our first six league games, we were still in a spot of bother.

 

Despite our sluggish start, I had no plans to make any further changes to my squad. Indeed, the only transfer business we were involved in late in the window involved one of our reserve players.

 

Dennis McCann had seriously struggled to make his mark at Kingstonian, failing to make even a single appearance for the League Two side in their first few games. I recalled the teenage midfielder and sent him out to Leighton Town for the next five months instead. He'll hopefully find regular action much easier to come by in the Conference South.

 

Speaking of midfielders, José Cochet has now recovered from a back injury... but the Frenchman will have to wait for his competitive debut. He needs to prove his worth in the reserves before I can throw him into league action. While we're struggling at the wrong end of the table, we need hardened experience, not untested youth.

[EvilDave]

A much better last couple of games there, looks like the tactical tweaking is paying dividends. Here's hoping there's still plenty of time to turn things around - if last season is anything to go by you've certainly got the squad for it. Enjoying this as much as ever, now let's see the Daggers climb that table... 

[CFuller]

On 1/16/2017 at 09:30, EvilDave said:

A much better last couple of games there, looks like the tactical tweaking is paying dividends. Here's hoping there's still plenty of time to turn things around - if last season is anything to go by you've certainly got the squad for it. Enjoying this as much as ever, now let's see the Daggers climb that table... 

Sometimes a tactical change is just what you need. We've definitely got enough quality in our squad to do more than merely survive, and if we can get on a good run in September, don't rule out another surprise play-off challenge.

[CFuller]

SEPTEMBER 2030

September began on a high for Mario Tortora, who received his first award in English football. The Italian striker's second goal of his hat-trick against Colchester United was so impressive that it won the Championship's Goal of the Month award for August.

 

One former Dagger who had reason to celebrate was Paul Hart, who was named as the Championship's Player of the Month. The Sheffield United playmaker had started the campaign with two goals and an incredible EIGHT assists! The rest of the division won't want to thank me for creating a monster!

 

The transfer window closed with not much in the way of business at Dagenham, other than another loan spell for Marc Hopkins. The reserve left-back joined League One side Wycombe Wanderers for the next four months.

 

Our first match of the new month was at home to Stoke City - the side we edged out of the play-off places last season. The Potters had made a disappointing start to this campaign, sitting 13th after six matches.

 

1 September 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Stoke City

Both of Stoke's central midfielders made nervy start. Kaveh Salmani was booked after tripping Victor Dam from behind in the third minute, and his Potters colleague Nicky Smith narrowly escaped a caution after fouling Dean Martin just moments later. Stoke's left-winger Zvonko Trajkovic blazed over his team's first scoring chance in the sixth minute. He went much closer in the 11th minute, clipping the crossbar from a direct free-kick.

 

Mark West and Mario Djokic then wasted a chance apiece for Dagenham before we launched a devastating attack in the 20th minute. Right-back Heikki Puustinen's cross into the Stoke box was deflected into the path of Dam, who tapped in our first goal.

 

Three minutes later, we were celebrating a second goal! Dam knocked a lovely pass to Djokic, whose through-ball culminated in a tidy finish from captain West! We appeared to be in control... but Stoke bounced back after 29 minutes.

 

Trajkovic had a shot blocked by Josh Charles, but when the Serb received the ball again from City striker Billy Murphy, he was much more clinical. The Potters were back to within a single goal, and they were soon looking to restore parity.

 

In the 34th minute, commentator's nightmare Mustafa Mulaosmanovic crossed first-time to Murphy, whose shot bounced off the far post before Daryl Ryan pushed it clear. Five minutes later, West was denied a second goal after Stoke keeper Sasa Vucemilovic-Grgic came off his line to fist our skipper's piledriver away. That would be a significant save. In the penultimate minute of normal time, Trajkovic swung a Stoke corner to the far post, where Nathaniel Yiadom thrashed in an equaliser. Had we missed a trick?

 

Yiadom almost found the net again shortly after the second half kicked off, but Ryan got down to stop his low drive just in time. Trajkovic then made an energetic run towards our goal in the 51st minute, only to follow it up with a lax shot. Three minutes later, Djokic advanced into Stoke's area, where a tackle from Salmani sent him crashing to the ground. The referee awarded us a penalty, and although he chose not to issue Salmani with a second yellow card, the Iran international would not be let off scot free. Mario's spot-kick had power and accuracy, and we were 3-2 ahead!

 

Stoke attempted to respond through Polish winger Adam Ceglarz, whose strong strike in the 57th minute was caught by Ryan. Daryl would not have to do much more for the next quarter-hour, but the Potters' goalkeeper was kept busy. Vucemilovic-Grgic made a couple of strong saves after 69 and 72 minutes to stop Dean Martin from giving us a fresh two-goal lead.

 

Shortly after the Croatian's latter save, Ryan was forced to make one at our end, turning a Murphy header over the bar. Daryl was then stopped a glorious effort from Trajkovic in the 77th minute, but could only parry it to Yiadom's feet. Fortunately, the offside flag came to our rescue just as the West Ham United loanee tucked the ball away. We were still in front... just about.

 

West wasn't quite able to enhance our fragile lead, as Vucemilovic-Grgic saved his strike in the 79th minute, but a solid Dagenham rearguard made sure that we wouldn't lose it late on. When the final whistle blew, we celebrated a huge victory!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Dam 20, West 23, Djokic pen55)

Stoke City - 2 (Trajkovic 29, Yiadom 44)

Championship, Attendance 6,757 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 16th, Stoke 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Charles, Busetto, Duru (Kovjenic), Puustinen, O'Reilly, Martin (Cousins), Barnes, Dam, West, Djokic (Tortora). BOOKED: West.

 

That was an exhausting win, so it was just as well that we now had a fortnight to recuperate before our next game!

 

While most of my squad got stuck into some intensive team-bonding exercises, a few players went out on international duty. Heikki Puustinen won two caps for Finland, taking his tally up to eight, while Daniel O'Reilly picked up his third with the Republic of Ireland. There was also a landmark England Under-21s debut for William Barnes, whose appearance in a European Championship qualifier against Switzerland made him the first Dagger to represent the Three Lions at that level.

 

We resumed our Championship campaign in mid-September with a trip to south-east London. Crystal Palace were in 14th place and had broken a five-game winless run in their previous match.

 

14 September 2030: Crystal Palace vs Dagenham & Redbridge

A second-minute Dagenham counter-attack almost resulted in us taking an early lead. A fabulous cross from Daniel O'Reilly found the head of Mark West, but our captain's header just skimmed the crossbar. Crystal Palace went one better a couple of minutes later. Anthony Henry flicked Matt Woodward's centre across our goalmouth, and Toby Cook popped up to slice in the opening goal.

 

That was the 100th league goal of Cook's career, though he wouldn't have long to celebrate it. William Barnes drove a superb long ball to Mario Djokic, who surged into the Eagles' box and fired in an equaliser just as the game entered its 9th minute.

 

Two minutes later, however, a thrilling encounter took another twist! Daryl Ryan was again beaten from close range, as Moldova striker Mihai Guran connected with Irish full-back Paddy Hedderman's cross and provided a lethal finish. That made it 2-1 to Crystal Palace... but we soon built up some momentum.

 

Jacques Polomat and Silvo Kovjenic missed chances to get us back on level terms before Djokic had a shot saved by Daniel Dawes in the 19th minute. When Mario next faced off with Dawes in the 27th minute, it was our man who prevailed. Victor Dam's flick-on bounced across the edge of Palace's box before our Montenegrin hotshot slipped it between Dawes and his left-hand post.

 

Djokic was looking red-hot, and when Barnes played another superb long-ball to him shortly after the restart, he scored again! Mario's marvellous hat-trick had given us a 3-2 lead... and the first half-hour of this pulsating contest wasn't even over!

 

Selhurst Park was on edge again in the 30th minute, when Barnes stepped up to take a free-kick just outside the hosts' area. Will struck the set-piece as fiercely as he could... but it clipped Victor's shoulder and deflected behind for a goal kick.

 

Two minutes later, the Eagles launched a two-pronged attack on our hat-trick hero. Hedderman and Woodward both dove in on Djokic at the same time, with the latter's challenge hacking our star striker down. The referee immediately stopped play and summoned Woodward before issuing him with a red card! Palace were now a man down as well as a goal down!

 

Eagles anager Ian Bermingham made a quick change, replacing right-winger Henry with right-back and captain Anthony Carey. That looked like a more defensive change on the surface, but Carey would soon make an instant impact on the attacking front. On 37 minutes, Carey half-volleyed the ball into our box, where Guran chested it and thundered it into the corner of our net! This match was once again level! There would be no more goals before both teams got a well-earned break, though Victor and Mark each missed late chances for us.

 

West had a couple of attempts from distance early in the second period. On 48 minutes, he pounced on a sloppy pass from Aarran Bryant before racing through and blasting a disappointing shot high and wide. West's next attempt was blocked by Bob Cairns in the 51st minute, and he wouldn't get another. Mark collided with Bryant in the 58th minute, picking up a knock that led to me subbing him as a precaution.

 

West's replacement was Mario Tortora, who was sent through on goal by Djokic in the 64th minute. Mario had loads of time and space... but he shot far too early from too far out. Although we were a man up and enjoying more possession, that would actually be our last chance to win the game.

 

Crystal Palace played with more freedom in the closing stages and had several opportunities to beat the odds. On 82 minutes, Danish teenager Daniel Poulsen swung an outswinging corner to Cairns, whose header was comfortably caught by Ryan. Shortly after that, Guran missed the target with a header of his own.

 

The Eagles made one final swoop with less than four minutes to go. Bryant retook the ball for Palace after Poulsen was stopped in his tracks by Heikki Puustinen. He then entered our area and unleashed a vicious low drive that Ryan couldn't quite reach. What a sickener.

 

Crystal Palace had taken a 4-3 lead with 10 men on the pitch. In fact, they finished the match with only nine, on account of Bryant being forced off with a neck injury before added-on time. That made it even more frustrating that we couldn't even take a single point from this match.

 

Crystal Palace - 4 (Cook 4, Guran 11,37, Bryant 87)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Djokic 9,27,28)

Championship, Attendance 14,393 - POSITIONS: Crystal Palace 11th, Dag & Red 18th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Charles, Busetto, Kovjenic, Puustinen, O'Reilly (Warren), Dam, Barnes, Polomat (Cousins), West (Tortora), Djokic. BOOKED: O'Reilly, Puustinen, Cousins.

 

I thought we were back on track, but a defeat like that could shatter any team's confidence. The next few weeks would really test our character.

[CFuller]

SEPTEMBER 2030 (continued)

After eight games, we had the joint-second-worst defensive record in the Championship. We and Queens Park Rangers - our next opponents, as it happened - had conceded 18 goals apiece. Only Swansea City - another team we would face late in September - had a flimsier defence, shipping 19 goals.

 

I'd shown a lot of faith in goalkeeper Daryl Ryan, but following our shaky start, my faith was wavering. I decided to take the out-of-form Daryl out of the firing line and give teenager Kieran Whalley an extended run in the team, starting with QPR's visit to Craven Cottage.

 

17 September 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Queens Park Rangers

Our last home game against QPR broke our attendance record, and that was the case again as well over 12,500 attended what was effectively a West London derby. The home fans saw Mark West blaze over a shot from outside QPR's penalty area in the third minute.

 

On seven minutes, Lucky Okoli took the ball into the area, where he was brought down by Hoops left-back John Thompson. Penalty to Dagenham! Mario Djokic took the spot-kick powerfully... but Florin Mozacu kept it out with an excellent save to his left!

 

That miss affected us for quite a while, and in the 21st minute, we nearly went behind to a spectacular Sean Wordsworth drive. A minute later, Marvin Green missed the target for a Daggers team that was looking increasingly agitated. That all changed after 26 minutes. Green cut the ball back to Matt Warren, who pumped the ball long into the box. As the ball dipped towards the ground, West met it with a stunning left-footed volley that had Mozacu beaten!

 

It was 1-0 to the Daggers, but QPR could've levelled from a couple of free-kicks just before the half-hour. Martin Plachy went close with his effort, and Sebastian Remme Berge's attempt shortly after that was caught by Kieran Whalley. It was a generally frustrating half for Rangers, who had three players - Thompson, Plachy, and Australian midfielder Sam Taylor - enter the referee's book.

 

QPR may have struggled to keep their cool in the first half, but we were the ones struggling with our discipline in the second. West and William Barnes both picked up bookings shortly after the restart for separate fouls on Hoops midfielder James Marshall. We were losing our cool, and in the 58th minute, Arran Banton lost our lead. The young right-back's sloppy throw-in was intercepted by R's substitute Steven Welman, and the 18-year-old cut inside before drilling in his first senior goal.

 

I was not at all pleased with Banton, and Mario Tortora was also disappointing me a great deal. The substitute striker wasted a close-range chance on 64 minutes and then had a free-kick saved by Mozacu four minutes later.

 

Eight minutes from time, Mario closed down Anton Eckersley's pass to his fellow QPR centre-half colleague and looked set to race clear for our second goal. Unfortunately, the Italian's first touch was too heavy, and Mozacu gathered the ball just before Tortora could get to it. Jason Buss had a glorious opportunity to put Rangers ahead from the resulting counter-attack. That was when Kieran came to our rescue, pushing away a weak effort from the 16-year-old striker.

 

An action-packed conclusion also saw Barnes narrowly miss the target with a free-kick before Mozacu saved from Okoli in the 89th minute. Heikki Puustinen's subsequent corner was intercepted by Eckersley, but our flying Finn quickly swung the ball back into the area. This time, Marshall could only head Heikki's cross as far as Dean Martin, and our midfield substitute lashed in a sensational volley! Two incredible strikes had earned us a memorable win against QPR and moved us up to 15th!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (West 26, Martin 90)

Queens Park Rangers - 1 (Welman 58)

Championship, Attendance 12,746 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 15th, QPR 20th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton (Puustinen), Kovjenic, Charles, Warren, Okoli, Barnes, Dam (Martin), Green, West, Djokic (Tortora). BOOKED: West, Barnes.

 

Four days later, we travelled to Lancashire for a meeting with Burnley, who spent 17 consecutive seasons in the Premier League before they were relegated in May. The Clarets had only lost one of their first nine games back in the Championship, but they were still in a disappointing 9th place.

 

21 September 2030: Burnley vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Our first ever visit to Turf Moor could not have got off to a better start. In the fourth minute, playmaker William Barnes played a first-time pass over the Burnley defence to Victor Dam, who raced through and tucked away a lethal finish from a tight angle!

 

Victor would go into the ref's book two minutes later for impeding Burnley winger Balla Barry, whose subsequent free-kick rattled Kieran Whalley's right-hand bar. Whalley made his first save in the 10th minute, pushing away a drive from the Clarets' Romanian midfielder Ion Pavelescu.

 

We later survived a trio of Burnley corners and a Cyril Nzunga free-kick before the hosts lost one of their strikers to injury in the 15th minute. 17-year-old Ray Priest would've needed some divine intervention to bounce back after twisting his ankle in our penalty area, and he had to come off early.

 

By the 22nd minute, we were threatening to double our lead. Mario Tortora cleverly back-heeled Barnes' pass to the feet of Jacques Polomat, whose strike was well saved by Burnley goalkeeper Souza. Polomat's game would sadly be cut short by injury after 31 minutes. Jacques strained his ankle ligaments following a clash with Clarets midfielder Nzunga and was replaced by Marco Verratti. Pavelescu and Nzunga both missed the target for Burnley late on in the first half, which ended with us still leading narrowly.

 

Two minutes into the second half, an excellent pass from Verratti gave his Italian compatriot Tortora a chance to boost our advantage. Mario's hit-and-miss season continued with one of the latter, and the travelling supporters began to worry that we were suffering from clincher's disease again.

 

Josh Charles was also suffering - from a couple of knocks. The second half was still quite young when I decided to take Josh off and bring on Philip Duru. Young Philip was in good company in a three-man defence that included Busetto and Silvo Kovjenic, who were both playing superbly.

 

Burnley were seldom able to break through our defence and enter our penalty area. The first time they did so was in the 63rd minute, when Ricci Keeble's cross was half-volleyed wide by Ashley Bramall. Bramall was involved again when the Clarets next found a way through on 74 minutes. The American right-winger squared the ball to Barry... and the Guinean sliced in an equaliser from the six-yard box!

 

Play had not long resumed when Tortora earned himself a booking for an immature tug on Burnley captain Alex Olofsson's shirt. Mario was replaced by namesake Mario Djokic, and we pushed forward again in a bid to win the game.

 

After 85 minutes, Verratti had a half-volley blocked by Nzunga. The ball bounced back towards Dam, whose first-time strike was parried by Souza. The Clarets' Brazilian goalie had to produce another save in the 89th minute, when he denied West his moment of glory. Mark chased down the loose ball... and then a slide-tackle from Johnny Baynes sent him crashing to the turf. We were awarded a second penalty in as many games!

 

Djokic now had an opportunity to make amends for his previous miss against Queens Park Rangers. Mario stepped forward confidently, and with a powerful strike into the corner, he put his demons to rest! That penalty gave us our first away win of the campaign, and we were now in the top half!

 

Burnley - 1 (Barry 74)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Dam 4, Djokic pen90)

Championship, Attendance 18,234 - POSITIONS: Burnley 9th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles (Duru), Busetto, Kovjenic, Puustinen, O'Reilly, Dam, Barnes, Polomat (Verratti), West, Tortora (Djokic). BOOKED: Dam, West, Tortora.

 

That would be Burnley manager Ross Jenkins' final game in charge at Turf Moor. About an hour after we defeated the Clarets, they announced that Jenkins' contract had been "terminated by mutual consent".

 

Another club in need of a new manager were Swansea City, who had sacked Nathan Rooney after a 2-1 defeat to high-flying Newcastle United left them third-from-bottom. Assistant manager Jermaine Jenas was in caretaker charge when the Swans visited us at Craven Cottage the following weekend.

 

Jacques Polomat's ankle injury against Burnley would rule him out for four weeks, and another attacking midfielder had to withdraw from our squad for the Swansea game. Dean Martin bruised his head in a training-ground collision and would therefore miss our next couple of matches.

 

28 September 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Swansea City

Swansea's poor start to the campaign took another turn for the worse after six minutes. Hungarian winger Antal Mezei twisted his ankle after being challenged by Daniel O'Reilly, prompting Jermaine Jenas to make a very early substitution. Three minutes later, Mario Djokic made an excellent run into the Swans' area and then passed the ball back to Victor Dam, who got his shot all wrong.

 

In the 12th minute, it was our defence's turn to lose focus. After finding himself surrounded by three Dagenham defenders, City striker Darryl Boyd played the ball through to an unmarked Graham Melia. The midfielder looked a dead cert to score... but Kieran Whalley came forward to palm his shot away! That would be the best chance either team had in the first half.

 

Boyd messed up a diving header in the 26th minute, but Dagenham captain Mark West was even more profligate, missing the target with all four of his attempts at goal! With West so wasteful, our direct approach clearly needed rethinking before the second half.

 

Our first shot on target came seven minutes into the second half. Centre-back Josh Charles flicked winger Marvin Green's header towards goal, but Swans goalkeeper Argyris Skrivanos caught it just before Mark could pop up and nod it home.

 

We later began to run at Swansea's sluggish centre-halves with more regularity. One example of that proved devastating in the 63rd minute. William Barnes knocked a pass forward to Mario Djokic, who turned inside Dan Francis and slotted in the opener! That was Mario's sixth goal in five games - he really was in hot form!

 

Swansea could only have dreamed of such firepower. Rangers loanee Boyd was very ineffective up top for them, and in the 67th minute, he got himself booked for a shove on our substitute defender Arran Banton.

 

As for the visitors' defensive players, they were more akin to ugly ducklings than swans. With two minutes remaining, captain John French failed to intercept a cross from Heikki Puustinen to our other wing-back O'Reilly. Daniel then dribbled past the hapless Skrivanos and carried the ball across the line! That secured us a comfy two-goal win, and we also kept our first clean sheet since the opening day!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Djokic 63, O'Reilly 88)

Swansea City - 0

Championship, Attendance 6,548 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 10th, Swansea 22nd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Kovjenic, Charles, O'Reilly, Okoli (Banton), Barnes, Dam (Cousins), Green, West (Honeyball), Djokic. BOOKED: Dam.

 

While we were recording our third straight win, a third Daggers player was making his debut on loan at Leighton Town. Right-winger Mitchell Paratusic had joined colleagues Roy Ganfield and Dennis McCann at the Conference South club, where he would be staying until the New Year.

 

We've come to the end of September now, and I'm delighted with how much we have improved since August. We've lost just one of our last seven league games and are now looking up the table rather than down it.

[CFuller]

Championship Table (End of September 2030)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Southampton            11    7     3     1     25    8     +17   24
2.          Aston Villa            11    7     3     1     18    8     +10   24
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Sheff Utd              11    7     2     2     20    8     +12   23
4.          Newcastle              11    6     4     1     22    8     +14   22
5.          Leeds                  11    6     3     2     18    8     +10   21
6.          Hull                   11    6     3     2     20    13    +7    21
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Peterborough           11    5     5     1     13    6     +7    20
8.          Crystal Palace         11    5     2     4     19    15    +4    17
9.          Burnley                11    4     5     2     18    14    +4    17
10.         Dag & Red              11    5     2     4     19    20    -1    17
11.         Millwall               11    4     3     4     14    14    0     15
12.         Colchester             11    4     3     4     13    17    -4    15
13.         Wigan                  11    4     2     5     12    13    -1    14
14.         Plymouth               11    4     2     5     17    19    -2    14
15.         Cardiff                11    4     2     5     15    19    -4    14
16.         Bolton                 11    3     4     4     11    14    -3    13
17.         Middlesbrough          11    3     4     4     9     13    -4    13
18.         Stoke                  11    2     5     4     14    18    -4    11
19.         QPR                    11    3     1     7     11    23    -12   10
20.         Doncaster              11    2     3     6     12    19    -7    9
21.         Northampton            11    1     4     6     6     16    -10   7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.         Swansea                11    1     4     6     10    24    -14   7
23.         Crewe                  11    1     3     7     7     15    -8    6
24.         Oldham                 11    0     4     7     4     15    -11   4

[neilhoskins77]

Excellent turnaround Chris, those tactical tweaks seem to be working a treat now. Loving your work as always, and looking forward to seeing if you can get the Daggers into the Playoff hunt once again this season.

[CFuller]

17 hours ago, neilhoskins77 said:

Excellent turnaround Chris, those tactical tweaks seem to be working a treat now. Loving your work as always, and looking forward to seeing if you can get the Daggers into the Playoff hunt once again this season.

September was a brilliant month for us, although to be fair, we did get lucky in two of our last three games. Were it not for a couple of late winners, we would've been in 16th place rather than 10th.

[CFuller]

OCTOBER 2030

We kicked off October with an away game against the only side still looking for their first Championship win. Oldham Athletic hurtled down the table towards the back end of last season, and they still hadn't recovered. In fact, Oldham's freefall in 2030 had been so spectacular that they'd only won TWO league matches all year - and the last of those victories had come in April!

 

Our meeting with the Latics at Boundary Park would see Matthew Fraser make his competitive comeback for Dagenham. Nearly six months after breaking his leg against Bolton Wanderers, the Scottish midfielder was at last fit enough to take his place on the bench.

 

1 October 2030: Oldham Athletic vs Dagenham & Redbridge

We really fancied our chances of recording a fourth straight win, and with good reason. We were barely into the second minute when Marco Verratti forced Oldham's young American goalkeeper Glen O'Connor into a difficult save. Marco also played a key role when we did open the scoring after eight minutes. Verratti whipped in a corner to Mario Djokic, whose shot bounced off Latics midfielder Leon Courbould and fell to William Barnes. Will struck the ball with venom through the gap in Oldham's defence, and it was 1-0 to Dagenham!

 

Verratti was credited with the assist, and he could've had another in the 13th minute. Sadly, Djokic couldn't keep his shot on target after being played in by the Italian veteran.

 

We looked to be in control, but then Oldham hit us on the counter-attack after 20 minutes. Striker James Galloway charged into our area, where he struck a shot that was brilliantly tipped over by Kieran Whalley. That would be Athletic's best chance to erase our lead before half-time. We were still looking good, but Mario's shooting was a concern. The Montenegrin had three attempts at goal in the first half, and he didn't get close with any of them.

 

I had another reason to criticise Djokic five minutes into the second half. A Daggers counter-attack broke down when Mario ran into the path of Oldham's half-time sub Aristote Kudimbana, who then chipped the ball forward to Oscar Brown. The former Northampton Town forward struck a vicious shot past Whalley, and our lead was gone.

 

Kudimbana was also gone, as after a very brief but very effective cameo, the substitute was substituted in favour of Connor Waters! As bizarre as Oldham manager Kevin Lawrie's strategies seemed, his team were certainly causing us problems.

 

Louis Hogan threatened to score a second Latics goal after 53 minutes, but he pulled his shot straight at Kieran. About ten minutes later, I decided to make two of my three substitutions. Mark West and the returning Matthew Fraser came on for Djokic and Barnes, the latter of whom had been booked earlier in the half. Neither Mark nor Matthew would make much of an impact, but my third sub almost changed the game in the 88th minute.

 

Nigel Atta received a throw from Arran Banton and then crossed first-time to the far post. Mario Tortora rose majestically to head the delivery home... but he was caught offside, and we came away from Boundary Park with just one point instead of three.

 

Oldham Athletic - 1 (Brown 50)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Barnes 8)

Championship, Attendance 5,853 - POSITIONS: Oldham 24th, Dag & Red 9th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Busetto, Duru, Banton, Warren, Dam, Barnes (Fraser), Verratti (Atta), Tortora, Djokic (West). BOOKED: Barnes.

 

After a disappointing draw at one of the Championship's smallest grounds, we travelled to what was by far the biggest. St James' Park (formerly known as the Sports Direct Arena and the WhatCulture Stadium) was home to the long-suffering Geordie supporters of fallen giants Newcastle United.

 

Just three seasons ago, Newcastle were playing in the UEFA Champions League. Now, after years of managerial turmoil, they were having to fight for their place back in the Premier League. The Magpies had started the Championship campaign strongly under new boss Michael Appleton before losing their last two matches at Leeds United and Northampton Town.

 

5 October 2030: Newcastle United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

It took less than 90 seconds for our counter-attacking plan to stun the home fans into silence. Joel Honeyball - making his first start of the season - found Mark West in acres of space, and when Newcastle keeper Tim Coleman charged off his line, our skipper pulled the trigger. His shot hit the far post, but Mario Djokic pounced on the rebound to give us an unlikely 1-0 lead!

 

The Magpies flew back at us in the third minute, when captain Mijo Djuzel's strike was stopped by Kieran Whalley. Croatian midfielder Djuzel missed the target with his next two efforts in the 17th and 21st minutes, but Newcastle continued to put our defence under serious pressure. On 23 minutes, striker Guy Hogan narrowly cleared the bar from 30 yards out. Shortly after that, Silvo Kovjenic flicked wide a Honeyball cross that could've given us a two-goal lead.

 

Silvo and our other defenders continued to do an excellent job at the back, and for a long time, it looked like we were going to shut Newcastle out. Peter Jakubicka went wayward with an attempt in the 28th minute, while Hogan drove the ball into Whalley's hands a minute later. After 39 minutes, however, those two Magpies combined to find a way through. Jakubicka knocked a clever through-ball past Josh Charles, and Hogan drove it in at the back post.

 

Two minutes after Jakubicka's assist created the equaliser, Whalley had to stop the Slovakian from putting Newcastle in the ascendancy. The half-time whistle came at just the right time for us, because we were beginning to crack under the strain.

 

Djuzel headed over a right-wing cross from Newcastle's Brazilian full-back Charles in the 48th minute. The Magpies' deliveries from the right flank would cause us more concern on 56 minutes. Daggers right-back Heikki Puustinen could only head Newcastle right-winger Tim Dijkstra's cross straight at Hogan, who volleyed his team into a 2-1 lead!

 

Heikki was substituted straight away, but another defensive error almost cost us again in the 62nd minute. Silvo's failure to intercept an outswinging delivery from Dijkstra saw the ball dip towards Hogan. The striker lashed another volley at goal... but it was an utterly dreadful one that flew into the stands!

 

We survived another scare after 74 minutes, when Kieran pushed behind a left-wing cross from Djuzel. As the tension rose, Newcastle started to lose their cool. Dijkstra and vice-captain Alberto Grassi each picked up bookings before, in the 79th minute, the Magpies' substitute defender David Vella shot himself in the wing. The Argentine attempted to cut the ball back to his goalkeeper Coleman... but he horribly miscued the pass, allowing West to intercept it! Mark skilfully glided past the rushing Coleman and then tapped the ball into an open target!

 

Vella had gifted us an equaliser, and his cameo would get even more disastrous in the 84th minute! A clumsy challenge on Djokic in the area saw us awarded a penalty, which gave us an opportunity to move 3-2 ahead. Matthew Fraser stepped up to take the spot-kick on his first start since returning from injury... and he superbly powered it past Coleman!

 

Our confidence went through the roof with that goal, while Newcastle clammed up completely. More defensive mishaps saw Victor Dam grab a fourth Dagenham goal in added-on time to seal a famous win! We had a positive goal difference for the first time this season, and we were now just outside the play-off places on goal difference!

 

Newcastle United - 2 (Hogan 39,56)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Djokic 2, West 79, Fraser pen85, Dam 90)

Championship, Attendance 38,812 - POSITIONS: Newcastle 5th, Dag & Red 7th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen (Banton), Charles, Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Okoli (Dam), Fraser, Barnes (Cousins), Honeyball, West, Djokic. BOOKED: West, O'Reilly.

 

F*** me... we've only gone and beaten Newcastle United - at St James' Park! Who could have predicted that a few years ago?

 

After one of our most incredible results in recent years, we returned to Craven Cottage to play mid-table Cardiff City. Both of our meetings with the Bluebirds last season ended goalless, but would things be different this time around?

 

8 October 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Cardiff City

Both sides had very young goalkeepers who impressed early on. Cardiff's 20-year-old goalie Ryan Hart tipped over a header from William Barnes in the third minute. In the seventh, our 19-year-old shotstopper Kieran Whalley parried an effort from Bluebirds frontman Aristote Mbala. Hart was called back into action on 16 minutes, when he caught a free-kick from the positively ancient Marco Verratti.

 

In the 19th minute, Verratti rode a sliding challenge from Cardiff midfielder Ryan Smith, who hurt himself in the process and had to come off briefly for treatment. The same thing happened with Dagenham centre-back Josh Charles in the 33rd minute after he tackled Mbala.

 

Our defence had already come under plenty of stress by then. Notably, in the 22nd minute, a shot from Cardiff's Bjarni Ólafur Einarsson deflected off our centre-back Alex Busetto, prompting Whalley to frantically push the ball away just before it could cross his goal line! We rode our luck again after 36 minutes, when Seán Davis headed an Einarsson cross against our bar. Both sides would miss further chances before the half-time whistle blew with the scores still at 0-0.

 

Smith had to come off again in the 52nd minute for treatment on another knock. His Cardiff team-mate Les Sawyer had also received treatment earlier in the second period, but the former Dagenham defender returned to make an excellent clearance in the 55th minute.

 

On 61 minutes, Cardiff forward Nathan Webbe saw his cross bounce off Daggers full-back Daniel O'Reilly and dip towards goal. Kieran acrobatically tipped the ball behind his goal to spare Daniel's blushes, but he nearly embarrassed himself in the 76th minute! Bluebirds left-back Nicky Hargreaves swung the ball ahead of Mbala, who burst through our defence and looked to cross the ball to Einarsson at the far post. Whalley got part of his glove to the delivery, deflecting it just out of Einarsson's reach and towards the corner flag. We had just about survived, but Kieran knew that a tiny miscalculation would've cost us very dear.

 

Neither side seemed particularly willing to push forward again in the closing stages, lest they threw away their single point. The game's last scoring chance came from our 'man of the match' Kovjenic in added-on time, but his header couldn't quite beat Hart. Both goalies retained their clean sheet, and we drew 0-0 with Cardiff for the third meeting in a row!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Cardiff City - 0

Championship, Attendance 6,091 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 8th, Cardiff 16th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Busetto (Okoli), Kovjenic, Banton, O'Reilly, Cousins, Barnes, Verratti (Honeyball), West, Djokic (Tortora).

 

Although that draw saw us drop a little bit off the play-off pace, we still extended our unbeaten sequence to six games. So far, so good...

[mark wilson27]

Cracking result against the Geordies and a great season so far. Lets hope it continues

[CFuller]

5 hours ago, mark wilson27 said:

Cracking result against the Geordies and a great season so far. Lets hope it continues

The Newcastle result really took me by surprise. If we can beat them away from home, then we're capable of beating any team in this division.

[CFuller]

OCTOBER 2030 (continued)

The international break saw William Barnes enhance his England Under-21s credentials by creating the final goal in a 4-1 win over Slovenia. Mario Djokic (Montenegro), Daryl Ryan (Republic of Ireland) and Heikki Puustinen (Finland) all added to their international cap tallies, while Matthew Fraser received his first senior call-up for Scotland, although he didn't play.

 

Meanwhile, some of those Daggers first-teamers who stayed at home built up their match fitness in a reserve league game. A 3-1 loss at Millwall proved particularly painful for Mario Tortora, who twisted his knee and would be out for the next three weeks. Lucky Okoli would also miss our next senior game after stubbing his toe in training.

 

That next game was against Hull City at the KC Stadium. Ross Barkley's Tigers were a couple of points ahead of us in 6th place.

 

19 October 2030: Hull City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Hull winger Nick Breward was a real danger to us early on. In the second minute, Breward cracked a drive wide after a promising run towards goal. In the seventh, his byline cross caused Josh Charles some both. Charles could only flick a clearance straight at Tigers forward Willie Dickson, and his young central defensive colleague George Darvill had to frantically hack the ball away.

 

Our defence looked rather shaky, although we did play some good stuff when moving forward. Victor Dam missed the target with our first chance in the 12th minute, and four minutes later, he created an opportunity that Mark West unfortunately fired against the bar.

 

Lady Luck would elude us again after 29 minutes. Welsh midfielder Kevin Wells swung an excellent Hull corner into our six-yard box, where Paul Harris' point-blank header deflected into the net off goalkeeper Kieran Whalley's shoulder. Kieran was credited with an own goal, and from that point, the first half swung inexorably towards the Tigers.

 

Wells blazed over a chance to make it 2-0 in the 41st minute, but another Hull attacker would do just that two minutes later. Breward received the ball well inside his own half and then dribbled like a madman towards our penalty area! William Barnes was left chasing after him throughout that run, and just as Will appeared to have caught up with him in the area, Breward let rip. The Tigers were burning bright, and our unbeaten run was up in flames.

 

Dam spent the early part of the second half trying to act as our firefighter. Victor played a through-ball for Joel Honeyball shortly after the restart, but Joel shot straight at Hull goalie Russell Lawless. In the 55th minute, though, Dam was gifted an opportunity to pull a goal back himself.

 

Ashley Cousins' long clearance from deep in Dagenham territory bounced towards City centre-back Henry Paul, who stumbled as he tried to intercept it. Victor quickly charged the ball down and ran unchallenged towards goal before firing a fantastic shot past Lawless!

 

Dam was now taking it upon himself to get us back into the match. After 64 minutes, the Danish midfielder found West in space. The Daggers captain took his time over the ball before lashing a 25-yard sizzler into the corner of the net!

 

That made it 2-2, and the match was surely only heading in one direction... until the Tigers roared back three minutes later. An excellent performance from Breward continued when his curling delivery found Hull captain Nathan Morgan, who got up above Charles to head it home.

 

Morgan had retaken the lead for Hull, and he kept it intact in the 70th minute, when he cleared an Ashley Cousins flick-on that was heading towards the net. The goal probably wouldn't have counted anyway, as Cousins had brought down Wells in the process and picked up a booking for his troubles.

 

Victor would also be booked before Lawless made a crucial save in the 75th minute to keep out a shot from Honeyball. That would prove particularly significant four minutes later, as Willie Dickson got his customary goal against his former Daggers colleagues from a direct free-kick.

 

Hull now led 4-2... but the contest wasn't quite over. On 84 minutes, Mark chipped the ball ahead of Daggers sub Mario Djokic, who struck a half-volley beyond the rushing Lawless and made it 4-3.

 

The KC Stadium looked set for a grandstand finish, until a couple of dreadful shots from Djokic in the 85th and 91st minutes meant that we missed out on any points. After six Championship matches without defeat, the seventh had proven to be typically unlucky.

 

Hull City - 4 (Whalley og29, Breward 43, Morgan 67, Dickson 79)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Dam 55, West 64, Djokic 84)

Championship, Attendance 20,472 - POSITIONS: Hull 6th, Dag & Red 12th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Darvill (Cousins), Kovjenic, Banton, O'Reilly, Fraser (Martin), Barnes (Djokic), Dam, West, Honeyball. BOOKED: Cousins, Dam.

 

On the one hand, that felt like a missed opportunity, as we slipped to 12th and were now five points off the top six. On the other, we'd shown great tenacity to come from 2-0 down against a strong Hull team, even if we couldn't quite hold firm later on.

 

Next up was a home game against our play-off nemeses Aston Villa - now under the management of Jacob Mellis following Gary Rowett's summer move to Hibernian. Villa had won eight of their last nine matches, and they - along with Southampton - were starting to pull clear at the top of the Championship.

 

22 October 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Aston Villa

After four minutes, Victor Dam tested his Danish compatriot Christoffer Kristiansen in the Aston Villa goal with a 25-yard shot. Kristiansen kept that effort out, but he was unable to keep ex-Villa striker Mario Djokic off the scoresheet two minutes later. A superb assist from Mark West sent Djokic through for a morale-boosting opener!

 

Villa were rattled, and that showed as midfielder Victor Engstrom and defender Josh O'Donoghue each picked up early yellow cards. Mario could've scored again in the 11th minute, but Kristiansen made a fine save that would prove particularly key later on.

 

The first sign of Daggers trouble came when left-back Matt Warren tripped Villans winger Rob Wannell in the 14th minute, resulting in a yellow card. Six minutes later, Dam committed a costlier foul on Carlton Gardner, clattering into the midfielder. Victor wasn't booked, but Marco Galvao floated the free-kick past our restored keeper Daryl Ryan.

 

Villa were level, and they were soon looking good to go ahead. Daryl had to prove that he was ready to be our regular goalkeeper again in the 32nd minute, when he caught a shot from Wannell. Alas, Ryan would fail his next test four minutes later. The Irishman wasn't agile enough to stop a thunderous drive from Brazilian forward Marcelo, and we were 2-1 down. However, the late first-half drama was only just beginning.

 

In the 43rd minute, West cut open the Aston Villa defence with an incisive pass to Dam. Victor's first shot came back off Gardner, and his second was parried by Kristiansen. Djokic raced Villa's centre-backs O'Donoghue and Marius Pricop to the loose ball... and he came out on top, slotting in his 10th league goal this season!

 

That put us level, but only for about a minute-and-a-half. Some suspect defending from Heikki Puustinen and Josh Charles allowed Marcelo to beat them to Wannell's centre, and we went into the half-time interval trailing 3-2.

 

I switched to a more conservative 5-3-2 formation for the second half, with Philip Duru replacing the beleaguered Warren, and William Barnes dropping into the left-back slot. I would've been better off replacing our right-back, as Puustinen's poor positioning saw us go 4-2 down within the first minute. Aston Villa had brought on their captain Muharrem Kurt at half-time, and the Danish left-winger started his cameo by jinking past Heikki and unleashing a deadly strike.

 

Marcelo then went close to completing his hat-trick in the 49th minute as Villa threatened to run riot. Two minutes later, however, we were back in contention. Djokic showed real tenacity to muscle the ball off Villans right-back Apostolos Sapanis on the byline and square it to West, who tapped in his 7th goal of the campaign. For the second game in a row, we were trailing by the odd goal in seven... but there would be more to come!

 

Ryan was determined not to concede any more goals, and an excellent block to deny Marcelo in the 61st minute suggested that he was starting to rediscover his best form. Daryl kept out another shot from the Brazilian two minutes later to give me even more cause for optimism. Armen Nersesyan sent a piledriver narrowly over the bar shortly after that second save.

 

Nersesyan played a vital role in Villa's next attack, which started when he closed down Matthew Fraser in the 68th minute. The Armenian midfielder passed to Marcelo, who lobbed the ball forward into the path of Cyprus international Giannos Sotiriou. Duru missed his interception, leaving the Sunderland loanee free to make it 5-3 Villans.

 

My anger was tempered somewhat when an excellent passing move resulted in an opening for West in the 70th minute... but Mark's shot was palmed away by Kristiansen, and we remained in deep trouble. One could see our players' shoulders slump simultaneously after that Kristiansen save. By the 76th minute, I had also resigned myself to defeat. Ryan horribly misjudged the flight of Kurt's left-wing cross, and Wannell popped up with a near-post header that dipped into the net. 6-3 to Aston Villa.

 

This was the highest-scoring game of our Football League history, and the goals would dry up there, despite West having a late chance to get us our fourth. Our supporters went home very disappointed after another shocking defensive display.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Djokic 6,43, West 51)

Aston Villa - 6 (Galvao 20, Marcelo 36,44, Kurt 46, Sotiriou 68, Wannell 76)

Championship, Attendance 5,812 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Aston Villa 2nd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Puustinen (Banton), Charles, Busetto, Warren (Duru), Fraser, Barnes, Dam, Verratti (Martin), West, Djokic. BOOKED: Warren.

 

You can't say that those last two games hadn't entertained the fans, but they made very painful viewing from my point of view. We'd now conceded 33 goals in 16 Championship games - only the increasingly hopeless Swansea City had let in more.

 

I would have to fix our defensive problems, otherwise we would slide down the table as quickly as we'd climbed it.

[CFuller]

OCTOBER 2030 (continued)

Our goalkeepers' early-season statistics were very telling. Kieran Whalley had played seven league games, conceded nine goals, and kept two clean sheets. Daryl Ryan had played nine, conceded 24, and kept only a solitary clean sheet - on the opening day of the season.

 

The Daggers' defensive issues were probably down to more than just an out-of-form goalkeeper, but Daryl's record was a major cause for concern. He would now have to fight to regain his place, with Kieran taking over as our first-choice keeper for the foreseeable future.

 

We finished October with a couple of matches against fellow mid-tablers. First up, we took on Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium.

 

26 October 2030: Middlesbrough vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Kieran Whalley started well, catching a free-kick from Middlesbrough's Bob Harford in the fifth minute. Shortly after that, Boro had centre-half Dale Pounder booked for pounding into Joel Honeyball. Later in the opening 15 minutes, Edwin Milton and Jonathan Cavener each missed the target for Middlesbrough.

 

Honeyball had our first shot on target in the 18th minute after superbly getting past Pounder. Disappointingly, Joel - who had been booked just moments earlier for pushing Boro's other centre-back Hassan Fleming - fired his shot straight at goalkeeper Ross Archer. Fleming then hacked the ball behind for a corner, from which Silvo Kovjenic headed Honeyball's delivery over the bar.

 

Dagenham captain Mark West had a couple of chances in the 28th and 41st minutes, both of which were saved by Archer. Middlesbrough hadn't gone close to scoring since that early Harford free-kick, and they ended the half with a couple of yellow cards for winger Adis Kosnik and full-back Danny McCann.

 

17-year-old local boy Cavener was off target again for Middlesbrough after 47 minutes. Boro were in a spot of bother up front, and their defence was seriously tested six minutes later. Lucky Okoli played a great through-ball in front of Victor Dam, whose strike was superbly parried by Archer. Less than a minute after that, another Boro player went into the book, with Harford seeing yellow for a trip on William Barnes.

 

Despite picking up an early knock, Will put in a tireless display and almost headed us into the lead after 61 minutes. Like most of his colleagues, though, Barnes was denied by a fine save from Archer. I brought Mario Djokic on for Honeyball midway through the half, in the hope that he could be the one to make the breakthrough.

 

Djokic sensed an opening after 76 minutes, when Archer parried West's close-range header to his feet. Mario tried to knock the loose ball back towards goal, but ex-Gillingham defender Fleming intervened with a vital clearance. That would be our last great chance to take the points.

 

The home team had their final opportunity in the 85th minute, when Cavener's free-kick was held by Whalley. As full-time neared, I finally gave Barnes a much-needed rest and brought on José Cochet for his long-awaited senior debut. The French midfielder got himself booked in injury time, but that didn't cost us too much. We had twice drawn 2-2 with Middlesbrough last season, and our third meeting was another tie, albeit with no goals.

 

Middlesbrough - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Championship, Attendance 15,922 - POSITIONS: Middlesbrough 11th, Dag & Red 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Charles, Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Okoli, Barnes (Cochet), Dam (Martin), Green, West, Honeyball (Djokic). BOOKED: Honeyball, Cochet.

 

William Barnes had used up a lot of energy for little reward, so I rested our star midfielder for the home game against Wigan Athletic. We did the double over Wigan last season, but with the Latics just a single point behind us, this latest meeting was likely to be much closer.

 

29 October 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Wigan Athletic

The first half certainly hinted that there would be no repeat of the 6-1 demolition we gave Wigan in our last meeting. Indeed, the Latics could've scored in the second minute had Thomas Junker's free-kick not been caught by Kieran Whalley. Wigan did take the lead just three minutes later. Junker laid the ball wide to Mario Bernard, and the Jamaican winger burst forward before his cut-back was fired home by striker Franca.

 

Our first attempt to draw level was a wild long-ranger from Dean Martin in the 9th minute. Shortly after that, a clumsy tackle on Cezar Teodorescu earned another Daggers midfielder a booking. It was Ashley Cousins' fifth yellow card of the league season, and he would therefore be suspended from our next match. Junker lined up the resulting free-kick... and he curled it into Whalley's hands. Franca then powered a header wide in the 14th minute as Wigan's spell of dominance came to an end.

 

We spent the rest of the half hitting and largely hoping at the Latics goal. Several Daggers, including Mario Djokic and Mark West, spurned chances as our first eight shots at goal all missed the target. A frustrating night for West continued in the 41st minute, when he picked up his fifth booking of the season after pushing young Athletic midfielder John Woods. Like Ashley, Mark would have to sit out our next game.

 

I was preparing to deliver a stern half-time team-talk when, in the last minute of normal time, our luck finally turned. Martin cut a Djokic cross back to Cousins, who then shinned it into the path of wing-back Arran Banton. Arran steadied himself... and then lashed in his first ever senior goal to give us parity at the break! Had the game turned?

 

Arran's opposite wing-back, Daniel O'Reilly, went into the book two minutes into the second half for pushing Bernard. Three minutes later, though, O'Reilly forced Wigan goalkeeper Antonis Voutsakelis into a tricky save. We were unfortunate not to have both of our wing-backs on the scoresheet. At the other end, Franca was a little unlucky not to put the Latics in front for the second time in the 58th minute. The experienced Brazilian flicked a Junker corner wide to cost his team a big opportunity.

 

When Franca miscontrolled a Jeff Holloway pass in the 66th minute, we looked to hit Wigan on the break. Our substitute midfielder Victor Dam targeted Djokic with a through-ball that was intercepted by Vukadin Grbic... but the Wigan defender's tackle diverted the ball into West's path. Mark struck it first-time, and Voutsakelis was left helpless! We were 2-1 up!

 

Dam did find Djokic with an excellent lobbed pass shortly after the restart, and although Mario was denied by a fine save from Voutsakelis, we were firmly in control. On 71 minutes, Martin won a mini-skirmish with Latics defender Zander MacKinnon and passed to Dam, who then played a perfect ball to Djokic in the area. Mario didn't strike his shot particularly well, but it took a nick off the goalkeeper's shin and trundled across the goal line!

 

That was a rather bizarre way to go 3-1 ahead, but in the 78th minute, we completed a 4-1 victory in much more convincing style. Martin's midfield masterclass continued when he rode past a tackle from Woods and centred to Djokic, who beat MacKinnon to score again. That was Mario's 13th goal of the campaign, matching his haul from his debut season at Dagenham & Redbridge!

 

The Montenegrin should've scored his 14th and sealed a hat-trick after the resumption, but a fine save from Voutsakelis served simply as damage limitation for Wigan. Despite their bright start, Denny Johnstone's Latics had been creamed at Craven Cottage for the second season in a row.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Banton 45, West 66, Djokic 71,78)

Wigan Athletic - 1 (Franca 5)

Championship, Attendance 4,318 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Wigan 16th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Kovjenic, Busetto, Duru, Banton, O'Reilly (Warren), Cousins (Dam), Fraser, Martin, West (Honeyball), Djokic. BOOKED: Cousins, West, O'Reilly.

 

That win brought a positive end to what had otherwise been a disappointing month (the Newcastle United result aside). After 18 matches, we are 14 points clear of the drop, and five adrift of the top six. A strong November will surely make the play-offs a realistic target again.

[CFuller]

NOVEMBER 2030

On paper, our first game of November looked like an easy win away from home. Crewe Alexandra may have started the season with an impressive win at Middlesbrough, but in their 17 league matches since then, they had picked up a mere five points - all from draws.

 

Crewe's woes were largely down to an inept attack - they had just 12 goals to their name, and Moroccan forward Rachid Zaidi was the only Railwayman to have scored more than twice.

 

We didn't have any problems when it came to finding the net, but we would have to make do without our captain Mark West for the trip to Cheshire. Mark was suspended for this game, as was midfielder Ashley Cousins.

 

2 November 2030: Crewe Alexandra vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Encouragingly, we found the back of Crewe's net after just 11 minutes. Matt Warren floated a 20-yard cross over the head of Crewe goalkeeper Max Davies, only for his 'goal' to be disallowed after Joel Honeyball was accused of impeding Davies.

 

Less than a minute later, however, we did take the lead for real. An incisive counter-attack came to life when Dean Martin's pass found Mario Djokic, who then advanced into the Crewe area. Mario's initial right-footed shot was blocked by Darren Greenhouse, but he chested the rebound and volleyed it in with his left foot! We were 1-0 up, but that lead was soon looking vulnerable.

 

On 21 minutes, Martin missed an interception from Alex winger Rasim Ramic's free-kick, gifting Gianluca Salmon a chance to draw the Railwaymen level. The teenage defender pulled it dreadfully wide. Crewe striker Joey Saunders then missed the target with a couple of headers just before the half-hour, the second coming via a corner by namesake Themis Saunders.

 

We attacked again in the 33rd minute, with Martin having a superb effort saved by Davies before Djokic fired wide a minute later. Honeyball could've boosted our lead three minutes before the break, but a wayward shot summed up his woeful display.

 

Eight minutes into the second half, a through-ball from Djokic presented Warren with a very rare one-on-one opportunity. Matt struck his shot well, but Davies did even better to push it away. We would have to wait a while for our next scoring chance, as Crewe showed great tenacity to push us back.

 

Joey Saunders wasted a half-chance from a Ramic cross in the 61st minute before Rachid Zaidi missed his first two shots at goal. Zaidi's third, in the 72nd minute, did at least force Kieran Whalley into a save. Kieran would be tested again on 76 minutes, as he tipped wide a Ramic free-kick. The resultant corner saw Crewe create their best chance yet, but James Torpey's diving header from Ramic's delivery struck the post.

 

Despite that late scare, Whalley remained on course for his fourth clean sheet of the season. His defence was being wonderfully stewarded by man of the match Silvo Kovjenic, while young José Cochet enjoyed a solid full debut in the holding midfield role. Another of our summer signings should've given us a second goal in the 81st minute, but Mario Tortora was unfortunate to be denied by Davies. Tortora was also one of three Daggers to be booked in what was a nervy climax before a narrow win was confirmed.

 

Crewe Alexandra - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Djokic 12)

Championship, Attendance 6,755 - POSITIONS: Crewe 24th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Kovjenic, Charles, Warren, Cochet, Fraser, Verratti (Dam), Martin (Green), Honeyball (Tortora), Djokic. BOOKED: Martin, Warren, Green, Tortora.

 

After winning in the north-west, we were off to the south-west - and Plymouth Argyle's Home Park. The Pilgrims were enjoying an excellent run of form that had put them on the outskirts of the top six.

 

6 November 2030: Plymouth Argyle vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Mark West almost gave us the perfect start after 26 seconds, when his header was kept out only by an acrobatic save from Plymouth keeper Rory Luchford. Exactly a minute later, Marvin Green nodded our next effort wide. Marvin wouldn't last very long in this game, as he hurt himself whilst tackling Argyle's Jonathan Lamb in the fifth minute and came off as a precaution shortly afterwards.

 

That was followed by a promising spell for Plymouth, in which Rikki Scarlett sent a piledriver just high and wide, and Roger Rothery fired a 30-yarder into Kieran Whalley's hands.

 

We next went on the attack after 14 minutes. William Barnes nodded the ball to the far post, but Silvo Kovjenic couldn't get his header past Luchford. The Pilgrims' goalkeeping captain sure had a safe pair of hands, as he caught another Daggers header - this time from Victor Dam - in the 24th minute.

 

Both teams missed a host of chances to score later in the half, and neither team looked particularly satisfied to go into the break with the game still at 0-0. Plymouth especially had reason to be concerned. Right-winger Lamb appeared to be struggling with a shin injury, which he had picked up in a strong tackle from Daggers left-back Daniel O'Reilly after 35 minutes.

 

Plymouth striker Rothery blazed a good chance clean over the bar in the 48th minute. Our main striker wasn't having much luck in front of goal, either, as Mario Djokic powered a header straight at Luchford three minutes later. Neither he nor Mark would see a great deal of action before Plymouth next burst forward. In the 64th minute, Veselin Spasov cheekily backheeled the ball to his midfield colleague Mike Khan, who struck a controlled effort that couldn't quite get past Whalley.

 

The Pilgrims tried a different approach on 65 minutes. Deep in our half, Lamb threw the ball short to Rothery, who immediately handed it back to him. Lamb then crossed first-time to the head of Ugonna Thompson - Argyle's leading scorer with 14 goals to date. Kieran was well-placed to catch Thompson's header... until the ball took a slight ricochet off Dean Martin's head and deflected over the line. Plymouth had taken the lead in very fortuitous circumstances.

 

We struggled thereafter, with our only real chance to take back a point coming seven minutes from time. Djokic drilled the ball towards Barnes in Plymouth's six-yard box... but Eddie Hughes produced a superb tackle to stop Will from making a connection. Some of our players campaigned fruitlessly for a penalty, and Argyle closed the game out superbly to seal a 1-0 win.

 

Plymouth Argyle - 1 (Thompson 65)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Championship, Attendance 12,908 - POSITIONS: Plymouth 8th, Dag & Red 12th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Busetto, Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Martin (Fraser), Barnes, Dam, Green (Honeyball), West, Djokic (Tortora).

 

Plymouth were - as I said - bang in form, so I wasn't too concerned about that defeat. Indeed, the loss made us even more determined to return to form at Craven Cottage against an inconsistent Millwall side.

 

9 November 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Millwall

Dagenham goalkeeper Kieran Whalley passed an early examination, stopping a shot from Millwall striker Mick Baird in the 10th minute of an end-to-end battle. Lions custodian Drey Blackburn was called into action for the first time three minutes later, when he caught Dean Martin's long-distance attempt.

 

Baird had the game's best chance yet on 16 minutes, narrowly heading over a cross from his team-mate Ryan Farquhar. We then won a couple of corners in fairly quick succession before the Lions did likewise. The visitors' second corner was drifted in by Jack Jacobs in the 30th minute. Daggers defender Philip Duru could only nod it as far as Kadeem Blackwell, who drove it inches over the bar.

 

Millwall's Senegalese midfielder Oumar also had an audacious punt at goal a minute later. The strike caught Whalley out completely, bouncing off the crossbar before Baird fired the rebound past our helpless keeper.

 

Baird was all smiles after putting his team ahead... but that smile was wiped off his face in the 40th minute. A tackle from Josh Charles left Baird with a game-ending ankle sprain, and Millwall's momentum was lost. Less than two minutes before half-time, their lead had gone as well. Mark West weighted a fantastic long ball to Mario Djokic on the left flank, and Mario's cut-back was finished by Dean for the Dagenham equaliser! Game on!

 

Our attempts to take the lead early in the second half were very disappointing. West hit a hopeless effort from a ridiculous distance shortly after play restarted, while Martin's next two attempts lacked the accuracy of his earlier effort. It wasn't until the 58th minute that we got another shot on target.

 

Millwall right-back Jason Stark tripped Daniel O'Reilly on the edge of his side's penalty area, giving us a free-kick in a great position. Mario wasn't our main set-piece taker by any means, but he decided to take the free-kick... and he swerved it sweetly beyond Blackburn! Djokic's 15th goal of the season had put our noses in front!

 

Millwall didn't know what had hit them, and it took them quite a long time to bounce back. Their first opportunity to level came in the 78th minute, when Oumar intercepted a wayward header from Martin. The Lions captain fed the ball to striker Bill Nolan, who searched out right-winger Farquhar. The on-loan Brighton & Hove Albion youngster drove the ball low at goal... and pulled it well wide. Millwall wouldn't get even remotely close again. Josh Charles held our defence together like glue as we closed the match out effortlessly and took the three points.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Martin 44, Djokic 58)

Millwall - 1 (Baird 31)

Championship, Attendance 11,672 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 10th, Millwall 15th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Busetto (Barnes), Duru, Puustinen, O'Reilly, Dam (Cousins), Fraser, Martin (Polomat), West, Djokic.

 

After that win, it was announced that two of our best young players had committed their long-term futures to Dagenham & Redbridge. Arran Banton was steadily establishing himself as our leading right-back, and he was rewarded for his recent good form with a new contract that would run until 2034.

 

I was delighted to see Arran sign a new deal, and even more so when William Barnes did likewise. The England Under-21s midfielder would also be contracted with us for the next three-and-a-half years. Will's new contract made him our highest-paid player at £5,250 per week, but a young man of his talent and potential is definitely worth that in my opinion.

[CFuller]

NOVEMBER 2030 (continued)

Our next game was another mid-table clash at home to Peterborough United. The Posh would creep above us on goal difference if they won.

 

17 November 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Peterborough United

Peterborough's gameplan was to keep hold of possession and put us on the back foot early on. That plan came together ominously well in the 9th minute, when Croatian striker Darko Baturina found Bosnian winger Sinisa Curic with a lovely through-ball. Kieran Whalley just about got a glove to Curic's fierce angled strike, which ricocheted dangerously off the bar before bouncing towards the opposite touchline.

 

Our fans would breathe another huge collective sigh of relief in the 19th minute. Whalley bailed us out for a second time when he tipped over Gordon Ross' header from Curic's free-kick, which Posh captain Deen Zanou had won off Ashley Cousins.

 

Two minutes later, Peterborough winger Kévin Aubert twisted sharply on his ankle after being tackled by Josh Charles on the touchline. The Posh supporters seemed quite concerned about the French teenager, who was on loan from Manchester United, but Aubert nodded to say that he was carrying on.

 

Peterborough wouldn't create another meaningful chance before half-time, although we weren't much better. Mario Djokic's powerful shot in the 41st minute, which sailed just wide, was the only opening we got against a compact Posh backline. My opposite number Robbie Muirhead's tactics were certainly working very well.

 

I replaced playmaker William Barnes with Matthew Fraser at half-time, as Barnes had bruised his thigh late in the first half. I also told my team to stretch play out a bit more in the second half... with mixed results.

 

Dean Martin drove wide a good chance to put us ahead in the 50th minute before Mario Djokic set up an even better opportunity for Mark West eight minutes later. Mario sliced through the defence to find Mark, who hit a powerful effort at goal. West was unfortunately denied by the post, and Zanou cleared the rebound just before Djokic could get to it.

 

As time wore on, our defence found itself under increasing pressure from Peterborough. We had to defend against several corners, and Silvo Kovjenic in particular was working very hard to keep us on course for a point. Thankfully, a series of sublime interceptions from our Slovenian loanee kept the visitors at bay.

 

Our last chance to claim all three points came with five minutes remaining. Djokic picked up a Martin pass and rounded Ross before putting his shot inches past the post. No side who fails to register a single shot on target at home really deserves to take anything from a match... but for a long time, it looked like we would hold on for an undeserved draw.

 

When Whalley caught a header from Gheorghe Somfalean in the 89th minute, Peterborough's travelling fans could be forgiven for resigning themselves to a 0-0 draw. Then, in injury time, Swedish right-back Daniel Westerlund swung one final hopeful cross into the box. Josh Charles tried to clear it... but ex-Blackburn Rovers midfielder Neil Tutte rifled in a half-volley to give Peterborough the 1-0 win their play had merited.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Peterborough United - 1 (Tutte 90)

Championship, Attendance 6,078 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Peterborough 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Charles, Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Cousins, Barnes (Fraser), Verratti (Honeyball), Martin, West, Djokic (Green).

 

As a result of that late defeat, we now trailed the top six by eight points. We had bridged bigger gaps with less time to spare before in the past, but there was now a fear that we could fall further off the pace and slip out of the play-off running.

 

William Barnes' thigh injury meant he had to withdraw from the England Under-21s team that played France in midweek. Amusingly, he was replaced in the Young Lions squad by Hull City's Welsh-born midfielder Kevin Wells, who earned a senior cap for Wales four years ago - in a friendly against England!

 

Two other Daggers did get the chance to represent their country. George Darvill appeared for England's Under-19s in a friendly win against Portugal in Milton Keynes, making him - by my reckoning - the first Dagenham youth product to represent England at any youth level! I was so proud...

 

...and there was another proud moment to come when Matthew Fraser finally made his senior Scotland debut against Andorra at Easter Road. In fact, Fraser made it a scoring debut, netting Scotland's final goal in a 6-2 win after Chelsea superstar Derek Halliday had helped himself to five!

 

George and Matthew both returned into the Dagenham starting line-up when we visited Leeds United on the following weekend. Leeds were just outside the play-off spots, with manager Ashley Westwood targeting back-to-back promotions.

 

23 November 2030: Leeds United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

A lack of discipline in the opening stages saw us concede a couple of free-kicks to Leeds in dangerous positions. On three minutes, Nicky Till lifted a set-piece into our penalty area, where Elvis Issah headed wide. Two minutes later, United midfielder Keith Corcoran went straight for goal with a free-kick that was well held by Kieran Whalley. Leeds' confident start continued in the 14th minute, with Whalley being troubled again by a 30-yarder from Shane Gennings.

 

We slowly worked our way into the game, with Jacques Polomat dragging wide our first opportunity after 16 minutes. Polomat had a better opening five minutes later, but he could only fire straight at goalkeeper Pat Sheridan after Leeds full-back Till had halted the run of Joel Honeyball. Jacques was disappointed, but the French midfielder remained determined to break his Daggers 'duck'. In the 29th minute, he hit a thunderous effort that forced Sheridan into an acrobatic save.

 

Gennings then wasted a couple of big opportunities to put the Whites in front. As Leeds grew more frustrated, we began to sense that they were there for the taking. After 37 minutes, Marco Verratti exploited a huge gap in the United defence, rolling the ball through for Polomat, who finally got the better of Sheridan and made it 1-0 Dagenham!

 

'JP' displayed his new-found confidence again just before half-time, when he struck a 40-yard swerver that forced Sheridan to save again. Make no mistake - Leeds were looking vulnerable. The points were ours for the taking.

 

Discipline was a problem for us early in the first half, but in the second period, it was Leeds who struggled to keep their cool. Centre-back Tommy Fisk got himself booked in the 50th minute for tripping Polomat. Five minutes later, midfielder Mick Riley caught our right wing-back Arran Banton with a flailing elbow to stop him from getting to Whalley's goal kick. The referee had a clear view of the incident and drew the red card! Riley was gone, and we now had licence to control the game.

 

In the 58th minute, Verratti set up a chance for his Italian compatriot Mario Tortora, but the teenager's shot sailed disappointingly wide. Six minutes later, Leeds proved the old adage that it can sometimes be more difficult to play against 10 men than 11. Gennings found Ilias Ntalaperas in space, and the Greek striker unleashed a vicious strike that was kept out only by a breathtaking save from Whalley!

 

United's strike pairing linked up again in the 79th minute, with Ntalaperas lobbing the ball over our young centre-half George Darvill to find Gennings. Leeds' leading scorer hit a fine effort, but Kieran once again came to our rescue.

 

With nine minutes remaining, I brought on Victor Dam for Verratti in a bid to try and get a second goal. Unfortunately, Victor lasted only a few seconds before Corcoran clattered into him, leaving the Dane with whiplash. José Cochet came on as a replacement for our stricken sub, and after a couple of late misses from Mark West, we decided to play more conservatively and preserve our 1-0 lead. Leeds were unable to break us open in what little time remained, and so we left Elland Road victorious!

 

Leeds United - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Polomat 37)

Championship, Attendance 22,597 - POSITIONS: Leeds 8th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Darvill, Kovjenic, Banton, O'Reilly, Verratti (Dam (Cochet)), Fraser, Polomat, Tortora (West), Honeyball. BOOKED: Fraser, Polomat.

 

A first-ever victory over Leeds United gave us a real confidence boost going into our next match against another recently-promoted side. Northampton Town held us to a goalless draw on the opening day and were in 19th place ahead of our trip to the Sixfields Stadium.

[CFuller]

NOVEMBER 2030 (continued)

26 November 2030: Northampton Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge

An awful shot from Northampton striker Mason Bennett in the first few seconds was a sign of things to come for the hosts. Their early struggles continued in the second minute, when defensive midfielder Steven Bowditch sustained a dead leg in a tackle from Mario Djokic.

 

Two minutes later, the woodwork saved the Cobblers not once, but TWICE! Matthew Fraser smashed a free-kick against the crossbar, and Mark West's follow-up volley clipped the outside of goalkeeper Gareth O'Connell's left-hand post.

 

Our next shot from Djokic in the 14th minute also hit the goal frame. On that occasion, however, the bar helped Mario's vicious strike into the net after he had picked up a knock-on from Mario! 1-0 to the Daggers!

 

Two minutes after we took the lead, Kieran Whalley kept us in front by catching a much-improved second attempt from Bennett. Kieran had less to do when Moses Duodu swerved a free-kick wide shortly after that. However, another Northampton free-kick did cause us major worries in the 35th minute.

 

Slovenian right-winger Goran Plimon swung the ball into the six-yard box, where he found left-winger Robbie Killick. Killick's header rattled our crossbar, and a mini-scramble followed before Lucky Okoli cleared the ball into touch. West and Djokic had each spurned chances to give us a 2-0 lead before then, and when the half-time whistle blew, we looked far from secure.

 

Our passing got sloppier after the break, and our defence was opening up much wider as well. Northampton sub Billy Quinn hoped to exploit this extra space in the 54th minute, when he cut past our right-back Heikki Puustinen and entered the penalty box. At that point, the teenager panicked and pulled his shot off target.

 

Three minutes later, that miss looked like costing Northampton greatly. Shortly after the Cobblers cleared a Matthew Fraser corner, Dean Martin knocked the ball back into their area with an excellent pass to Lucky Okoli. The Nigerian winger was unlucky to strike the far post, but West buried the rebound, only for the offside flag to catch him out.

 

Northampton failed to make the most of their lifeline, as Bennett wasted another chance just before the hour mark. Quinn's free-kick in the 70th minute, which was saved by Kieran, was just the Cobblers' third shot on target. It would also be their last. Eight minutes later, Djokic virtually killed the game off by surging past centre-half Henri Beckham and smashing the ball home from 20 yards out!

 

The win was now ours, so I decided to give youth players Nigel Atta and Jon Cotterill some first-team action for the final few minutes. The latter missed a couple of chances to mark his competitive debut with a goal, but Mario's earlier brace was enough to defeat a mediocre Northampton side.

 

Northampton Town - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Djokic 14,78)

Championship, Attendance 9,332 - POSITIONS: Northampton 20th, Dag & Red 9th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Charles, Duru, Warren, Okoli (Atta), Fraser, Martin (Cousins), Green, West, Djokic (Cotterill). BOOKED: Martin.

 

Back-to-back shutouts away from home had further strengthened Kieran Whalley's claims to be our new first-choice goalkeeper. Kieran had already kept 10 career league clean sheets, and he was only just about to exit his teens (he'll turn 20 right at the start of December). This kid seems destined for the top.

 

Daryl Ryan's short-term prospects of regaining his starting place suffered a major setback before our next match. Daryl twisted his ankle in training and wouldn't be able to return for at least three weeks.

 

Whalley's run in the team would continue for a bit longer, then, but he was now having to brace himself for Southampton's firing squad. Jack Rodwell's Saints arrived at Craven Cottage with a 10-point lead at the top, and an unbelievable +40 goal difference. As if Kieran's task wasn't daunting enough, Southampton had won 11 out of 13 games since suffering their only league defeat thus far at Plymouth Argyle in September!

 

30 November 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Southampton

I wasn't even the slightest bit surprised to see Southampton take the lead after three minutes. It was even less surprising that it was Milan Svoboda who gave them the lead, heading fellow Czech Daniel Hudec's cross home for his 20th goal of the season.

 

We showed some fighting spirit shortly after play resumed, winning a couple of corners in quick succession. The Saints were soon pushing forward again, though. Svoboda drove a shot over the bar in the 6th minute and had another saved by Kieran Whalley about half a minute later.

 

On eight minutes, Saints centre-back Daniel Phillips almost headed in a corner from his captain Hudec. Four minutes later, another dangerous delivery from Hudec undid us for a second time. The right-back's cross to the near post found Svoboda, whose strike deflected in off Silvo Kovjenic for 2-0.

 

That was a very unlucky own goal for Silvo, who showed real resolve in heading away another worrisome Hudec cross in the 22nd minute. Shortly after that, Southampton's holding midfielder Hassan Zaidi made an excellent tackle on Marco Verratti and bent a long-range shot towards goal. Whalley made a strong catch, but a busy day for our goalkeeper wasn't going to quieten down any time soon.

 

After 32 minutes, the outstanding Hudec lofted the ball forward into our area once again. Danny Hannigan flicked it on to Svoboda, who tucked away his second and Southampton's third goal.

 

Another goal should have followed in the 35th minute, but Saints winger Jo Sande Kjonnoy blasted the ball deep into the stands. The half-time score remained 3-0 to Jack Rodwell's side... and what was really frightening was that they weren't even playing at their very best!

 

More bad news followed for us early in the second half. Jacques Polomat picked up a couple of knocks, the first coming after he was fouled by Ricky Hales in the opening minute. Jacques wasn't too badly hurt, thankfully, but it was clear that we were struggling big time.

 

What was also clear was that Southampton had taken their foot off the accelerator at half-time. Hannigan and Nikos Apergis each wasted chances to make it 4-0 before the 60-minute mark, as did Zaidi shortly afterwards. Svoboda was denied a hat-trick in the 63rd minute by a secure catch from Kieran, who also made light work of a header from young Saints sub Maurice Hockley in the 70th. Those were the visitors' best attacks of a goalless second half, but ours were barely worth commenting on.

 

Southampton keeper Gavin Weaver was untroubled throughout the half, with his only reason for concern coming when Mark West drove a shot inches past his right-hand post in the 87th minute. In fact, Weaver only had to make one save all game - from a Verratti free-kick midway through the first period. This match really was a one-horse race, and even with just under half of the season to play, Southampton were galloping like Red Rum towards the Championship title.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Southampton - 3 (Svoboda 3,32, Kovjenic og12)

Championship, Attendance 7,003 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Southampton 1st

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Charles, Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Cochet, Barnes (Green), Verratti (Martin), Polomat (Cousins), West, Tortora. BOOKED: Barnes.

 

There's never a good time to play Southampton in their current mood, but this was a particularly inapt time for us to meet them. The confidence we had from our previous two games has ebbed away, and we now face some difficult fixtures in December that could blow our play-off challenge completely off course.

[CFuller]

Championship Table (End of November 2030)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Southampton            25    19    5     1     57    14    +43   62
2.          Aston Villa            25    15    7     3     45    23    +22   52
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Sheff Utd              25    15    4     6     45    26    +19   49
4.          Newcastle              24    13    7     4     46    24    +22   46
5.          Burnley                25    12    9     4     39    25    +14   45
6.          Hull                   25    13    4     8     39    34    +5    43
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Peterborough           25    11    8     6     29    19    +10   41
8.          Colchester             25    12    4     9     36    36    0     40
9.          Plymouth               25    12    3     10    42    40    +2    39
10.         Leeds                  25    11    5     9     35    27    +8    38
11.         Dag & Red              25    11    5     9     40    40    0     38
12.         Crystal Palace         25    10    4     11    37    37    0     34
13.         Middlesbrough          25    7     11    7     19    24    -5    32
14.         Cardiff                25    9     5     11    29    36    -7    32
15.         Wigan                  25    8     6     11    31    35    -4    30
16.         Bolton                 25    6     11    8     23    30    -7    29
17.         Doncaster              25    8     4     13    34    46    -12   28
18.         Northampton            25    7     6     12    25    36    -11   27
19.         Stoke                  25    6     8     11    31    35    -4    26
20.         Millwall               25    7     4     14    29    38    -9    25
21.         Oldham                 24    5     6     13    21    35    -14   21
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.         QPR                    25    6     2     17    22    47    -25   20
23.         Crewe                  25    3     7     15    19    34    -15   16
24.         Swansea                25    3     5     17    24    56    -32   14

[CFuller]

DECEMBER 2030

December began with the FA Cup Round 3 draw, which pitted us at home to Sheffield Wednesday. The Owls were having a nightmare season in League One, where they were sitting second-from-bottom, so we would be red-hot favourites to knock them out in January.

 

Funnily enough, we would be hosting Wednesday's city rivals Sheffield United in our opening match of this month. Mind you, we certainly weren't favourites to win that game. United were 3rd in the Championship and unbeaten in their last four matches.

 

Winger Marvin Green was a late withdrawal from the Dagenham squad after spraining his ankle on the eve of the game. He wouldn't be able to return until the New Year.

 

4 December 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Sheffield United

Sheffield United goalkeeper Jason Faulkner caught a long-range shot from William Barnes in just the second minute of this match. In the ninth, United's ex-Daggers winger Marcelo Andrade let fly with a half-volley that drifted well wide. Neither team really got going early on, and our hopes of doing so suffered a huge setback after 11 minutes. Midfielder Matthew Fraser was cut down by Blades counterpart Sjors Laros, and the Scotsman had to limp off injured.

 

Surprisingly, we pushed Sheffield United a bit more after Matthew's departure. Daniel O'Reilly crashed a drive wide in the 15th minute, while Joel Honeyball was thwarted by an excellent save from Faulkner in the 23rd.

 

Meanwhile, our former charges struggled on their returns to Dagenham. Paul Hart had to exit the stage after half an hour, having suffered a rib injury, while Andrade was booked on 37 minutes for tripping Barnes.

 

Four minutes before his booking, Andrade had missed arguably United's best chance to take the lead. Whalley charged dangerously out of his area to hoof away a loose ball, only to see his clearance fall to Andrade. The Portuguese winger shot from 25 yards out... but the ball drifted wide, and his team-mate Aaron Byrne was flagged offside as he tried (and failed) to redirect it towards goal. As the first half came to an end, the score remained at 0-0.

 

Barnes was booked two minutes into the second period after sliding in hard on Byrne. That was a big cause for concern, and an even bigger one came when defender Philip Duru was dispossessed by Sheffield United skipper Jon Morris in the 60th minute. Morris then took the ball up the right flank and crossed deep to Andrade, who nodded it down for Justin Middleton. The Blades substitute sharply turned away from Alex Busetto and cut the ball into the corner of the net. First blood to Sheffield United.

 

I was so disappointed with Duru that I immediately subbed him in favour of George Darvill. I would soon have to make my third and final personnel change. Barnes collapsed in pain after a failed attempt to tackle Blades midfielder Alexandru Barladeanu... and it quickly became apparent that he'd done his hamstring in. Will was stretchered off and Dean Martin sent on as we tried desperately to pull level.

 

On 77 minutes, Joel Honeyball played the ball through to Daniel O'Reilly, who was in plenty of space in the Blades area. Daniel's first attempt at goal was blocked by defender Mikael Nordnes, and the second was pulled wide. That was as close as we would get to equalising in another disappointing game at Craven Cottage.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Sheffield United - 1 (Middleton 60)

Championship, Attendance 5,326 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Sheff Utd 3rd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Busetto, Charles, Duru (Darvill), Banton, O'Reilly, Fraser (Cousins), Barnes (Martin), Dam, Djokic, Honeyball. BOOKED: Barnes.

 

The famously fragile Matthew Fraser escaped serious injury in that match... but William Barnes was not so lucky. A torn hamstring would put our highest-paid player out of contention for the next three months.

 

In addition, Will had been given a one-match suspension after receiving five yellow cards - not that it really mattered now.

 

After losing successive home games without finding the net, we faced a run of three consecutive weekends away from Craven Cottage. That sequence began at Doncaster Rovers - the side who destroyed us 4-0 at home in August.

 

The painful memories from that previous meeting remained, but I had reason to believe that things would be different at the Keepmoat Stadium. For one thing, Will Grigg - the Rovers manager who oversaw that demolition job - had since been sacked. The new don at Donny was James Chester, who lost his job as Stoke City boss a few weeks after my Daggers stunned his Potters 3-2 in September.

 

I should add, though, that Chester had won his first three games since returning to Doncaster for his second spell as manager. Oh, goodness, this was going to go well, wasn't it?

 

7 December 2030: Doncaster Rovers vs Dagenham & Redbridge

You would've got long odds on us going 2-0 up within the first five minutes. The odds on our first two goalscorers in Doncaster being defenders Heikki Puustinen and Silvo Kovjenic would've been even longer than on Victoria Pendleton winning next year's St Leger!

 

The first part of that unlikely scenario came true in the third minute. Matt Warren found Heikki in a crowded penalty area, and the Finn finished his first goal for the Daggers.

 

Two minutes later, Silvo was celebrating his first Dagenham strike! Warren was again the architect, as his centre bounced off Mario Djokic before falling fortuitously to Kovjenic, who lashed it home from a tight angle!

 

Those two very quick goals forced Doncaster forward, and they were rather unlucky not to halve our lead after eight minutes. Winger Fausto Casiraghi controlled a crossfield pass from Ian Giles and fired towards goal, but Kieran Whalley made a superb save. That was a crucial moment, as by the 15th minute, we were leading 3-0. Mark West's run into the Rovers area was halted by Dale Porter, but the Donny left-back could only knock the ball on to Djokic, who gobbled up his 18th goal of the season!

 

Two minutes later, though, Doncaster called on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to arrest their slide towards a heavy defeat. Sandro Franco found his compatriot Milan Bazina in the area, and the 30-year-old striker tucked his shot away like Wayne Gretzky in his pomp.

 

Hopes of a Rovers return to form would be short-lived. An incisive counter-attack on 20 minutes ended with Lucky Okoli's cross being headed home by captain West. The scoreboard now read 4-1 to Dagenham, and both sets of fans were wondering when the scoring would end!

 

Mark's goal was indeed the end - as far as the first half was concerned at least. Whalley denied Charles Catchpole a second Doncaster goal in the 22nd minute, while his counterpart Marc Ferguson had to stop West from scoring our fifth in the 27th. As Porter struggled to clear a long ball from Daggers defender Alex Busetto, West took possession and surged clear, only for Ferguson to turn his shot behind. Ferguson's save prevented Doncaster from falling apart completely, and their supporters were relieved that the deficit remained at 'only' three goals going into the break.

 

Doncaster began their salvage mission in the first minute of the second period. Casiraghi lifted a free-kick into our area, and Franco leapt above Daniel O'Reilly to head in one of the three goals Rovers needed to level.

 

The hosts would strike again in the 50th minute, from another Casiraghi set-piece. A corner from the Italian was flicked in off the bar at the near post by centre-back Aaron McEwen (not to be confused with ex-Daggers favourite Aaron McEwan).

 

Our 4-1 lead had been cut down to 4-3, and when Franco crossed into our area in the 53rd minute, I instantly feared the worst. That was until Kovjenic came in with the greatest of interceptions. Warren took the ball on and moved it forward to Matthew Fraser, who lofted it ahead of Djokic. As Donny's defenders raced back to their goal, Mario charged forward and slipped the ball past Ferguson! That made it 5-3, and although we couldn't quite relax, it was clear that the breakaway had left Doncaster demoralised.

 

McEwan and Franco each missed opportunities to put Rovers back in the running midway through the half. O'Reilly and Warren both got booked just before those misses, and the latter would later be substituted.

 

Matt's replacement was Mario Tortora, who killed the hosts off from another excellent Dagenham counter-attack in the 75th minute. Djokic rounded off a man of the match performance with a perfect pass to his namesake, who hammered in his first senior goal since putting three past Colchester United in August!

 

Four minutes later, it really was all over for Rovers. Home midfielder Leon Boothe picked up his second yellow card after fouling our young substitute Nigel Atta, leaving us with a man advantage for the closing stages.

 

Unsurprisingly, we found the net for the seventh time shortly before the final whistle. O'Reilly's cross swerved over Ferguson and bounced into the net, but it was disallowed after West was accused of impeding the Doncaster goalie. Nevertheless, this was our second nine-goal bonanza of the season... and this time, we were on the right end of the 6-3 scoreline!

 

Doncaster Rovers - 3 (Bazina 17, Franco 46, McEwen 50)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 6 (Puustinen 3, Kovjenic 5, Djokic 15,53, West 20, Tortora 75)

Championship, Attendance 10,226 - POSITIONS: Doncaster 19th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Kovjenic, Busetto (Darvill), Okoli (Atta), Fraser, Martin, Warren (Tortora), West, Djokic. BOOKED: O'Reilly, Warren, Fraser.

 

That was sweet revenge after our last encounter with Doncaster. We returned home to Essex in a jubilant mood, and hopeful that we would soon close in on the play-off places.

[CFuller]

DECEMBER 2030 (continued)

There was some good news for Dagenham & Redbridge's reserves in midweek, as they beat Stansted 2-0 to reach the Quarter Finals of the Essex Senior Cup. Unfortunately, young attacking midfielder Jacques Polomat twisted his knee in that match and would miss at least our next two away games.

 

The following weekend saw us travel east for a county derby with Colchester United, who were just behind us on goal difference. We had a strong recent record over the U's, but I didn't want us to get cocky against our fellow play-off outsiders.

 

14 December 2030: Colchester United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Dagenham goalie Kieran Whalley had to keep Colchester at bay almost on his own in the first half. A second-minute counter-attack from the U's ended with Matt Peters having a clear view of goal, but Kieran made a superb acrobatic save to stop his shot.

 

Another Whalley wonder saved us in the fifth minute, when he pushed away a long-distance drive from Che Grocott. On 12 minutes, it was Joel Ashley's turn to try and break through us. The wideman cut inside from the right flank into our area, but he could only snatch his shot into Whalley's grasp.

 

We got our first chance to score in the 21st minute, when Matt Warren's swerving free-kick bounced back off the bar. Peters then had a couple more opportunities for Colchester over the next few minutes. The first was, predictably, clawed away by Kieran, but the second didn't get anywhere near our young goalkeeper.

 

Daggers captain Mark West skied a volley well off target after 29 minutes, and then normal service resumed with United huffing and blowing at us again. Peters was denied twice more by Whalley in the 36th and 41st minutes. Kieran was beaten by Grocott's header from a Vinny Ashdjian corner in the 44th minute... but the crossbar saved his back and kept the deadlock intact.

 

Whalley was having to save everything in the first half, while his Colchester counterpart Shayne Griffin might as well have read a book throughout the opening period. Griffin received his first major test six minutes into the second half, when he pushed behind a fierce strike from Victor Dam. The U's countered a minute later, and Ashley pulled a decent opening into the side netting.

 

On 60 minutes, Daggers striker Mario Djokic finally posed a threat to Griffin. Our leading scorer jinked to the edge of the United area before hitting a vicious drive that Griffin superbly tipped wide. Djokic had two more shots at goal later on, but one went off target and the other was blocked, so we would have to look elsewhere for a breakthrough.

 

When Djokic was felled by Colchester captain Casey Phillips in the 70th minute, Matthew Fraser stepped forward to take the subsequent free-kick. The Scotsman fired it plum into the corner of Griffin's net, and there was a huge roar amongst our travelling supporters!

 

Three minutes later, however, Colchester's fans were replying with large cheers of their own. It was not O'Reilly's finest hour when Ashley turned away from him and put a cross into the area. The ball bounced off our substitute defender Philip Duru, and U's striker Regan Stroud half-volleyed in the rebound to level.

 

I'd brought on Duru early in the second half as Josh Charles was getting dangerously close to picking up a second yellow card, and in hindsight, that wasn't a particularly smart move. Philip almost reassured me that I'd made the right decision in the 79th minute, when he headed Fraser's corner narrowly over the bar.

 

By the 89th minute, I knew that I had indeed screwed up. Duru charged out of position to close down Ashley, leaving Joel Edwards in enough space to turn in his team-mate's cross when it did come his way. A more experienced defender like Charles might've done better in that situation, but that was neither here nor there. We'd thrown away a good position and lost 2-1.

 

Colchester United - 2 (Stroud 73, Edwards 89)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Fraser 70)

Championship, Attendance 6,532 - POSITIONS: Colchester 9th, Dag & Red 11th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Charles (Duru), Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Okoli (Puustinen), Fraser, Dam (Verratti), Warren, West, Djokic. BOOKED: Charles, Verratti.

 

Did that defeat annoy me? You bet it did. Had we held onto that lead, we would've been within two points of the play-off places.

 

We hoped to regain some lost ground in our next away game at the Britannia Stadium. Stoke City were woefully out of form, having failed to win any of their last five games. Now under the management of Connor Wickham, Stoke were in serious danger of slipping into a relegation battle.

 

21 December 2030: Stoke City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Mark West was disappointed not to put us ahead in the sixth minute, when he headed wide from an excellent Matthew Fraser corner. Three minutes later, Fraser made a vital block to prevent Aaran Guichard from firing Stoke into the lead. The Potters pushed forward again in the 12th minute, and it looked like midfielder Kaveh Salmani's long volley was about to send striker Ian Dillon through... until Josh Charles dove in with an excellent tackle.

 

Stoke's penalty cries went unheeded, but on 18 minutes, they benefitted from a moment of real controversy. Salmani tripped Ashley Cousins deep in our half, but play continued as Dillon knocked the ball forward to his strike partner Billy Murphy. The former Rangers frontman finished with aplomb, and we were feeling a sense of injustice.

 

A minute later, Cousins set up an equalising attempt for West, who could only fire it into the hands of Potters goalkeeper Sasa Vucemilovic-Grgic. Plamen Apostolov then had a couple of wild misses for Stoke before Salmani struck a volley inches over the bar in the 30th minute. We wouldn't be seriously threatened again in the first half. We were still 1-0 down, although we hadn't played badly by any means.

 

The second half was slow to get going, but when it finally did in the 64th minute, Stoke almost went two up. Murphy attempted a 30-yard piledriver that was brilliantly tipped over by Kieran Whalley. Our young goalkeeper made a more straightforward save two minutes later, when he caught a swerving effort from Dillon.

 

As time began to run out for us, we adopted a route-one approach in a bid to pull level. On 75 minutes, West nodded a long free-kick from Whalley to Marco Verratti, who was tackled by Guichard. Ashley retook the ball for us and played it through to Marco, who found space and then had a shot saved by Vucemilovic-Grgic. The Croatian's parry clipped his colleague Guichard's thigh and deflected into the path of West, who grabbed an equaliser for the Daggers!

 

However, Stoke threatened to retake the lead just two minutes later. Murphy jumped clear of Charles and tried to flick the ball to Potters substitute Allan Moffat at the far post, and we were relieved to see Whalley pick it up just in time.

 

Then, in the 84th minute, Matthew Fraser cunningly sliced the ball through Stoke's defence and into their area. West tried to run onto it... but he was felled by a sliding tackle from City right-back Carl Nelson. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, and we were on the verge of taking a 2-1 lead. Fraser faced off with Vucemilovic-Grgic from 12 yards out... and the Scotsman prevailed!

 

We now had to hold on for three precious points. That was easier said than done when, in the second minute of injury time, our right-back Arran Banton carelessly passed the ball away to Salmani. The Potters increased the tempo and launched a counter-attack that threatened to break our hearts.

 

French midfielder Esteban Morin played the killer ball to Murphy on the edge of the area... and the striker was bearing down on goal until Daniel O'Reilly intervened with a priceless tackle! We cheered that tackle like a goal in the away dugout, and when the final whistle blew a couple of minutes later, we celebrated a tremendous return to form!

 

Stoke City - 1 (Murphy 18)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (West 75, Fraser pen85)

Championship, Attendance 15,861 - POSITIONS: Stoke 20th, Dag & Red 11th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Busetto, Kovjenic, Puustinen (Banton), O'Reilly, Cousins, Fraser, Verratti (Martin), West, Tortora (Djokic).

 

Oh my, did that make me feel better or what?

[CFuller]

DECEMBER 2030 (continued)

After a very happy Christmas, we returned to action on Boxing Day with a home game against fellow mid-tablers Bolton Wanderers. The Trotters' away form was shocking - they'd won just once on their travels since the end of August - but they were beginning to find their feet under their new rookie manager Joe Shaughnessy.

 

26 December 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Bolton Wanderers

Worryingly, Daggers midfielder Dean Martin was booked after just three minutes following what I thought was a fair tackle on Bolton's Misel Ipsa. Another cause for concern was some atypically awful shooting from Mark West. There were a couple of occasions during the first 15 minutes when West shot far too early from too far out to seriously trouble visiting goalkeeper Bill Miveld. He could also have done better with his next chance in the 21st minute, which he headed wide after receiving an excellent cross from Mario Djokic.

 

Bolton looked more comfortable than us, and the Trotters began to gallop late on in the first half. They won three corners between the 36th and 38th minutes, and the last of them could have brought them the lead. Callum Fordham's delivery found Ricci Lawrence in the six-yard box, but the midfielder powered his header just past the far post. That was a major let-off for us.

 

On 51 minutes, Croatian midfielder Ipsa ran at our defence and attempted to drill the ball into the far end of Kieran Whalley's net. Kieran read the shot well, getting just enough of his fingertips to the ball to turn it behind his post.

 

Bolton goalie Miveld made an excellent save after 59 minutes, catching a header from Djokic. Mario had at least fared better than he had four minutes earlier, when he flicked a Matthew Fraser free-kick wide. Djokic and West would soon be joined in attack by Joel Honeyball, who'd moved over from the left wing after I switched to a 4-4-2 diamond midway through the half. Joel thrived in the attacking midfield role, and on 78 minutes, he had a powerful shot saved by Miveld.

 

Honeyball would have another chance to break his season duck in the penultimate minute of normal time. Heikki Puustinen centred the ball across the Bolton area to find Honeyball, who broke away from his marker Lawrence and applied the finish! That looked like being the only goal of the game... but there would be more late drama to come.

 

John Thomson wasted an opportunity to draw the Trotters level just before injury time. In the second extra minute, Ashley Cousins played a clever lob over the Bolton defence to find Victor Dam, who came within inches of making it 2-0.

 

That miss could've come back to bite us on another day, but two minutes later, Josh Charles scored from a goalmouth scramble to finish the game off. We'd lost our previous three games at Craven Cottage, so this was a very welcome victory! What's more, we moved just two points behind 6th-placed Plymouth Argyle!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Honeyball 89, Charles 90)

Bolton Wanderers - 0

Championship, Attendance 5,371 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 10th, Bolton 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Charles, Duru, O'Reilly, Okoli (Cousins), Fraser, Martin (Dam), Honeyball, West (Tortora), Djokic. BOOKED: Martin.

 

48 hours after beating Bolton, we welcomed Crystal Palace to Craven Cottage. The Eagles were in 12th place, and we were fortunate that they were without our old nemesis Toby Cook due to a twisted ankle.

 

28 December 2030: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Crystal Palace

A record Dagenham home crowd of over 13,000 showed up expecting a classic against two evenly-matched teams. However, the first half would not exactly fill the spectators with much in the way of entertainment. Aarran Bryant snatched at an opportunity for Crystal Palace in the 10th minute, and save for a couple of corners, the Eagles would not threaten us again.

 

At the other end, Daggers captain Marco Verratti tested Palace keeper Jemel Hill with a couple of shots from the edge of the area. The first was tipped behind by 21-year-old Hull on 18 minutes, and the second fizzed just over the bar six minutes later. However, we didn't have enough of the ball to seriously test the visitors any further. At half-time, a goalless dirge looked to be on the cards.

 

The second half was less than two minutes old when Crystal Palace unsuccessfully claimed for a penalty. The Eagles accused our centre-half Silvo Kovjenic of jumping unfairly with their striker Matt Woodward in the area, but the officials gave Silvo the benefit of the doubt.

 

Palace right-winger Orlando Munday was particularly angry at the decision, venting his fury towards one of the referee's assistants. By the 55th minute, though, he was a very happy Munday. The young Eagles substitute flew past Kovjenic to head Tommy Cunningham's free-kick against the bar, and he then scrambled the rebound across the line.

 

Silvo was distraught after that goal, so I took him off and sent Daniel O'Reilly on in a bid to ignite our attack. Things didn't work out at first, as Verratti and Arran Banton both fired shots wide. When Daniel Poulsen blasted a Palace effort off target in the 74th minute, I switched to another plan. Mark West was brought on for Marco Verratti, joining Mario Djokic and Mario Tortora up front.

 

This was the first time I'd ever adopted a narrow 4-3-3 formation, but Crystal Palace had no idea how to deal with our triple threat in attack. As the game entered the final 15 minutes, Djokic nodded a long ball on to West, who entered the Palace area and found himself surrounded by Eagles. Mark selflessly played in Tortora, who then moved the ball further along for Dean Martin to smash it into the corner!

 

Tortora and Martin had linked up brilliantly to draw us level, and they looked to repeat the trick two minutes later. Unfortunately, Dean's half-volley fizzed just the wrong side of the post. In the 88th minute, however, Mario and Dean were at it again! Our homegrown hero threaded the ball through to the Italian striker in the penalty area, and Super Mario made it 2-1 to Dagenham!

 

The three points were ours... until a careless long punt from Ashley Cousins saw us throw away two in the final minute of normal time. Crystal Palace countered at great pace, and former Brentford striker Craig Hodgkiss drove in a heartbreaking equaliser.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Martin 76, Tortora 88)

Crystal Palace - 2 (Munday 55, Hodgkiss 90)

Championship, Attendance 13,248 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 9th, Crystal Palace 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Kovjenic (O'Reilly), Busetto, Duru, Banton, Warren, Dam (Martin), Cousins, Verratti (West), Tortora, Djokic. BOOKED: Banton, Verratti.

 

That was the second time we had dropped points late on against Crystal Palace this season. As a result, we slipped further away from the top six and were now under pressure to get a result in our final game of the year.

 

Loftus Road was the setting for a New Year's Eve meeting with Queens Park Rangers. 2030 had been a year to forget for the Hoops, who were in the bottom three and desperate to avoid dropping into League One.

 

31 December 2030: Queens Park Rangers vs Dagenham & Redbridge

When winger Joel Honeyball surged past QPR right-back Kye Maguire shortly after kick-off, it looked like we would get a lightning-quick opener. Alas, Joel's cut-back to Lucky Okoli was intercepted just in time by Rangers left-back John Thompson.

 

On eight minutes, we were almost opened up by a breathtaking surge from home striker Gary Harper. His shot was palmed away by Daggers goalkeeper Daryl Ryan, who was fit again and making his first league start for over two months. Daryl didn't have to do anything with QPR's next shot, which Scott Simpson drove wide two minutes later.

 

Matthew Fraser and Mark West both hit disappointing efforts for Dagenham midway through the half, but the 'miss of the match' was reserved for QPR midfielder Sam Taylor. The Australian left the Loftus Road faithful red-faced when he scooped over a shot from near the penalty spot.

 

I would also be fuming later on, as my right-winger Okoli lost his mind completely. To be booked once for diving in the penalty area after 33 minutes was not particularly clever. To receive another yellow card three minutes later for diving in the area AGAIN showed reality-TV-star levels of idiocy! Lucky's dying swan impressions didn't cut the mustard with referee Dave Webster, who showed him the red card. The Nigerian trudged off ashamed, and we were down to 10 men.

 

QPR almost took full advantage, as centre-half Anton Eckersley rattled the bar with a header from Martin Plachy's corner in the 44th minute. If we didn't tighten up in the second half, there would surely be only one outcome.

 

Lucky's dismissal forced us to go into the second half with a counter-attacking strategy. QPR began the half strongly, as Eckersley headed wide another Plachy set-piece - a free-kick this time - in the 47th minute.

 

After 55 minutes, we got our first chance to hit Rangers on the break. Jacques Polomat, who came on alongside fellow Frenchman José Cochet at half-time, did well to create a chance for striker Mario Djokic. QPR keeper Florin Mozacu beat it away, and Thompson cleared it behind for a corner. Fraser floated the corner towards Josh Charles, who flicked it past Mozacu and gave us an unlikely 1-0 lead!

 

The Hoops put our advantage under threat in the 63rd minute, as Plachy's corner caused us some problems before James Marshall dragged it wide. We breathed another huge sigh of relief ten minutes later. Simpson's flick-on into the Daggers area found 18-year-old QPR substitute Lee Nutter, who somehow missed the target from a fantastic position! That miss, along with later ones from Simpson and Sebastian Remme Berge, would eventually take their toll on the hosts' already fragile psyche.

 

Two minutes before full-time, we dealt the strugglers a massive blow. The impressive Polomat drove the ball ahead of our final substitute Mario Tortora, who broke away from R's defender Sheridan Turner and smashed in the goal that clinched a 2-0 victory! To not only win but also keep a clean sheet while playing the entire second half with only 10 men was a fantastic achievement against any team - even a QPR side who had now won just two of their last 16 games.

 

Queens Park Rangers - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Charles 56, Tortora 88)

Championship, Attendance 9,947 - POSITIONS: QPR 22nd, Dag & Red 7th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Puustinen, Charles, Busetto, O'Reilly, Okoli, Fraser, Martin (Polomat), Honeyball (Cochet), West, Djokic (Tortora). BOOKED: Okoli, Djokic. SENT OFF: Okoli.

 

Thanks to that excellent win, we've ended the year just a single point adrift of the play-off places!

 

However, I'm far from happy with Lucky Okoli, whose stupidity could easily have cost us dear. I've fined him a week's wages for his dismissal, and if you'll pardon the pun, he's lucky I haven't transfer-listed him. Yet.

[CFuller]

Championship Table (End of December 2030)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Southampton            32    25    6     1     80    21    +59   81
2.          Aston Villa            32    20    7     5     55    31    +24   67
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Newcastle              31    18    8     5     59    29    +30   62
4.          Sheff Utd              32    19    5     8     55    31    +24   62
5.          Burnley                32    15    12    5     47    32    +15   57
6.          Hull                   32    16    4     12    48    50    -2    52
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Dag & Red              32    15    6     11    55    49    +6    51
8.          Plymouth               32    15    6     11    50    46    +4    51
9.          Peterborough           31    12    12    7     36    26    +10   48
10.         Colchester             32    14    6     12    44    44    0     48
11.         Leeds                  32    13    8     11    45    36    +9    47
12.         Crystal Palace         32    13    6     13    47    49    -2    45
13.         Cardiff                32    12    8     12    38    41    -3    44
14.         Bolton                 32    10    11    11    29    37    -8    41
15.         Northampton            32    10    8     14    32    41    -9    38
16.         Wigan                  32    9     8     15    42    52    -10   35
17.         Doncaster              32    10    5     17    45    59    -14   35
18.         Middlesbrough          32    7     12    13    22    39    -17   33
19.         Stoke                  32    7     11    14    40    46    -6    32
20.         Millwall               32    8     6     18    34    47    -13   30
21.         Crewe                  32    5     10    17    25    42    -17   25
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.         QPR                    32    7     4     21    30    58    -28   25
23.         Swansea                32    6     7     19    31    60    -29   25
24.         Oldham                 32    5     8     19    26    49    -23   23

[CFuller]

JANUARY 2031

Surprisingly, by the time we entered the New Year, more than two-thirds of the Championship season had already been played! January would be an unusually quiet month for us, then, with only the FA Cup and a solitary league game against Burnley to concern ourselves with.

 

Our FA Cup Round 3 tie at home to Sheffield Wednesday was scheduled for 11 January, but before that, I had some administration to deal with.

 

Firstly, we welcomed back a trio of reserve players who'd gone out on loan. Mitchell Paratusic returned from our feeder club Leighton Town, as did Dennis McCann, who came back a month earlier than scheduled as he wasn't getting enough game time.

 

Left-back Marc Hopkins completed a four-month stint at Wycombe Wanderers and looked ready to challenge Daniel O'Reilly and Matt Warren for a regular starting place. That couldn't be said of 18-year-old centre-half Shaun Johnson, who'd endured a terrible half-season at Gillingham and was now battling to get his career back on track.

 

Shortly after Hopkins left Wycombe, another Daggers defender was on his way to the League One club. Philip Duru would spend the rest of the campaign at Adams Park as he looked to build up his first-team experience.

 

Meanwhile, Kieran Whalley was rewarded for his recent breakthrough with a new contract worthy of a first-choice goalkeeper. The 20-year-old agreed a £3,000-per-week deal that will run until 2034.

 

There was, though, some less positive news on the injury front. Mark West strained his back and Victor Dam suffered a chest injury, meaning that they were both unable to play in that FA Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday.

 

When we last played a League One team in the FA Cup last season, Ipswich Town served our backsides to us on a silver platter. There was nothing to suggest that Wednesday would do likewise this time round. The Owls were second-from-bottom in their division, and a goalkeeping crisis meant that they were having to field youth-teamer Simon Naylor between the sticks.

 

11 January 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Sheffield Wednesday

We got stuck into Sheffield Wednesday early on, with Marco Verratti picking up a very early booking for a clumsy tackle on Owls midfielder Jack Stillwell. Another member of our Italian contingent - Mario Tortora - fired a volley just wide in the 9th minute. We continued to be wasteful with our shots, as Arran Banton and Mario Djokic each missed in the 16th and 17th minutes respectively.

 

On 23 minutes, Dean Martin headed Daniel O'Reilly's centre into the six-yard box, where Tortora nodded it wide. We would finally make the breakthrough nine minutes later. Josh Charles leapt above a 'parliament' of Owls defenders to head in a Verratti corner and put us 1-0 up.

 

Sheffield Wednesday almost replied with a swift equaliser on 35 minutes, when Christopher Osborne fired a volley inches over. That narrow miss came between a couple of important saves from Wednesday's 18-year-old goalie Simon Naylor, who was desperately trying to keep his team's heads above water. Our own Daryl Ryan would also be strongly tested in the 40th minute. The Irish keeper's reflex save from an Edwin Day strike ensured that we remained in front at the interval.

 

We had played reasonably well in the first half, but I demanded more in the second half... and more was what I got. On 54 minutes, Tortora surged through the Sheffield Wednesday defence and played an excellent cut-back to his namesake Djokic, who finished with ease. Djokic would find the net again from a Tortora through-ball in the 63rd minute, but he was caught offside and so our lead remained at 2-0.

 

Despite their let-off, the Owls couldn't get back into the game. Midfielder Osborne's match was ended by a challenge from Daniel O'Reilly in the 65th minute. Another Wednesday player who was having a bad day was striker Day, whose 68th-minute shot was charged down by the brilliant Charles.

 

Things got worse still for the Yorkshire side after 78 minutes. Owls captain Mike Foster was accused of bringing down Djokic in the penalty area, and midfield maestro Matthew Fraser nonchalantly tucked away the spot-kick for 3-0.

 

We were now looking oh so comfortable, with our only real scare coming when Day's header rattled the bar in the 84th minute. Four minutes later, we finished off our lower-league opponents with a fourth goal. O'Reilly's weighted centre was thrashed in by Tortora, and it was mission accomplished as far as Round 3 of the FA Cup was concerned.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Charles 32, Djokic 54, Fraser pen78, Tortora 88)

Sheffield Wednesday - 0

FA Cup Round 3, Attendance 6,469

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Kovjenic (Darvill), Busetto, Charles, Banton, O'Reilly, Martin (Atta), Fraser, Verratti (Polomat), Tortora, Djokic. BOOKED: Verratti.

 

We were safely through to Round 4 for just the third time in our history. We would also be at home in the next round... against either Middlesbrough or Cardiff City. Those two would replay their Round 3 tie later in the month.

 

Mario Djokic's goal was his 20th of the campaign, and he was rewarded with a new contract that will stretch into next season. While I was at it, I also gave a new 18-month deal to Mark West, who was still recovering from a back strain. Mario and Mark each have clauses in their contracts that will entitle them to an automatic one-year extension if they make 25 league appearances next season.

 

Our only league game of the month took place the following Sunday at home to 5th-placed Burnley. Saturday's results had largely gone in our favour, so we would jump into the play-off places with a win. Even a draw would see us move level on points with Peterborough United in 6th and Hull City in 7th.

 

19 January 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Burnley

We almost had the perfect start through Marco Verratti in the second minute, but Burnley goalkeeper Souza just about diverted the veteran midfielder's shot behind. The Clarets also went close to getting the opening goal after 16 minutes. On-loan Brighton & Hove Albion striker Travis Richardson's strike was pushed away by Daryl Ryan, who was looking to make the Daggers' number 1 jersey his own again.

 

The early signs looked promising for Daryl and the rest of our defence. A minute later, Burnley midfielder Ion Pavelescu had a shot inadvertently blocked by his own team-mate Jozef Kral, and Dagenham's Matthew Fraser made an excellent interception to stop the move from developing further.

 

On 23 minutes, our leading scorer Mario Djokic drew attention to himself with a clever run into the Burnley area. As both of the visitors' centre-halves advanced towards Djokic, the Montenegrin found Mario Tortora in space. A deadly finish followed from the in-form Italian striker, who scored for the fourth game in a row!

 

The younger Mario was also involved in setting up our second goal on 30 minutes. Tortora squared the ball to Verratti, whose first-time through-ball was powered in by Ashley Cousins - a first-time Dagenham goalscorer!

 

After we went 2-0 up, however, our defenders lost their concentration. Right-back Arran Banton was caught out in the 33rd minute, when Roman Feurstein's deep cross found Burnley winger Balla Barry, who half-volleyed in the Clarets' first goal.

 

Three minutes later, Barry's lofted free-kick was headed in by former England striker Nick Barnes, who was about to celebrate his 50th Burnley goal when the offside flag came to our aid. Our respite would only last for a couple of minutes. Ryan scuffed a goal kick into the path of Richardson, who raced clear and slotted the ball beyond his reach. Our two-goal deficit had been reduced to rubble and I was far from happy.

 

I told my players to get their heads back in the game before the second half, but it was to no avail. Barry gave Banton the runaround straight from the kick-off, and he tucked away his second goal after just 15 seconds! We'd gone from leading 2-0 to trailing 3-2, and all the momentum was now with Burnley.

 

We could've got back on level terms in the 52nd minute, but Cousins' half-volley was pushed away by Souza. Ashley hadn't scored in any of his previous 20 matches for Dagenham, and he was now very unlucky not to have struck twice in one game!

 

Seven minutes later, Burnley pulled further ahead with their fourth goal - and we should've seen it coming. Guinea international Barry's schooling of Banton continued when he turned away from the full-back, cut inside, and put the seal on his hat-trick.

 

I swiftly replaced Arran with the more experienced Heikki Puustinen, which admittedly was rather like installing a smoke alarm after one's house had burned down. After 62 minutes, though, we started to believe that we could salvage at least something from the smouldering ruins. Djokic's shot from just outside the area beat Souza's dive, struck the post... and then rebounded off the back of the Brazilian's knee and crossed the line! The goal was credited as a Souza own goal, and we were now only 4-3 down.

 

We didn't really get a chance to equalise, though, before Barry decided to reassert his authority on proceedings. After 69 minutes, Barry had a free-kick saved by Ryan, whose comfortable catch was one of the few highlights from a very poor display. Our Irish goalkeeper would save his worst for last in the 83rd minute.

 

Barry flicked the ball into the area for Richardson, who attempted to beat Ryan from a tight angle. Daryl could only parry Richardson's original shot back to the striker, who tucked the ball away at the second time of asking. The Clarets moved 5-3 ahead, and with Verratti coming off early due to injury, we quickly resigned ourselves to our fate.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Tortora 23, Cousins 30, Souza og62)

Burnley - 5 (Barry 33,46,59, Richardson 38,83)

Championship, Attendance 6,958 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 8th, Burnley 5th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Charles, Busetto, Kovjenic, Banton (Puustinen), O'Reilly (Warren), Cousins, Fraser, Verratti, Tortora, Djokic (Honeyball). BOOKED: Cousins.

 

Admittedly, Burnley - and Balla Barry in particular - had played out of their skins. Nonetheless, this was a massive opportunity to break into the top six, and we had missed it. I hope we don't regret that when we come to the end-of-season run-in.

[CFuller]

JANUARY 2031 (continued)

After our league defeat to Burnley, we went into full-on FA Cup mode. We would be playing our Round 4 tie at home to either Middlesbrough or Cardiff City on 26 January. Five days before then, our two potential opponents faced off in their Round 3 replay to decide who would be travelling to Craven Cottage.

 

Middlesbrough had the home advantage and were slight favourites... but a single goal from veteran defender Dion Conroy in the 50th minute was enough to ensure that Cardiff progressed. It would be us against the Bluebirds for a place in the last 16.

 

Most people were predicting that this would be a very close call. While we were five places above Cardiff in the Championship table, all of our previous three meetings had ended goalless. Surely that deadlock would be broken at the fourth attempt...

 

26 January 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Cardiff City

We looked to put Cardiff on the back foot immediately with a fast-paced, direct attacking game. It certainly worked a treat, as we won a couple of early corners before breaking the deadlock in the 18th minute. Lucky Okoli showed his explosiveness on the right wing when he surged past City left-back Ryan White and crossed towards Mario Djokic. Bluebirds centre-half Dion Conroy tried to tackle the ball away from Djokic, but he could only divert it on to Mario Tortora, whose purple patch continued with a fine finish!

 

Super Mario had now scored in five consecutive matches, and he was soon looking for another goal. The Italian got his head to an excellent Marvin Green cross in the 21st minute... but Cardiff's 17-year-old goalkeeper Ronnie Robinson got his hands to the ball.

 

Tortora tried to reach another Green cross on 33 minutes, only to be brought down by the visitors' other centre-back Les Sawyer. The referee pointed to the spot and showed Sawyer a yellow card before Matthew Fraser made it 2-0 with a cool penalty. Matthew really was proving to be lethal from 12 yards out!

 

Only then did the Bluebirds start to attack. Lewis Askey fired a shot into Daggers goalie Kieran Whalley's hands on 35 minutes. Three minutes later, Askey's through-ball set up a golden opportunity for Cypriot midfielder Antonis Antoniou... but he pulled it wide. Experienced winger Bjarni Ólafur Einarsson also missed a late attempt for Cardiff, and by half-time, we had planted one foot into the next round.

 

A wicked strike from Dean Martin almost put us 3-0 up in the 52nd minute, but Robinson's impressive reflex save meant we weren't quite over the finish line yet. Eight minutes later, Whalley pushed away an Askey strike that could have complicated things somewhat.

 

In the 66th minute, though, any doubts about our progress were blown away by some shocking Cardiff defending! Substitute Josh Dumphy overhit a backpass to his colleague Sawyer, and Tortora surged past the latter to stroke the loose ball home! Mario's second goal of the afternoon made it 3-0, and we could now relax.

 

We still pushed forward occasionally in search for another goal to make dead sure. Robinson had to push away a shot from Ashley Cousins after 72 minutes, while the crossbar denied Josh Charles his fourth goal in five matches after 87. Cardiff had been reduced to 10 men by an injury to Einarsson in the 82nd minute, and they were somewhat relieved not to have sustained any more damage! Their FA Cup dream was beyond repair, however, and it was us who progressed to Round 5.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Tortora 18,66, Fraser pen34)

Cardiff City - 0

FA Cup Round 4, Attendance 6,124

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Charles, Busetto (Darvill), O'Reilly, Okoli, Fraser, Martin (Cousins), Green (Honeyball), Tortora, Djokic. BOOKED: Martin, Honeyball.

 

For just the second time ever, we were into Round 5, the draw for which had actually been made while we were playing! We were drawn at home for the third round in a row... and for the second time in succession, we would have to wait to discover our opponents.

 

All we knew was that we would be playing either Charlton Athletic - 7th in League One - or Tottenham Hotspur, who were 5th in the Premier League. Those two had drawn their original tie at The Valley and would have to meet again at Spurs' AIA Stadium on 4 February.

 

Both of those sides would make interesting opponents for different reasons. On one hand, playing Charlton would give us a wonderful chance to reach our first FA Cup Quarter Final. On the other, as an Arsenal fan for most of my life, I would love to have an opportunity to upset Tottenham in the cup.

 

Either way, I can't wait for the next round of the FA Cup...

 

The month ended rather quietly, aside from the return of three more loanees to Dagenham. Lloyd Bailey (Ebbsfleet United), Tom Virgo (Forest Green Rovers) and Derek Wright (Milton Keynes Dons) had all been picking up invaluable experience in the lower leagues. Defensive midfielder Virgo especially had come on leaps and bounds over the last 12 months, and he would now be part of my first-team plans.

 

Tom's elevation to the senior set-up meant that José Cochet's first-team chances would be further limited. I therefore decided to send the Frenchman out on loan.

 

Cochet's destination, for the next three months, was Kingstonian. I know that the K's have loaned a couple of midfielders from us before and not played them, but I'm sure that Alan Dowson will treat José much more fairly. If he doesn't, then I'll probably strangle him! (Dowson, that is, not José!)

 

While I'm on the subject of young French players at Dagenham, I can now confirm that we'll be signing a third Gallic teenager to join Cochet and Jacques Polomat next season. And oui, his name also begins with a J.

 

Ladies and gents, I present to you John Moser - a 16-year-old central defender from Lens. He's brave, he's determined, he's an extremely good header of the ball... and he's already played 40 senior games for the Ligue 2 leaders. We beat Newcastle United to sign the France Under-19s international on a pre-contract agreement, and he'll be joining us on a three-year deal in July.

 

Moser is just one of several Lens youngsters who've made their mark in the senior team this season. I tried to poach one of his team-mates as well, but Lamine Kebe - a right-winger who's also only 16 - chose to sign with AC Milan instead. I can't say that I blame him.

[CFuller]

FEBRUARY 2031

The Championship season resumed at the start of February, when we travelled to crisis-hit Swansea City. The South Wales side were second-from-bottom - three points off safety - and they'd conceded more goals than any other team in the division.

 

Shortly after our last meeting with Swansea in September, the Swans appointed former Feyenoord and Liverpool boss Maceo Rigters as their new manager. Rigters' reputation took a massive hit last summer, when he oversaw a nightmare FIFA World Cup campaign for European champions Holland, who lost all three of their group games. The once-revered 47-year-old was now battling to save his career at the wrong end of English football's second division!

 

1 February 2031: Swansea City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Despite being at the wrong end of the table, it was Swansea who made the more positive start. Central defender Dan Francis and Hungary striker Antal Mezei each fired shots wide for the hosts in the opening nine minutes.

 

Our first scoring opportunity came from a Marvin Green corner in the 10th minute. Matthew Fraser met the delivery with an excellent header, but Swans goalkeeper Argyris Skrivanos somehow managed to turn it against his crossbar before team-mate Tony Robinson cleared the danger. Fraser unsuccessfully argued that he'd been fouled by Swansea centre-back and skipper John French, and so the scoreline remained 0-0.

 

Robinson looked like breaking the deadlock for the Swans in the 16th minute until Kieran Whalley pushed his strike away. Swansea continued to waste chances to move ahead... as did we for that matter.

 

Fraser swung a free-kick just off target on 31 minutes, and that was the closest we would come to scoring until nine minutes later. Green crossed into the area, and Mark West broke free from Francis to head the ball over Skrivanos and into the net!

 

We finally had the lead, but we were fortunate not to lose it in the 44th minute. Whalley's fingertip save from a fierce strike by Dillon Powell would prove vital. Less than a minute later, Mario Tortora beat Powell to a right-wing cross from Lucky Okoli, which he flicked into the net from the back post! Tortora's incredible scoring run had been extended to six games in a row, and we were on course for a 2-0 victory!

 

Maceo Rigters now needed to use all his management skills to get his Swansea boys fired up for the second half. The Swans certainly started the half strongly, with Mezei and Graham Melia each spurning chances to pull a goal back. At the other end in the 48th minute, Skrivanos pushed away a Fraser free-kick just before Okoli could run onto it.

 

Further Swansea misses from Francis and Daniel Smith followed before we started to crack. Tortora was booked in the 60th minute for a foul on French. Two minutes later, as our players battled to retake possession, Mezei got past a surprisingly unsteady Josh Charles and fired in Swansea's first goal.

 

City stole a second goal barely a minute later, after a horrible back-pass from Fraser! Swans substitute Niall Reed intercepted it and knocked it left to Mezei, who passed Charles again and entered the area. Our pressing strategy then fell apart again as three defenders marked Mezei, leaving Reed in acres of space when the Hungarian knocked the ball his way. A simple finish from the 20-year-old Dundee United loanee followed, and our 2-0 lead was in tatters.

 

Amazingly, there would be another goal in the following minute - a Dagenham goal! Mark's clever weighted pass was driven in by Tortora, whose EIGHTH goal in SIX matches restored our advantage almost as soon as we had lost it! As things stood, we would be moving into the top six!

 

We sensed a possible fourth goal on 67 minutes, when West flicked the ball long towards Green. Marvin beat French to the ball, but he couldn't beat Skrivanos with an awful shot that sailed wide. Skrivanos would have more work to do in the 75th minute, when he saved a West header. The Greek custodian made another fine save from Daniel O'Reilly four minutes later, although he didn't really need to, as our left-back had been flagged offside anyway.

 

Daniel and the other Daggers then went on the defensive, doing everything they could to stop Swansea from grabbing a late equaliser. When right-back Heikki Puustinen slid the ball off Swans midfielder Antonio Vutov's feet and out for a corner in injury time, it looked like a brilliant decision. Then Melia swung in the set-piece. Silvo Kovjenic's attempted interception fell to the feet of Mezei, who had the goal at his mercy... and did not show any. 3-3.

 

This was the second league game in a row in which we'd thrown away a 2-0 lead and a glorious opportunity to move up to 6th place. That did not bode well for us at all.

 

Swansea City - 3 (Mezei 62,90, Reed 63)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (West 40, Tortora 45,64)

Championship, Attendance 10,103 - POSITIONS: Swansea 23rd, Dag & Red 8th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Charles, Kovjenic, O'Reilly, Okoli (Banton), Fraser, Dam, Green (Honeyball), West, Tortora (Djokic). BOOKED: Charles, Tortora, O'Reilly.

 

“You've got to cut this out, lads,” I told the players at full-time. “You may have reached the play-offs last season, but you have to concentrate from the first whistle until the last, otherwise that's not going to happen again this year.”

 

With those three Swansea goals, we'd now conceded more in 34 Championship games this season than in the whole of the previous campaign. Our attacking record had certainly improved, but that improvement had come at the expense of our defence.

 

We would need to be much more compact at home to 3rd-placed Newcastle United the following weekend. Before then, however, I had a couple of things on my mind.

 

Tuesday night was a big one for us. Our reserves travelled to Romford for the Essex Senior Cup Semi Final, while Tottenham Hotspur hosted Charlton Athletic for the right to face us in FA Cup Round 5.

 

Instead of staying at home to watch the FA Cup game on TV, I supported our reserves back at my old stomping ground of Ship Lane. It was a bittersweet return, as Dagenham led twice - and were pegged back twice - before Romford won the game 3-2 with a goal from Éamonn Lally in the last minute of extra-time. There would be no Essex Senior Cup Final for the Daggers this year.

 

When I heard the Tottenham-Charlton result afterwards, it frightened me a little, but it didn't surprise me. Spurs had cruised to a 4-0 win, with Gerald Parsons scoring a hat-trick. On 15 February, we would be welcoming Chris Powell's Premier League giants to a newly-expanded Victoria Road in our first game back there.

 

Before returning to Victoria Road, we played our final match at Craven Cottage against Newcastle. The Magpies were in good form, and on the lookout for revenge after we upset them at St James' Park in October.

 

8 February 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Newcastle United

Newcastle gave us a scare in the opening minute, when Mijo Djuzel cleared the crossbar with a header from Stéphane Masson's right-wing cross. Our next attack was rather more clinical... and you won't be surprised to learn who scored from it. Dean Martin found the bang-in-form Mario Tortora in space, and the Italian youngster slotted in the opening goal after almost exactly 10 minutes! That was now SEVEN consecutive matches in which Tortora had scored!

 

Djuzel almost rendered that record-extending goal irrelevant in the 14th minute, but the Magpies captain's swerving effort was pushed away by Kieran Whalley. He was off target again two minutes later, when he hit a hopeful shot from distance and sent it flying over. After 29 minutes, however, the Croatian finally broke through. Disjointed defending was our downfall, as Alex Busetto lost track of Djuzel, who ran onto a clever pass from Cristóbal Olate and stroked in the leveller.

 

Ahmed Gely and Guy Hogan then each missed opportunities to take Newcastle into the lead. Those misses would prove costly for United, as after 37 minutes, Daggers winger Lucky Okoli darted past visiting full-back Ali Hajji and then beat goalkeeper Tim Coleman with a cool finish. Okoli was back in form, and we were back in front at 2-1!

 

We had the dream start to the second half, as Martin played a brilliant through-ball to Tortora, who lofted his shot above Coleman! The half was just 14 seconds old, and we were already 3-1 ahead!

 

However, it seemed in recent weeks that going two goals up was the worst thing we could ever do! My fears for another Daggers disaster rose in the 47th minute, when Peter Jakubicka came within inches of heading in Newcastle's second goal. The Magpies did get back in the running six minutes later. Olate sliced us open with a superb weighted pass for Tim Dijkstra, who beat Kieran Whalley at his near post.

 

Chile forward Olate was the heartbeat of Newcastle's attacks, and by the 55th minute, he was giving our supporters heart attacks! Olate completed a hat-trick of assists by setting up a fierce drive from Hogan that drew the Geordies level at 3-3. Lightning had struck us down for a third time.

 

When we last surrendered a two-goal lead at Swansea City, we responded by going back ahead shortly after the restart. Martin was very unlucky not to do that for us again in the 57th minute, as his shot narrowly cleared the bar.

 

That was a rare Dagenham attack in a match that was now being completely dominated by Newcastle. Michael Appleton's side went all-out in search of a fourth goal, and Hogan missed a chance to score it shortly after the 60-minute mark was passed.

 

About six minutes after that, our worst fears were realised. Matthew Fraser brought Jakubicka down in a dangerous position, and he was punished by a stunning Djuzel free-kick that flew well beyond Whalley's reach and into the net. From 3-1 down, Newcastle had fought back to lead 4-3.

 

The Magpies then went in for the kill, with Hogan very nearly making it 5-3 in the 73rd minute. Dijkstra would later have three chances to pull his side further clear. The first two were off target, and the third was saved by Whalley after 84 minutes.

 

On 85 minutes, Fraser intercepted a long kick from Coleman and sent us on the counter-attack. Mario picked the ball up and knocked it along to Mark, who fired an incisive finish past Coleman! The delight on our skipper's face was there to see! Captain West had saved us from disaster, and an eight-goal epic would finish with us taking a share of the points!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Tortora 11,46, Okoli 37, West 85)

Newcastle United - 4 (Djuzel 29,67, Dijkstra 53, Hogan 56)

Championship, Attendance 8,143 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 8th, Newcastle 3rd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Charles, Busetto, O'Reilly (Warren), Okoli, Fraser, Martin (Verratti), Green (Honeyball), West, Tortora.

 

Although I was pleased that we'd avoided defeat against Newcastle this season, I couldn't ignore the elephant in the room. We had gone two goals ahead in each of our last three Championship matches, yet we had only come away with two points out of a possible nine.

 

Were our constant collapses down to nerves, or a lack of focus, or even my tactical approach? Whatever the answer was, I would have to find it out soon, otherwise we could forget about the play-offs.

[CFuller]

FEBRUARY 2031 (continued)

Mid-February saw us return to Victoria Road - now an 8,994-capacity stadium - for arguably our biggest match of the season so far. No ticket went unsold when the mighty Tottenham Hotspur travelled to east London for Round 5 of the FA Cup.

 

Tottenham had underachieved in the Premier League recently, and they had narrowly escaped relegation just a couple of years earlier. Mind you, there was a sense that their fortunes were about to take a turn for the better. Spurs were right in the mix for the European places, and their fans were beginning to dream of a first FA Cup triumph for 40 years.

 

If you want a sense of how seriously manager Chris Powell was taking the FA Cup, digest this - 15 members of the 18-man Spurs squad that arrived at Victoria Road were full internationals. Six of them had played for England, including arguably the greatest English footballer of his generation.

 

Damien King won 143 caps in his Three Lions career, scoring an unprecedented 110 goals. At club level, he was a legend of Manchester United, for whom he'd bagged a record 241 Premier League goals. King left his beloved Old Trafford last summer and returned to Tottenham, where he had a brief loan spell as a teenager. Although he was now 34 years old and clearly past his best, King's scoring touch had never left him - he'd found the net 6 times in 13 games for Spurs so far this season. He really was a living legend.

 

Our players could be excused for feeling starstruck, but they weren't going to let Tottenham roll over them. If we played at our best and Spurs weren't at theirs, an FA Cup shock would certainly be a possibility.

 

15 February 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Tottenham Hotspur

This was a particularly massive occasion for George Darvill, and our 17-year-old centre-back seemed to cope well early on. George showed real composure in the fourth minute to head a Marlon Godoy cross away from the legendary Damien King. On 13 minutes, Ecuadorean winger Godoy fired in a free-kick that sailed well wide.

 

Our own shooting wasn't particularly great, either. Mario Tortora fired a shot over the bar in the 20th minute, and he later set up an effort from Mark West that also flew off target.

 

Spurs attacked again on 23 minutes, with Gerald Parsons firing an effort straight into Kieran Whalley's hands. Parsons, who scored against us while on loan at Aston Villa last season, created another opportunity for himself when he intercepted a Matthew Fraser pass in the 35th minute. The 23-year-old dribbled through our defence before miscuing his shot.

 

West then had a couple more misses for Dagenham, but it seemed that we were about to head into the second half with the game still level. Then, with three minutes to go until the break, Alex Busetto felled King just outside our penalty area. Godoy placed the ball on our penalty arc... and swung his free-kick powerfully into the top corner of Whalley's net. Darn it.

 

I didn't seriously expect us to come back from a goal down, so I told the players that they could play without fear in the second period... and play without fear they did. Three minutes after the restart, Marco Verratti spotted Daniel O'Reilly making a run into the Tottenham area. Daniel collected Marco's pass and sidefooted it to captain Mark, who drove in a superb strike that sent Victoria Road jumping!

 

Following that equaliser, the Daggers fans began to wonder if we could score again, and really put the cat amongst the pigeons. Tottenham had other ideas. When Parsons was fouled by Josh Charles in the 53rd minute, Spurs defender Thomas Groves powered in a free-kick that rattled the bar. Whalley thought the shot was heading over, but it bounced back into play before King tucked away a typically emphatic finish. 2-1 to Spurs.

 

An excellent pass from Verratti in the 57th minute gave West an opportunity to equalise again... but he could only pull the ball safely into goalkeeper Stephen Palacios' hands. Palacios made another save after 61 minutes to deny Verratti his moment of glory. Three minutes after that, the match started to slip away from us. Godoy drilled a centre to King, who got between Darvill and Charles and squirmed the ball underneath Whalley. Tottenham led 3-1, and there was surely no way back for us now.

 

Verratti briefly raised our hopes of a comeback with an excellent strike in the 69th minute, but United States international Palacios somehow managed to divert that behind with his fingertips. Immediately after that, I replaced a tiring Verratti with Jacques Polomat.

 

I brought on another young midfielder - Tom Virgo - in the 76th minute, but we were trailing 4-1 by then. A stunning superb goal from Parsons would've been the perfect way for Spurs to sign off, except it wasn't.

 

In the 81st minute, Tottenham left-back Carlos Santamaría struck an excellent shot from long range... but his team-mate Alvaro Carrascal intercepted it and took the glory for himself! All we could do now was push forward and try to make our losing margin look a bit more respectable than 5-1.

 

Tortora couldn't quite manage that on 84 minutes, when a superb save from Palacios kept him off the scoresheet. Mario's run of scoring in seven straight games had come to a sad end, as had our FA Cup adventure for this season. At least we had around £250,000 worth of gate receipts to dry our eyes with.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (West 48)

Tottenham Hotspur - 5 (Godoy 42, D King 53,64, Parsons 76, Carrascal 81)

FA Cup Round 5, Attendance 8,994

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles, Busetto (Kovjenic), Darvill, Banton, O'Reilly, Dam, Fraser (Virgo), Verratti (Polomat), West, Tortora.

 

The final score looked painful, but I wasn't going to criticise my players after that. They'd given Tottenham Hotspur's superstars a real game - for the first 60 minutes, anyway.

 

However, I could clearly see that - after such a crushing defeat - my players weren't in a great mood for our next league game, which would take place just three days later.

 

On paper, our meeting with Oldham Athletic at Victoria Road looked set to be a home banker. Oldham were rock-bottom of the Championship, and on a 14-match winless run stretching back to November. That sequence included a 4-1 FA Cup spanking at the hands of Grimsby Town - a middling League Two outfit. There was surely no way they were going to defeat us...

 

...unless you considered that our frame of mind was almost as fragile as Oldham's. For one thing, we'd recently started suffering from allergic reactions to two-goal leads. We'd also become prone to conceding late equalisers or winners. Our dreadful defensive record was an even bigger cause for concern - only Doncaster Rovers and Swansea City had let in more goals than us in the league. Finally, we were ranked 17th in the Championship on home form.

 

ANY match looked difficult for us now.

 

18 February 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Oldham Athletic

A second-minute Dagenham counter-attack broke down when Dean Martin's shot was blocked by Oldham right-back Matthew Simpson. Our next attack was also a disappointment, as Matthew Fraser's effort in the 7th minute sailed wide. Five minutes after that, Mark West registered our first shot on target with a swerving attempt that was held by Latics goalkeeper Glen O'Connor.

 

Despite our encouraging start, we worryingly lacked a killer instinct. Oldham didn't punish us with the few attacks they could muster in the first half. Midfielder Christian Embry was particularly wasteful, scuffing a half-volley in the 29th minute and pulling a drive wide in the 32nd.

 

We would finally pull ourselves together after 37 minutes. Dean Martin's aerial ball was flicked on by West into the Oldham area, where Mario Djokic tried to find space. Djokic was crowded out, but he knocked the ball short to West, who blasted it home! Had our captain set us on the road to a much-needed win?

 

One of the criticisms levelled at us in recent weeks was that we didn't know how to kill off games. That proved to be the case again here. Victor Dam miscued a chance to make it 2-0 in the 55th minute after a good set-up from Djokic. Mario then had a diving header palmed behind by O'Connor in the 61st minute. The subsequent corner led to another opportunity for Dam, but O'Connor parried the Dane's fierce drive.

 

As we wondered what we had to do to break through again, Oldham started to relax and play without pressure. Scottish winger John Neilson's strike on 66 minutes went wayward, but it was a warning shot nonetheless.

 

Dam and Djokic missed further chances over the next few minutes, and it wasn't long before I ran out of patience with my underperforming stars. Victor was replaced by Tom Virgo, while Mario Tortora replaced his misfiring namesake. One of those substitutions would be very significant... but it wasn't the in-form Tortora.

 

Five minutes from time, 18-year-old Virgo lost the ball to the more experienced Embry, and the Latics launched a counter-attack. Embry found Oldham sub Themis Norman, who then spotted Neilson making a run into space onto the right flank. Norman's pass narrowly evaded Fraser and reached Neilson, who stroked a shot in at the near post. Yet another late goal had seen us squander two more points - to the weakest team in the division. Our worst spell of the season had just become much more hellish.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (West 37)

Oldham Athletic - 1 (Neilson 85)

Championship, Attendance 8,749 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 7th, Oldham 24th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Charles, Busetto, Kovjenic, Puustinen, O'Reilly, Dam (Virgo), Fraser, Martin (Honeyball), West, Djokic (Tortora).

 

“I'M GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF THIS!” I roared at the players in the dressing room afterwards. “That's four times in a row now we've dropped points in the league! It's almost as if you don't want to get into the play-offs again!

 

“If any of you had plans for Sunday afternoon, you can cancel them, because you'll be playing with the reserves instead! And here's something else for you to chew on - the next player who makes a mistake late in a game that costs us any points will STAY in the reserves! That's not a threat - that's a promise.”

 

I stood by my word, and so on what would've otherwise been a free weekend, several first-teamers found themselves playing for our reserve team against Southend United's stiffs. Thankfully, they did manage to hold onto a lead - a 3-0 lead, with goals coming from the returning William Barnes, right-back Arran Banton, and youth striker Ollie Reynolds.

 

The players were also subjected to a week of intensive team-building exercises before our next league game at Cardiff City. I did that last season, and we consequently surged from mid-table to the play-off places on the final day.

 

We were only four points adrift of 6th place this time around, but would our hard work pay off again?

[CFuller]

Championship Table (End of February 2031)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    Pl    Southampton            36    26    8     2     87    29    +58   86
2.          Aston Villa            36    24    7     5     64    32    +32   79
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Newcastle              36    21    9     6     72    35    +37   72
4.          Burnley                36    19    12    5     60    37    +23   69
5.          Sheff Utd              36    19    7     10    55    34    +21   64
6.          Plymouth               36    17    7     12    56    50    +6    58
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Dag & Red              36    15    9     12    66    62    +4    54
8.          Crystal Palace         36    16    6     14    59    55    +4    54
9.          Peterborough           36    13    14    9     40    33    +7    53
10.         Colchester             36    15    8     13    49    48    +1    53
11.         Hull                   36    16    5     15    55    64    -9    53
12.         Leeds                  36    14    10    12    52    44    +8    52
13.         Cardiff                36    12    9     15    41    49    -8    45
14.         Bolton                 36    11    11    14    30    40    -10   44
15.         Northampton            36    11    9     16    36    48    -12   42
16.         Wigan                  36    10    11    15    46    55    -9    41
17.         Stoke                  36    9     12    15    50    53    -3    39
18.         Millwall               36    10    8     18    42    50    -8    38
19.         Doncaster              36    11    5     20    49    65    -16   38
20.         Middlesbrough          36    8     12    16    24    47    -23   36
21.         Crewe                  36    8     10    18    29    45    -16   34
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.         Swansea                36    7     9     20    36    67    -31   30
23.         QPR                    36    7     7     22    32    63    -31   28
24.         Oldham                 36    5     11    20    28    53    -25   26

[CFuller]

MARCH 2031

We spent St David's Day in South Wales, where I hoped we would reignite our play-off charge against Cardiff City. The mid-table Bluebirds hadn't won any of their last five league games, and we'd easily defeated them in the FA Cup, so we were the favourites going into this match.

 

This game saw a welcome return to the Daggers squad for midfielder William Barnes, who was back to full fitness after three months out with a torn hamstring. Sadly, there was another midfielder that we couldn't call upon, as Ashley Cousins had twisted his ankle and would be absent for three to four weeks.

 

1 March 2031: Cardiff City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Our first chance to strike at a rainy Cardiff City Stadium came from a free-kick in the fourth minute. Lucky Okoli could only fire it into the Cardiff wall. On 10 minutes, Daggers winger Joel Honeyball's dribbling skills sent City midfielder Antonis Antoniou slipping across the wet surface. Joel entered the penalty area and played the ball back to Dean Martin, who drove it wide.

 

In the 14th minute, Cardiff centre-back Les Sawyer brought down Mario Tortora with a clumsy sliding tackle. Tortora was not too badly hurt, but we would have a more serious injury matter to deal with in the 30th minute. Midfielder Matthew Fraser went in hard on Nicky Hargreaves and ended up twisting his own knee in the process. Matthew played on until half-time, at which point I decided to send William Barnes on in his place.

 

We were fortunate not to be trailing at the break, as Hargreaves had a decent effort saved by Kieran Whalley on 32 minutes. Lewis Askey missed another Cardiff chance seven minutes later, but the Bluebirds were looking like the more likely scorers.

 

Antoniou was a thorn in our side during the opening stages of the second half. He struck the ball inches wide shortly after kick-off and later forced Whalley into making a couple of saves. City were now controlling the game, but to be fair, we were helping them out with some sloppy passes. Thanks to such wastefulness, we were unable to fashion a single shot on target, even with Mario Djokic coming on to replace Tortora for the closing 15 minutes.

 

Cardiff made all their substitutions ahead of the final quarter-hour, and one of the trio that manager Josh Simpson brought on almost scored after 77 minutes. Nathan Webbe latched onto a long Sawyer free-kick and fizzed his shot wide from a tight angle. When another Bluebirds sub, Josh Dumphy, hit a horrible strike in the 86th minute, it seemed that we were going to have yet another goalless draw against our Welsh opponents.

 

Then came the first minute of injury time. Cardiff left-back Ryan White exchanged passes with winger Bjarni Ólafur Einarsson and then sent a cross into the penalty area. Daggers centre-back Alex Busetto mistimed his interception... and White's cross fell perfectly for Cyprus international Antoniou to stroke it into the net!

 

Cardiff City - 1 (Antoniou 90)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Championship, Attendance 18,442 - POSITIONS: Cardiff 13th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Busetto, Darvill, O'Reilly, Okoli (Charles), Fraser (Barnes), Martin, Honeyball, West, Tortora (Djokic).

 

“Does anyone here know first aid?” I asked the players in the dressing room at full-time. “BECAUSE WE'VE CHOKED AGAIN!”

 

“I warned you all last time that the next player to make a mistake would spend the rest of the season in the reserves. Busetto, your mistake was f***ing unforgivable. You'll be training with the kids for the rest of the season, and - no buts, Alex - you'll be bloody lucky if you get a new contract after this!”

 

As I left the room in a huff, I muttered to myself, “I swear to God that if they c**k up like this again when we play Hull, I'm going to play the f***ing Under-18s in our next game.”

 

Following his point-costing error, Alex Busetto was left out of the squad that faced Hull City at home three days later. Matthew Fraser wouldn't feature in that game either, as he was on the sidelines for the next three weeks with a twisted knee.

 

Hull arrived at Victoria Road on the back of a strong 3-0 victory against Swansea City. Prior to that, Ross Barkley's Tigers had been on a five-game winless run that had seen them slip out of the play-off spots.

 

4 March 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Hull City

The opening stages were characterised by missed chances from Dagenham. Mario Djokic, Marvin Green, and the returning William Barnes all fired shots off target within the first eight minutes. Djokic struck our first decent effort at goal in the 10th minute, but his strike was held by Hull goalie Russell Lawless.

 

We continued to take the game to City early on, although we were still lacking a killer instinct. A case in point was after 25 minutes, when Green's centre found Heikki Puustinen behind the far post. Heikki had a decent opening, although from a difficult angle, and he clipped the post before Jim Price cleared for Hull.

 

The Tigers had missed their first chance to pounce shortly before then, as forward Nathan Morgan failed to beat Kieran Whalley with a header. Hull had two big strikers up top - a certain Willie Dickson was the other - but it was our burly target man who drew first blood in the 32nd minute. Skipper Mark West latched onto a wonderful pass from Djokic and placed it past Lawless for 1-0!

 

That was West's 15th goal of the season, and he caused Hull more hell two minutes later. City defender Paul Harris was already on a yellow card when he was accused of pushing Mark - an act that resulted in his second booking, and an early dismissal!

 

The visitors now looked more vulnerable, but West was unable to capitalise on Harris' dismissal. The big Yorkshireman scuffed a volley after 39 minutes, and then put a header into Lawless' hands in added-on time.

 

The second half began with a poor long-distance shot from Green moments after the restart. William Barnes did not do much better in the 51st minute, when he fired a 20-yarder straight at Lawless. I had a real cause for concern three minutes after that. Daggers defender Josh Charles was floored in a slide tackle from Hull's Swedish midfielder Robert Gultekin, and he broke his arm in the resulting fall. Charles couldn't possibly carry on, so Tom Virgo replaced him for the remainder of the match.

 

Virgo played in front of our other two centre-backs - George Darvill and Silvo Kovjenic - and he held our defence together admirably well for an 18-year-old. Tom also missed a chance to double our lead in the 71st minute, shortly after Silvo did likewise. Even though our shots off target stat was rising alarmingly, Hull couldn't break through a rigid Dagenham defence and register any real chances at all.

 

As the Tigers started to tire, I brought on Mario Tortora in a bid to kill them off. With barely five minutes remaining, a superb interception from Virgo allowed us to kick off a devastating counter-attack. Mark flicked Tom's long clearance back to Marvin, who then powered it into the City half. Tortora latched onto Green's devastating pass and had enough time and space to fire in our second goal of the night - his 15th of the season! There was no chance of us throwing this 2-0 lead away, and our long wait for a Championship victory would soon be over.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (West 32, Tortora 86)

Hull City - 0

Championship, Attendance 8,679 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 7th, Hull 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Charles (Virgo), Darvill, Kovjenic, Puustinen, O'Reilly, Martin, Barnes (Banton), Green, West, Djokic (Tortora). BOOKED: Barnes.

 

That was our first win in the league since New Year's Eve, but it was tempered somewhat by that injury to Josh Charles. Josh would have to miss the next four weeks with a fractured arm. That left me with a central defensive dilemma going into our away game with Aston Villa.

 

With Charles out and Silvo Kovjenic unable to play against his parent club, I had to go back on my word somewhat and restore Alex Busetto to the matchday squad - but not the starting XI. Instead, Shaun Johnson joined fellow youth product George Darvill to give us a centre-back partnership with a combined age of 35. Fielding two very young central defenders against 2nd-placed Villa was bordering on the reckless, but what the hell...

[CFuller]

MARCH 2031 (continued)

8 March 2031: Aston Villa vs Dagenham & Redbridge

It took Aston Villa's attacking players a while to find their range. Winger Marco Galvao smashed a fierce drive over the bar in the second minute, while striker Giannos Sotiriou hit the crossbar on 8 minutes, albeit from an offside position. A minute later, Daggers captain Mark West gave the Villans something to think about with a low, swerving effort that was tipped away by goalkeeper Daniel Lye.

 

Dagenham goalie Kieran Whalley made an equally impressive save in the 12th minute to keep out a shot from Harvey Jeffs, who would be booked four minutes later for pushing our right-back Arran Banton. Whalley's next major contribution, in the 19th minute, was to give away the ball to Villa right-winger Rob Wannell with a rushed clearance. Wannell dribbled virtually unchallenged from the hosts' half to our penalty area, where he struck the post before scoring from his second attempt.

 

Villa threatened to run riot after their opener. Centre-back Marius Pricop twice went close with headers from Galvao corners before Jeffs sent a free-kick wide on 34 minutes. Two minutes after his miss, Jeffs went one better, beating Shaun Johnson to Galvao's through-ball and pulling it into the far end of the goal.

 

Villa were 2-0 up, although to be fair, neither Johnson nor George Darvill appeared to have been overawed by a strong home attack. Whalley also looked fairly composed, as he produced three late saves to prevent Jacob Mellis' men from going three goals clear before half-time.

 

Kieran continued to defy Aston Villa early in the second half, turning away a 25-yard drive from Sotiriou on 50 minutes. Our attacks were rather less threatening. Villa boasted one of the Championship's strongest defences, and they restricted Mark West and Jacques Polomat to shooting from long range in the 57th and 64th minutes respectively.

 

Villa's midfield did concede a load of fouls, but they also did a marvellous job of breaking up any prospective Dagenham attack. One excellent tackle from Armen Nersesyan on our playmaker Marco Verratti after 70 minutes resulted in the move that led to us conceding a third goal. The Villans countered through a surging run up the right flank from Sotiriou, whose centre was finished by the unbelievably impressive Jeffs.

 

Our young defence had proved no match for Villa's pair of 26-year-old strikers, but at the very least, neither Kieran nor any of his back four stood out as a particularly weak link. Lye was most certainly not a weak link for the hosts, as he prevented Lucky Okoli and then Polomat from scoring possible consolations for Dagenham late on.

 

Aston Villa finished the game as strongly as they had played throughout, and only a superb save from Whalley denied Jeffs his hat-trick in the 88th minute. After racking up 24 shots at goal, nine of which were on target, the Villans were happy to take away a 3-0 win that secured them a play-off place at worst. Our hopes of joining them in the top six had suffered a major blow.

 

Aston Villa - 3 (Wannell 19, Jeffs 36,71)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Championship, Attendance 32,903 - POSITIONS: Aston Villa 2nd, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Johnson, Darvill, Hopkins (O'Reilly), Okoli, Verratti, Polomat, Green (Honeyball), West, Tortora (Barnes). BOOKED: Verratti.

 

Sometimes you've got to hold your hands up and admit you've been completely outplayed. That was very much the case here, and there was no reason for us to be ashamed about our performance.

 

On a more positive note, I was very excited by this year's intake of youth players. After a schoolboy team comfortably beat our Under-18s in a trial match, I signed EIGHT players for the youth set-up. I won't list all of them, but our most promising recruits look like being central midfielder Dave Hutchinson, attacking midfielder Joe Charles, and right-backs Will McCourt and Kevin McManus.

 

My attention soon switched back to the senior team - and a home game against a Middlesbrough who were gradually pulling clear of relegation. Although the Boro's form had improved recently, this was the match we desperately needed to win if we wanted to make the play-offs again.

 

16 March 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Middlesbrough

Both sides had to contend with injuries in the first few minutes. Dagenham defender Alex Busetto gashed his arm in the fifth minute, but that was nothing compared to the misfortune that befell Middlesbrough midfielder Doug Morton a minute later. Morton collapsed in agony after a firm but fair tackle from Daggers vice-captain William Barnes, who sportingly put the ball into touch. Morton was stretchered off with what proved to be a torn calf muscle - a horrific injury that ended his season early.

 

Boro striker Calum Black also had to come off in the 20th minute after picking up a knock, though he was able to resume following treatment. Those injuries disrupted the flow of the game, but Middlesbrough began to seriously threaten us after the half-hour. Young midfielder Bob Harford pounced on a poor clearance from Silvo Kovjenic in the 31st minute to take the ball forward before firing it wide.

 

Marc Kane came much closer to scoring on 38 minutes, when Daggers goalie Kieran Whalley palmed his wicked curler behind. Whalley made another fine save from Harford later on to keep the scores at 0-0.

 

I didn't want to take too big a risk on Busetto, so I replaced him with Tom Virgo at half-time. The teenage defensive midfielder was at the heart of our first attack of the second period, but he fired the ball over on 52 minutes. Mark West was similarly wasteful five minutes later, although he did trouble Middlesbrough keeper Ronnie Devereux from long range in the 69th minute. That was just the second save Devereux had needed to make, the first coming from Dean Martin late in the first period.

 

It was Dean who set up arguably our best scoring opportunity seven minutes from time. Martin dribbled into the Boro area and passed short to substitute striker Mario Tortora, who unfortunately smashed the crossbar. We wouldn't get close to breaking the deadlock again, and neither would Middlesbrough. Three more of the visitors' players picked up knocks late on in a forgettable affair that ended with the points being shared.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Middlesbrough - 0

Championship, Attendance 8,705 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 9th, Middlesbrough 18th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Kovjenic, Busetto (Virgo), Darvill, Puustinen, O'Reilly, Dam (Verratti), Barnes, Martin, West, Djokic (Tortora).

 

That was our last game of the month, meaning that we would head into the final straight trailing 6th-placed Plymouth Argyle by seven points, with six matches left to play.

 

Even though the play-off places were fast slipping away from us, we spent the rest of March working hard on the training field. There was no reason why we could not repeat last season's surge and sneak in at the death.

 

Meanwhile, several of our players went off on international duty. Matthew Fraser and Daryl Ryan each won further caps for Scotland and Republic of Ireland respectively, while William Barnes scored his first England Under-21s goal in Iceland.

 

That was the last break we'll have this season. Now it's all hands on deck as we look to come through the pack and reach the Championship play-offs for the second season in a row.

[CFuller]

Championship Table (End of March 2031)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    Pl    Southampton            40    26    9     5     90    37    +53   87
2.    Pl    Aston Villa            40    26    8     6     71    36    +35   86
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.    Pl    Newcastle              40    24    10    6     86    38    +48   82
4.          Burnley                40    21    13    6     66    41    +25   76
5.          Sheff Utd              40    21    8     11    59    37    +22   71
6.          Plymouth               40    19    8     13    63    53    +10   65
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Colchester             40    17    10    13    54    49    +5    61
8.          Peterborough           40    15    15    10    45    38    +7    60
9.          Dag & Red              40    16    10    14    68    66    +2    58
10.         Crystal Palace         40    17    7     16    63    62    +1    58
11.         Hull                   40    17    7     16    59    67    -8    58
12.         Leeds                  40    15    12    13    57    48    +9    57
13.         Cardiff                40    13    11    16    43    51    -8    50
14.         Stoke                  40    11    14    15    59    58    +1    47
15.         Wigan                  40    12    11    17    49    58    -9    47
16.         Northampton            40    12    11    17    41    52    -11   47
17.         Bolton                 40    11    13    16    31    46    -15   46
18.         Middlesbrough          40    10    14    16    30    49    -19   44
19.         Millwall               40    11    10    19    47    55    -8    43
20.         Doncaster              40    12    5     23    51    72    -21   41
21.         Crewe                  40    8     13    19    32    50    -18   37
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.         Swansea                40    8     11    21    40    73    -33   35
23.         Oldham                 40    6     12    22    30    62    -32   30
24.         QPR                    40    7     8     25    33    69    -36   29

[CFuller]

APRIL 2031

Heading into the final six games of the Championship season, five of the top six places looked cut and dried. Southampton, Aston Villa and Newcastle United were certain to make the play-offs at worst, while Burnley and Sheffield United could be quietly confident about joining them. Plymouth Argyle were in 6th place, but six other teams were prepared to chase them down and grab that final spot.

 

We emerged from the pack to finish 6th last season, and we were very much in the mix again this time round. But with a seven-point deficit to make up, we knew that we could only afford to slip up once at the very most if we wanted to stay in the running.

 

This was our fixture list for the most vital part of the season:

6 April: vs Crewe Alexandra (H) - Crewe were 21st, and had been beaten just twice in the league this year

13 April: vs Wigan Athletic (A) - Wigan were 15th, and had lost their previous three matches against us

15 April: vs Millwall (A) - Millwall were 19th, and had won only one of their last five games

19 April: vs Plymouth Argyle (H) - Plymouth were 6th, and were on a run of one defeat in seven matches

26 April: vs Peterborough United (A) - Peterborough were 8th, and had scored the fewest goals in the top half

3 May: vs Leeds United (H) - Leeds were 12th, and had scored in every league game this year

 

As you can see, we had three supposedly easier ties, followed by three trickier matches against fellow play-off contenders. In the first trio of matches, it was vital that we kept mistakes down to a minimum.

 

We began the run-in at Victoria Road against a Crewe Alexandra side who had battled against relegation all season. We were slight favourites, but Crewe's away record was excellent compared to their home form, so this was definitely not going to be easy.

 

6 April 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Crewe Alexandra

We were still in the first minute when disaster struck. Daggers defender Silvo Kovjenic dawdled on the ball and was outmuscled by Crewe midfielder Russ Grierson, who laid the ball off for his colleague Rachid Zaidi to finish it. The Railwaymen were 1-0 up after just 56 seconds!

 

We could've grabbed a similarly swift leveller in the third minute, but Mark West could not control a vicious shot at goal. Mario Tortora agonisingly skimmed the crossbar on five minutes before his Italian countryman Marco Verratti went close from a couple of free-kicks.

 

We then had to wait until the 24th minute for our next scoring chance. West evaded a tackle from Crewe centre-back Darren Greenhouse and played the ball past him to Tortora, whose shot was parried by goalkeeper Max Davies. We looked to be in control of the game - certainly where possession was concerned - but the profligacy we'd shown in our last two games had been carried over into this one.

 

Despite having one of the Championship's worst scoring records, Alex were rather more clinical. Zaidi struck the wall with a fierce free-kick in the 42nd minute, and the French-born Moroccan international would have an even greater opportunity to double his team's lead in injury time.

 

With not long to go until the interval, Greenhouse flicked a corner delivery from Scottish teenager Alan Jeffrey towards goal. Dagenham goalie Kieran Whalley appeared to have control of the ball, only to quickly spill his catch into the path of Zaidi, who flicked it past him for 2-0. Drat.

 

Kovjenic had been awful since his first-minute clanger, and he almost cost us another goal four minutes into the second period. The Slovene's foul on Joey Saunders resulted in a free-kick that the Crewe striker fired wide. That let-off didn't stop Silvo from being sacrificed moments later, as I replaced the out-of-sorts centre-half with Josh Charles.

 

Our attack could also have done with a change, as Tortora failed to trouble Davies with an appalling shot in the 54th minute. I would bring on Mario Djokic to take Tortora's place later on, but the other Mario struggled to make his mark. Crewe cruised through the last 20 minutes, and although they wouldn't add to their lead, Saunders did test Whalley with a low shot in the 73rd minute.

 

The only save Davies would have to make in Alex's goal was from Djokic in added-on time, but that had come after some dreadful shots from the likes of West and substitute William Barnes. The full-time whistle confirmed a 2-0 away win for Crewe, who stayed just outside the bottom three. We remained seven points adrift of 6th place.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Crewe Alexandra - 2 (Zaidi 1,45)

Championship, Attendance 8,768 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Crewe 21st

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Darvill, Kovjenic (Josh Charles), O'Reilly, Cousins, Fraser, Verratti (Barnes), Polomat, West, Tortora (Djokic). BOOKED: Verratti, O'Reilly.

 

That was our seventh league defeat at home this season, but our first since returning to Victoria Road. Of all the disappointing results we've had, that was certainly up there with the worst.

 

You could understand, then, why I wasn't exactly full of the joys of spring on my 46th birthday. It was the eve of our away trip to Wigan Athletic, and we were on a run of one win in nine Championship games. To make matters worse, our leading scorer Mario Djokic had just strained his knee ligaments, bringing his season to an early close.

 

When we travelled to the DW Stadium the following day, we found that our hosts were in an even less jovial mood. Wigan had been condemned to another season in the Championship following three successive defeats - the last two against Swansea City and Oldham Athletic. They were also stuck in administration after a proposed takeover by a Russian businessman collapsed in January, although they hadn't been deducted any league points - yet.

 

12 April 2031: Wigan Athletic vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Dagenham wing-back Daniel O'Reilly was an unlikely threat to Wigan in the first six minutes. The Irishman had a shot pushed behind by Latics keeper Antonis Voutsakelis, who then caught his header from the subsequent corner by Mario Tortora.

 

Daniel would make an even more significant contribution on 12 minutes, intercepting a pass from Wigan forward Cezar Teodorescu. We then went on the counter-attack, and when Dean Martin found Tortora in space, our young Italian looked odds-on to open the scoring. Sure enough, Mario showed plenty of composure to apply the finish and make it 1-0 Dagenham!

 

Worryingly, though, Martin snatched at a couple of chances to double our lead midway through the half. By then, the closest Wigan had come to scoring was from a 17th-minute Thomas Potter free-kick that was tipped over by Kieran Whalley.

 

Athletic were gifted another opportunity after 28 minutes. Daggers midfielder Victor Dam was trying to carry the ball out of our area when defender Shaun Johnson inexplicably ran across him and knocked him off his feet! Victor's slip-up saw Wigan left-back Zander MacKinnon take the ball and cross to Teodorescu, whose header bounced beyond Whalley and levelled the scores.

 

The Latics attacked again from the kick-off, with Jeff Holloway firing a shot over the bar. On 31 minutes, Potters aimed a left-wing cross for right-winger Abdelkrim Hamrouni, and the Tunisia international beat O'Reilly to flick it into the net!

 

We'd suddenly fallen 2-1 behind... but there was no need to panic. Another excellent Daggers breakaway two minutes later saw Martin find captain Mark West, who calmly put us back on terms.

 

Tortora, Martin and West then missed opportunities to restore our lead before half-time, with the latter's curling shot in the last regulation minute being caught by Voutsakelis. It remained 2-2 at the break, and the scene was set for a cracking second half at the DW Stadium.

 

Johnson had looked shaky in the first period, so I replaced him with the more experienced Josh Charles before the restart. The second half's first major talking point came in its fifth minute. Hamrouni's delivery from the right found Teodorescu, who leapt above Alex Busetto... and headed the ball against our crossbar! Two minutes after that narrow escape, Tortora played the ball through the Latics' defence and found Dam. Victor's low strike found its way in off the upright, and we were leading 3-2 after 52 minutes!

 

Wigan threatened to score the game's third equaliser after 63 minutes. Busetto scrambled away a centre from Hamrouni, but MacKinnon volleyed the ball back into our half. George Darvill made the interception that time, though Athletic's homegrown midfielder John Woods ran onto his header... and blazed it over. Three minutes after that, another local boy came good for the hosts.

 

Our Mancunian keeper Whalley strayed dangerously out of his area to hoof Charles' back-pass forward, and he was horrified when the ball hooked towards Potter! The 24-year-old wide midfielder struck the ball on the volley from 45 yards... and his shot skidded across the turf before ending up in the corner of the net! That may have only pulled the Latics level at 3-3, but to me, it felt like a game-winner. If there was to be a seventh goal, I expected us to concede it.

 

Wigan very nearly proved me right after 68 minutes. Teodorescu connected with right-back Billy Hands' cross and cushioned it to Franca, who lashed it over the crossbar. A mistake from West in the 72nd minute gave Athletic another opportunity, which Woods sent wide. Noting that Woods and Potter were making a significant impact for their hometown club, I decided to send on our own 'darling of Dagenham' - Joel Honeyball - for the tiring West.

 

Joel had just come onto the field when his fellow Daggers youth product Martin threaded the ball through to him in the 80th minute. Honeyball's first shot went tamely into Voutsakelis' grasp, but he would have another opportunity five minutes later. A first-time volley from Busetto cleared the Wigan defence and found Honeyball, who was one-on-one with Voutsakelis. As the Greek goalie charged out of his area, Joel deftly knocked the ball past him and found the bottom corner! 4-3 to Dagenham & Redbridge!

 

We now had to hold firm to take the points, but in the 90th minute, our defence came under severe pressure. MacKinnon fired the ball long to Potter, who tried to knock it on to Teodorescu. Josh made a fantastic intervention, scrambling the ball away from the Romanian striker and deep into the Latics' half. Joel then broke through the hosts' offside trap to latch onto the ball and slip it past Voutsakelis! Another sensational breakaway goal had seen us snatch a 5-3 victory, and our fourth win in a row against Wigan! Mario Djokic may have been out for the season, but Honeyball had come back into form at just the right time!

 

Wigan Athletic - 3 (Teodorescu 28, Hamrouni 31, Potter 66)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 5 (Tortora 12, West 33, Dam 52, Honeyball 85,90)

Championship, Attendance 8,440 - POSITIONS: Wigan 16th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Johnson (Josh Charles), Busetto, Darvill, Banton, O'Reilly, Dam (Green), Barnes, Martin, West (Honeyball), Tortora.

 

Dean Martin was named man of the match at full-time, but his full-blooded performance had come at a cost. After twisting his ankle between those two Joel Honeyball goals, Dean would have to miss our last four games of the regular season. That signalled an early end to an impressive campaign in which Martin had hit double figures in terms of assist for the first time.

 

With regards to our play-off situation, there was only good news. 6th-placed Plymouth Argyle and 7th-placed Colchester United both lost, leaving us only four points behind Plymouth - with four games to play!

[CFuller]

APRIL 2031 (continued)

We travelled to Millwall in another match that we needed to win to keep alive our realistic hopes of reaching the play-offs. The Lions were also needing a victory to keep them clear of relegation.

 

15 April 2031: Millwall vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Both teams had plenty to play for, but anxiety seemed to cripple them in the first 45 minutes. It's no exaggeration to say that the first half was one of the worst I'd ever witnessed as a football manager. Millwall and Dagenham both struggled to keep possession, and it didn't help that they were conceding silly fouls on a regular basis.

 

The Lions were particularly abject, failing to register a single shot at goal. We mustered only two from outside the area, but neither Daniel O'Reilly in the 10th minute nor Mark West in the 45th could get anywhere near the target. This was not looking like a classic encounter by any means.

 

I tried to liven my attack up in the second half by replacing Mario Tortora, who'd been booked for diving in the first period, with Joel Honeyball. Joel had an opening in the 53rd minute, when he received a knock-down from Victor Dam, but he blazed it well over.

 

Howard Worthington had wasted Millwall's first scoring opportunity three minutes before then, and captain Oumar was unable to take advantage of another shortly after Honeyball's miss. The Lions did get a shot on target through Bill Nolan on 63 minutes, although it didn't cause Kieran Whalley too much bother in the Daggers goal.

 

After 68 minutes, Millwall's creativity was stifled by an injury to left-winger Kadeem Blackwell, who hurt his ribs in a tackle from Dagenham's Matthew Fraser. Blackwell was forced off, and we lost one of our own players to injury in the 78th minute. Arran Banton was the unlucky victim, stubbing his toe in a collision with Blackwell's replacement Rob Oosting.

 

Play switched back and forth over the final 10 minutes or so, though it was Dagenham - and Honeyball in particular - who had the best chances. A mistake from Lions centre-half Stefan Davies in the 84th minute opened the door for Joel, whose half-volley was saved by Drey Blackburn.

 

An even better opportunity arose for the Daggers substitute in the fourth and final minute of injury time. Victor picked up a forward ball from Josh Charles and cut it to Joel, who bore down on goal. Shortly after entering the area, Honeyball unleashed a fierce shot that beat Blackburn... but rattled the crossbar and bounced clear! Charles' follow-up was cleared by Millwall, after which the full-time whistle blew on a goalless draw that nearly wasn't!

 

Millwall - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Championship, Attendance 7,123 - POSITIONS: Millwall 20th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Josh Charles, Busetto, Darvill, Banton (Kovjenic), O'Reilly, Fraser, Barnes (Cousins), Dam, West, Tortora (Honeyball). BOOKED: Tortora, Barnes.

 

We remained four points adrift of 6th place, although it was Peterborough United who now occupied that final play-off spot. A 1-0 win over Burnley had seen the Posh jump above Plymouth Argyle, who were beaten by Swansea City.

 

Plymouth were our next opponents at Victoria Road. We would go level on points with the Pilgrims if we won, but a defeat would mathematically end our chances of finishing 6th if Peterborough could beat Swansea.

 

Arran Banton had to miss this match with a stubbed toe. Thankfully, Heikki Puustinen was now back from his chest injury and ready to retake the right-back slot. Another significant change was that I had readopted the 4-2-3-1 formation, which I'd ditched a few years back, in a bid to stretch out Plymouth's three-man defence.

 

19 April 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Plymouth Argyle

When we last faced Plymouth, Ugonna Thompson gave the Pilgrims a 1-0 lead midway through the second half. He was rather quicker off the mark this time. Thompson's tap-in from a Roger Rothery centre sent the visitors ahead after just 84 seconds.

 

The worst possible start for us almost degenerated further in the sixth minute. Rothery searched out Thompson with a measured weighted pass into the area, but Daggers defenders Silvo Kovjenic and Daniel O'Reilly blocked the forward's view and forced him to shoot wide. A poor clearance from Kovjenic in the 12th minute ultimately led to another Pilgrims chance, which Rikki Scarlett blasted off target.

 

On 20 minutes, Scarlett played a free-kick short to Veselin Spasov, and Daggers goalie Kieran Whalley had to tip behind the Bulgarian midfielder's subsequent shot. Kieran saved us again when Scarlett decided to shoot directly from another free-kick in the 34th minute.

 

Plymouth were steamrollering over us, and after 38 minutes, they had their best chance yet to move two goals clear. Nigeria international Thompson ran onto a pinpoint through-ball from Spasov, and he somehow only hit the upright from a glorious position. Kovjenic cleared the ball behind before Thompson could get to it, and we were let off again.

 

Two minutes later, Silvo had our only decent effort on goal in the first half. The Slovenian's header was caught by Plymouth captain Rory Luchford, and we remained behind. With Peterborough United leading 1-0 in their game, we were 45 minutes away from being eliminated from play-off contention.

 

A tactical switch to 3-5-2 in the second half stopped Plymouth from dominating the attacking play as much as they did in the first period. The best shots they could manage early on were a couple of long-rangers from Spasov and Swedish winger Ahmed Hussein Tahir. The latter had to come off in the 59th minute after twisting his ankle in a tackle from Daggers right-back Heikki Puustinen. Tahir's exit stopped Argyle from gaining much more traction going forward.

 

We couldn't really push forward ourselves, as we conceded 22 fouls. Surprisingly, the only one that led to a yellow card was Dagenham midfielder William Barnes' trip on Rothery in the 78th minute. The subsequent free-kick was fired wide by Scarlett. Plymouth wouldn't get close to doubling their lead again, and with Peterborough now 2-0 up against Swansea City, they were desperate to preserve their lead and stay just a single point behind the Posh.

 

The Pilgrims sat back a bit more in added-on time as they tried to close the game out. What they perhaps didn't bank on was that we now HAD to score to stay in the play-off race. In the second extra minute, Mark West flicked Will's long ball on to substitute Joel Honeyball, who now only had to beat Luchford for a last-gasp equaliser! Joel had missed a big chance in the dying moments against Millwall three days earlier... but he didn't make any mistakes this time! We'd pulled a point out of the fire and were still in contention, though only just!

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Honeyball 90)

Plymouth Argyle - 1 (Thompson 2)

Championship, Attendance 8,539 - POSITIONS: Plymouth 7th, Dag & Red 11th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Josh Charles, Kovjenic (Virgo), O'Reilly, Barnes, Fraser, Okoli (Busetto), Dam, Tortora (Honeyball), West. BOOKED: Barnes.

 

With just two games remaining, we were six points behind Peterborough United in 6th. We would travel to London Road in our next match, and if we could grab a shock win over Peterborough, we would take our play-off challenge into the final weekend.

 

Our season may not have been over quite yet, but Victor Dam's was. The Danish midfielder strained his back in preparation for the Peterborough game and would have to sit out the closing stages of our campaign.

 

26 April 2031: Peterborough United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

For what it was worth, this was my 1,000th competitive match as a manager. It could not have started any worse. The game was only two minutes old when Peterborough's Sinisa Curic turned past our right-back Heikki Puustinen and smashed a shot in off the underside of the bar.

 

That set the tone for an opening half in which the Posh were pretty much dominant. Marc Cutler almost added a second goal in the 7th minute, while Darko Baturina headed a Paul Millen corner over in the 11th.

 

The next Peterborough player to seriously threaten us was Millen, whose free-kick on 18 minutes was tipped over by Kieran Whalley. Two minutes later, our defence fell asleep, and we fell further behind. Cutler found Baturina free in the middle of our penalty area, and the Croatian duly made it 2-0.

 

We really needed to tighten up, so I immediately switched from a 4-4-2 tactic to a narrow 4-3-1-2. That change was almost rendered academic when Gheorghe Somfalean's header rattled our crossbar in the 25th minute. A third Posh goal without reply would've broken us, but we steeled ourselves to pull one back a minute later. Some clever play from Mark West set up a chance that winger-turned-attacking-midfielder Marvin Green powered home.

 

The hosts went forward again on 28 minutes, with midfielder Alasdair Wood having a low effort saved by Whalley. By the 34th minute, the hosts were back in full control. Daggers centre-back Silvo Kovjenic was guilty of an awful error when his weak headed clearance was volleyed into the net by Baturina for 3-1.

 

Daniel O'Reilly could've got another goal back for us moments after the restart. However, Peterborough keeper Juraj Gallo's save ensured that we would go into half-time needing three second-half goals to stay in the play-off picture.

 

We got the first of the three goals we required in the third minute of the second half, thanks to a superb assist... from Peterborough midfielder Millen! Posh right-back Daniel Westerlund tried to head a Puustinen cross away, but Millen crazily bicycle-kicked the ball back into his team's six-yard box! Mark West must have thought his birthday had come six months early when he fired home the 125th league goal of his Dagenham career!

 

That made it 3-2, and Matthew Fraser was inches away from levelling via a free-kick in the 52nd minute. Our mini-surge ended there, and Whalley had to save a dangerous drive from Cutler on 65 minutes to keep us in contention. Three minutes later, West played a one-two with William Barnes and slipped through Peterborough's offside trap. Gallo somehow diverted Mark's shot behind, and we were left disappointed again.

 

Green then had to come off in the 73rd minute with a rib injury sustained in a tackle on Wood. Marco Verratti was brought on, but we couldn't fashion any more real scoring chances. Peterborough had several late on, the best of which was an effort from Brazilian substitute Felipe in the 84th minute. Whalley caught that, but our leaky defence had once again been our undoing. A 3-2 defeat confirmed that we would not be advancing to the Championship play-offs.

 

Peterborough United - 3 (Curic 2, Baturina 20,34)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Green 26, West 48)

Championship, Attendance 14,840 - POSITIONS: Peterborough 6th, Dag & Red 12th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Puustinen, Josh Charles, Kovjenic, O'Reilly (Hopkins), Atta (Barnes), Fraser, Polomat, Green (Verratti), West, Tortora.

 

I'm always honest with you, so don't be surprised when I say I'm not devastated that we have failed to reach the play-offs. They were not the be-all and end-all for us this season. Consolidation was our aim, and with a top-half finish already guaranteed, I feel that we have firmly established ourselves in the Championship.

 

We've got one final game in May before we head off on our holidays, and I'm going to take it easy.

[CFuller]

MAY 2031

We had nothing to play for on the final day of the Championship season, so our home match against Leeds United served as a virtual dead rubber. I selected a very young squad that included the likes of Tom Virgo and Derek Wright, who both made their first league starts for Dagenham. I also had four potential first-team debutants on the bench.

 

The three most experienced players in our starting XI were Joel Honeyball, Daryl Ryan, and 38-year-old Marco Verratti, who captained the side in what was likely to be the final game of his career. Matt Warren would also be in line for his Victoria Road swansong were he to come off the bench.

 

Leeds had, like us, been knocked out of the play-off running a week earlier. Manager Ashley Westwood named a few youngsters in his side as well, although his defence was significantly more experienced than mine.

 

3 May 2031: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Leeds United

19-year-old Mark Lindsey was making his senior debut for Leeds up front, and he could've had a dream goal in the second minute. Daryl Ryan got down low to save it, and the Irishman would display more solid goalkeeping skills later on.

 

Straightforward catches from Keith Corcoran in the 14th minute and Lindsey again in the 16th minute kept Leeds waiting for their moment. Then, on 17 minutes, Shaun Johnson woefully underhit a pass to his fellow Daggers centre-back George Darvill. Lindsey rushed onto it and cracked in a low drive that left Shaun rather embarrassed!

 

The Whites would score again three minutes later, with Northern Ireland international winger Barry Smith taking the plaudits. Two goals in quick succession had turned what had actually been a pretty even game into a Leeds procession.

 

Lindsey was chasing a third United goal by the 23rd minute, although Ryan stood his ground and caught his strike comfortably. Leeds' shooting was worryingly accurate, while ours was anything but. Mario Tortora was especially off-key, missing three scoring opportunities, including a close-range header on 40 minutes. Our best chance also came from a header in injury time, but George Darvill was denied his first competitive goal by Leeds goalkeeper Jeremy Finnigan. That ended a very disappointing first half from a Dagenham perspective.

 

I made two substitutions for the second half, bringing on a couple of players on opposite ends of the experience scale. Matt Warren made his 172nd and final Daggers league appearance in place of Marc Hopkins, while 15-year-old midfielder Dave Hutchinson was handed his senior debut as a replacement for Mitchell Paratusic.

 

My rejigged side almost conceded a third goal on 47 minutes, as Nicky Garbutt - another teenage striker in the Leeds line-up - hit the bar. A minute later, Tom Virgo hoisted a fine long ball towards Dagenham forward Derek Wright. United defender Nicky Till made an unconvincing interception, leaving Wright clear to half-volley in his maiden senior goal!

 

That raised our hopes of a second-half comeback... until Leeds struck again after 52 minutes. Garbutt headed in Tommy Fisk's right-flank cross to put us two goals behind once more. If things stayed that way, we would end the season with a negative goal difference. I didn't really want that, so I encouraged my team to attack a bit more for the rest of the half.

 

Virgo and Verratti each hit disappointing shots in the 54th and 61st minutes, while Tortora sent another poor strike wide in the 74th. After 78 minutes, I decided to take off the tiring Verratti. Marco acknowledged the capacity crowd at Victoria Road before making way for French youngster Jacques Polomat, who would make an almost instant impact.

 

Jacques nodded a Finnigan goal kick square to Derek, who advanced forward before playing in Tortora. Mario was much more composed with his next shot, which brought him his 17th and final goal of a promising debut season at Dagenham & Redbridge.

 

It may not have been an equaliser, but it sure felt like one. Leeds couldn't rebuild their two-goal advantage before full-time, and so we signed off with a zero goal difference to match our mid-table finish.

 

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Wright 48, Tortora 79)

Leeds United - 3 (Lindsey 17, Smith 20, Garbutt 52)

Championship, Attendance 8,994 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 12th, Leeds 9th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Ryan, Banton, Johnson, Darvill, Hopkins (Warren), Paratusic (Hutchinson), Virgo, Verratti (Polomat), Honeyball, Tortora, Wright. BOOKED: Verratti.

 

On the face of it, this season had been a little disappointing. Our league standing had dropped for the first time since I'd taken over, we'd lost as many home league games as we'd won, and only relegated Swansea City had conceded more goals than us.

 

There were, though, some major reasons to be optimistic. We outscored every team in our division bar champions Southampton and 3rd-placed Newcastle United, and our young talents had come on leaps and bounds over the last ten months. With some defensive reinforcements, I felt confident that, after taking one step back, our next campaign would see us take two steps forward.

 

In order to have a strong season next time out, it was vital that we drastically improved our home record. Only eight of our 17 league victories this term had come at Craven Cottage or Victoria Road, and we finished 17th on the home form table. That was an alarming deterioration compared to the previous campaign, in which we won 13 home league games and lost only three.

 

As I saw it, we needed to make Victoria Road a fortress again... and we needed to stay there for a full Championship season. The board agreed with that, but after the previous summer's expansion work, they still felt the need to increase our ground's capacity further. When it came to getting tickets for Dagenham home games, demand was still outstripping supply.

 

Chairman Neil Booth's decision was to expand the west stand by another 2,756 seats. The stand will - of course - be closed while this work is undertaken, temporarily reducing the stadium capacity to 8,005. Another bank loan of £3.2million was taken out to finance the expansion, which will hopefully be completed by Christmas.

 

This extra stadium work would limit my spending power over the summer, but I was fine with that. I only intended to bring in a few new players, and the core of my squad would stay largely intact.

 

All the signings I made in May were those of younger players penning new contracts at Victoria Road. Central defender Shaun Johnson received an improved three-year deal, while Under-18s stars Nigel Atta and Colin Glasgow signed professional forms for the first time.

 

The fourth Dagger to agree a new contract was 18-year-old midfielder Tom Virgo, who will very much be part of the first-team picture from next season. Tom had recently joined his team-mate George Darvill in being called up to the England Under-19s squad, and they are both hoping to be selected for the upcoming European Under-19s Championship in Scotland.

 

Philip Duru could also be playing at an international competition this summer. After completing his loan spell at Wycombe Wanderers, the centre-back was called up to Nigeria's Under-20s squad for a friendly against Burkina Faso. If he impresses, Philip may well feature for the Flying Eagles when they travel to Poland for the FIFA U20 World Cup in August.

 

Our other Nigerian - former senior international Lucky Okoli - may not be with us for much longer. I wasn't impressed by Lucky this season, and in a squad where versatility is quite important, it doesn't help that he can only really play on right wing. I have therefore made him available for transfer.

 

Marco Verratti will definitely not be part of our squad for next season. As expected, the 38-year-old Italian midfielder announced that he was retiring from playing for a second time - this time for good.

 

I'm pleased to say, however, that Marco has agreed to stay at Dagenham and switch to a full-time coaching role. He qualified for his UEFA Pro Licence earlier this year and is surely going to have an excellent second career in coaching.

 

I've also held preliminary talks with left-back Matt Warren about him joining our coaching staff. Matt will be 34 in July, and he doesn't have a future with us as a player, but I hope I can persuade him to take a massive wage cut and move to the backroom.

 

Most of my existing backroom agreed new contracts, although there was one exception. Long-serving coach Danny Keohane was let go, having spent several years trying - and failing - to earn his UEFA A Licence.

 

Keohane was replaced by 36-year-old Richaee Derby - a highly-qualified shooting coach who'd previously been a striker at several non-league clubs in the Midlands.

 

I also made an addition to our scouting team, which had its first foreign-born member. Dutchman Thierry Monteny could well help to find us a few more bright talents on the continent.

[CFuller]

Championship Table (End of 2030/2031)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C     Southampton            46    30    10    6     99    43    +56   100
2.    P     Aston Villa            46    28    9     9     76    42    +34   93
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Newcastle              46    26    13    7     93    44    +49   91
4.    P     Burnley                46    24    14    8     75    47    +28   86
5.          Sheff Utd              46    23    9     14    65    44    +21   78
6.          Peterborough           46    19    16    11    54    42    +12   73
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Plymouth               46    21    9     16    75    65    +10   72
8.          Colchester             46    19    13    14    61    55    +6    70
9.          Leeds                  46    19    12    15    69    55    +14   69
10.         Crystal Palace         46    19    9     18    71    70    +1    66
11.         Hull                   46    19    8     19    69    77    -8    65
12.         Dag & Red              46    17    12    17    78    78    0     63
13.         Northampton            46    13    16    17    50    59    -9    55
14.         Wigan                  46    14    12    20    60    70    -10   54
15.         Cardiff                46    14    12    20    49    62    -13   54
16.         Millwall               46    14    11    21    56    62    -6    53
17.         Stoke                  46    12    16    18    65    66    -1    52
18.         Doncaster              46    15    7     24    58    77    -19   52
19.         Bolton                 46    12    15    19    38    57    -19   51
20.         Crewe                  46    12    14    20    41    57    -16   50
21.         Middlesbrough          46    10    17    19    34    58    -24   47
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.   R     Swansea                46    10    13    23    49    85    -36   43
23.   R     QPR                    46    9     10    27    41    76    -35   37
24.   R     Oldham                 46    8     13    25    38    73    -35   37

 

[CFuller]

Dagenham & Redbridge Player Statistics (2030/2031)

(Includes stats from all first-team matches & 4 Essex Senior Cup matches)

 

GOALKEEPERS               APPS    CON  CLN  MOM  P%   TR   ST%  Y    R    AV RAT
Colin Glasgow             2       3    1    0    56%  -    -    0    0    6.80
Daryl Ryan                15      33   4    0    69%  -    -    0    0    6.71
Kieran Whalley            37      53   11   0    68%  -    -    0    0    6.91
OUTFIELD PLAYERS          APPS    GLS  AST  MOM  P%   TR   ST%  Y    R    AV RAT
Nigel Atta                3 (5)   0    0    0    72%  1.86 0%   3    1    6.24
Arran Banton              25 (6)  1    0    0    79%  4.14 17%  1    0    6.85
William Barnes            24 (5)  1    5    1    85%  6.81 40%  8    0    7.05
Alex Busetto              30 (1)  2    1    1    75%  2.97 67%  0    0    7.12
Jonathan Butterfield      2 (1)   0    1    0    77%  1.67 -    0    0    7.20
Josh Charles              39 (3)  3    1    7    71%  3.14 62%  2    0    7.32
José Cochet               5 (3)   0    1    0    78%  2.97 0%   1    0    7.20
Jon Cotterill             1 (3)   2    1    0    85%  0.43 43%  0    0    7.47
Ashley Cousins            13 (14) 1    1    0    77%  6.04 44%  6    0    6.92
Victor Dam                27 (5)  6    5    3    81%  4.20 38%  3    0    7.21
George Darvill            17 (5)  1    0    0    75%  1.90 25%  0    0    7.12
Mario Djokic              30 (8)  20   11   4    76%  2.24 47%  1    0    7.33
Philip Duru               11 (5)  0    0    0    66%  2.17 66%  0    0    6.94
Matthew Fraser            26 (3)  5    2    1    83%  6.64 44%  2    0    7.26
Joseph Gerken             1       0    0    0    64%  -    -    0    0    6.90
Marvin Green              15 (4)  2    3    1    72%  3.74 27%  1    0    6.98
Joel Honeyball            11 (18) 5    1    1    74%  3.31 61%  3    0    6.88
Marc Hopkins              4 (1)   0    0    0    70%  1.62 -    2    0    6.32
Dave Hutchinson           0 (1)   0    0    0    85%  0.00 -    0    0    7.00
Shaun Johnson             4       0    0    0    71%  1.83 -    0    0    6.75
Wesley Judge              2 (1)   0    0    0    71%  1.76 0%   0    0    6.70
Silvo Kovjenic            28 (3)  1    0    6    64%  3.21 43%  0    0    7.41
Dean Martin               22 (10) 3    10   2    82%  4.72 28%  4    0    7.15
Dennis McCann             2       0    0    0    75%  1.71 0%   0    0    6.95
Lucky Okoli               18 (2)  1    3    0    77%  3.54 33%  2    1    6.85
Daniel O'Reilly           40 (4)  2    3    2    78%  5.87 32%  6    0    6.99
Mitchell Paratusic        2 (1)   0    1    0    77%  2.14 50%  1    0    7.03
Jacques Polomat           14 (6)  5    5    2    77%  2.64 38%  2    0    7.18
Heikki Puustinen          27 (3)  1    5    1    77%  4.04 50%  1    0    6.99
Ollie Reynolds            1 (1)   0    1    0    90%  0.90 -    0    0    6.95
Victor Sarun              2 (1)   0    0    0    75%  1.26 -    0    0    7.07
Mario Tortora             23 (13) 17   5    3    78%  1.97 45%  4    0    7.22
Marco Verratti            17 (6)  0    6    1    84%  4.37 36%  6    1    7.11
Tom Virgo                 2 (5)   0    0    0    77%  4.09 0%   1    0    7.02
Matt Warren               10 (7)  0    4    0    77%  4.41 33%  3    0    6.84
Mark West                 39 (5)  17   10   2    75%  2.58 42%  5    0    7.36
Larry Wood                1 (2)   0    0    0    71%  2.00 100% 1    0    6.93
Derek Wright              2       1    1    0    85%  1.18 25%  0    0    7.40

APPS - Appearances (Substitute apps), GLS - Goals, AST - Assists,
CON - Goals conceded, CLN - Clean sheets, MOM - Man of the Match awards,
P% - Pass completion %, TR - Tackles per 90 mins, ST - Shots on target %,
Y - Yellow cards, R - Red cards, AV RAT - Average match rating

 

[neilhoskins77]

A comfortable top half finish is still a very good result for the Daggers I think Chris. There is definitely a good core of players in that squad as well now, so hopefully next season will see another fight at the shape end for the Playoffs or better.

I know you work in advance with your updates, but how is the financial situation regarding the playing side of the club? The new Chairman seems keen to spend on the infrastructure, but if a quality player for the level became available to you, would there be enough in the kitty to sign him up? Great work as always.

[CFuller]

13 minutes ago, neilhoskins77 said:

A comfortable top half finish is still a very good result for the Daggers I think Chris. There is definitely a good core of players in that squad as well now, so hopefully next season will see another fight at the shape end for the Playoffs or better.

I know you work in advance with your updates, but how is the financial situation regarding the playing side of the club? The new Chairman seems keen to spend on the infrastructure, but if a quality player for the level became available to you, would there be enough in the kitty to sign him up? Great work as always.

I'm more than happy with a top-half finish. Like I said earlier, consolidation was the aim before the season started, and I feel that we have consolidated. If we can shore up the defence, we can definitely challenge for the play-offs again next term.

Looking back at a save from June 2031 - just before the season reset - tells me that our financial situation is okay, if not great. There's around £250,000 in the balance, but that's before you take into account the revenue we'll get from TV (£3million last season) and season tickets (around £2.3million last season).

You'll find in the next update that I've been given a modest transfer budget, but it's not really enough to buy any standout players. I'll once again be largely relying on free transfers and loans when it comes to recruiting new players. I also have some wiggle room in the wage budget, though not much.

[mark wilson27]

Like others have said a good solid mid-table season. For me the defence has let you down, 78 goals is alot to ship but upfront you have been pretty damn good. However I'm sure a manager of your ability will sort it for next season. Looking forward to see how this goes 

[CFuller]

Okay, gents (and ladies, if there are any here ), I'm going to speed things up a bit now. My sister gets married in a fortnight's time, and I want to be well into next season before I go up to Shropshire for the wedding, so expect plenty more updates over the next few days. I might even do morning AND evening updates next week.

18 hours ago, mark wilson27 said:

Like others have said a good solid mid-table season. For me the defence has let you down, 78 goals is alot to ship but upfront you have been pretty damn good. However I'm sure a manager of your ability will sort it for next season. Looking forward to see how this goes 

The defensive record is a massive concern. I suspect that Matt Warren really struggled with the pace at left-back, so I'm looking to bring in a younger and fresher option in that position. With Kovjenic's loan spell now over, we'll also need another centre-back, and another right-back might not go amiss either. We're fine when it comes to goalkeepers.

We do have an awful lot of firepower up front. Tortora really excites me, and Djokic and West are still very productive, although I fear that time will soon take its toll on those two old-stagers.