House of Flying Daggers

CFuller · June 22, 2017

JANUARY 2035

The New Year began with yet another Premier League Young Player of the Month award for George Darvill. The 21-year-old centre-back had now nabbed three of them this season and was seemingly rocketing to superstardom.

George had two-and-a-half years on his existing Daggers contract, and I really wanted him to get him tied up to a longer, more rewarding deal before the PL's big boys came calling. Darvill's agent was really playing hardball, though, and we couldn't agree to the terms he demanded. Contract talks would have to be put on hold for the time being.

We needed Darvill and his fellow defenders to be at their very best again when we played Southampton away on New Year's Day. The Saints had emerged as shock title contenders after conceding a mere nine goals and suffering only a couple of defeats in the first half of the season.

1 January 2035: Southampton vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Barley six minutes into our first match of 2035, Daggers midfielder Greg Killick celebrated his first assist for the club. However, it was Edmundo who really took all the plaudits, as he ran Southampton centre-backs Bob Henderson and Patrick ragged before smashing the ball home!

The Saints defence seemed to be seriously hungover from any New Year celebrations, as we struck again in the 16th minute! Rob McLoughlin broke clear to latch onto a long free-kick from Stevo Buac, and he then cut the ball across goal for Edmundo to tuck it away! As the Brazilian striker ran towards the dugout to celebrate his second goal, I told him, "Blimey, you've started off quickly! What on Earth did you have for breakfast this morning?"

Kieran Whalley appeared to have eaten his oats as well, as the Dagenham goalkeeper made two fine saves midway through the first half to keep us comfortably ahead. Saints midfielder Niall Goodison and winger Jason Pack both had efforts kept out by the in-form Mancunian.

Kieran would not have to produce any additional saves before half time, as Southampton striker Maurice Hockley - who had scored a hat-trick at Victoria Road in September - looked like he couldn't hit the proverbial cow's derriere. A couple of poor shots from deliveries by right-back Nicky Till represented the sum total of Hockley's first-half opportunities for the sinful Saints.

For the first time in a long time, Southampton's usually rock-solid defence was leaving itself wide open to attacks. Four minutes into the second period, Goodison's attempted interception from a Whalley goal kick flicked the ball back towards his team's goal... and into the path of McLoughlin! Rob thanked Goodison for his generosity by getting past Patrick and smashing in a shot from just outside the area!

This wasn't the first time we'd gone 3-0 up on the Saints... but unlike last time, the chances of a quickfire comeback were incredibly remote. Hockley's horror show continued when he hooked high and wide a chance that Hasney Mitchell set up for him in the 56th minute.

Over the next quarter-hour, we would have a couple of opportunities to rip Southampton open again. McLoughlin broke the offside trap in the 66th minute to collect Edmundo's through-ball, which he fired inches wide. Five minutes after that, Stevo volleyed a fantastic long ball ahead of Edmundo, who came agonisingly close to securing a hat-trick. After that miss, I brought on Joel Honeyball to replace McLoughlin. If Southampton thought that was a sign of us taking things easy, though, they had another thing coming.

Attacking midfielder Stipo Brkic ran at their defence in the 81st minute and wasn't far off continuing his purple patch with a goal. This was proving to be the day from hell for Southampton's backline - and particularly for Patrick, who was cut down by a superb tackle from Seb Brennan in our penalty area on 83 minutes. The Saints' penalty cries went unanswered, and to make matters worse, Patrick was too badly hurt to continue.

With our opponents now a man light, we could now prepare to go in for the kill. With a little under two minutes to go, Edmundo capped off his 'man of the match' display by knocking the ball through to Honeyball. What followed was Joel's 49th league goal for the Daggers... and his first in the Premier League!

This truly was one of our finest days in the top flight yet. In one match, we had put FOUR goals past a team who'd previously only conceded nine goals in half a season! We'd won back-to-back PL games for the first time, we'd also kept successive PL clean sheets for the first time, and we were now five points clear of relegation!

Southampton - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Edmundo 7,16, McLoughlin 49, Honeyball 89)

Premier League, Attendance 31,378 - POSITIONS: Southampton 5th, Dag & Red 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Buac, Darvill, Radosavljevic (Moser), Khumalo, Djuzel, Fraser, Killick (Brennan), Brkic, McLoughlin (Honeyball), Edmundo.

I can't tell you how excited I was when Joel Honeyball found the back of the net. Joel had been with us every step of the way from non-league to Premier League, and now he'd secured the almost unique achievement of scoring in each of the top four divisions for the same club! I obviously know that Barry Lines managed it for Northampton Town in the 1960s, but nobody else springs to mind.

A couple of days after that incredible win, I received a call from Fulham chairman Dmitrijs Morozs, asking me if I'd like to take over from Joris Mathijsen as Cottagers manager. Considering that I would have been Fulham's 17th manager since Morozs bought the club 20 years ago, you could perhaps understand why I didn't really fancy it.

Four of our loaned-out players returned to Victoria Road over the next few days. Winger Nigel Atta had become an assist machine at Queens Park Rangers, but defenders Adrian Bailey (Ipswich Town), Jefferson Moran (Swindon Town) and Carl Quinn (Kidderminster Harriers) all struggled at their respective clubs.

We also temporarily said farewell to Albert Khumalo, who flew out to Egypt to represent South Africa at the 2035 Africa Cup of Nations. Albert wouldn't be back until February, so Arran Banton and John Moser would have to cover for him at right-back for the next few weeks.

Next up for us was the FA Cup, where we'd been given a nightmare Round 3 draw at home to Manchester United. The Red Devils had consolidated top spot in the Premier League since we'd last played them in October, and manager Alexander Mejía showed the cup the respect it deserved by fielding a strong starting XI.

6 January 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Manchester United

The first 10 minutes were very encouraging from a Dagenham perspective. A couple of early home corners were followed by a long-range attempt from Stipo Brkic that was caught by Manchester United goalkeeper Dave Pierce in the 7th minute. Three minutes later, Stipo played the ball to the feet of Robbie MacKenzie, who steadied himself before unleashing a fierce shot that flew well over.

United then started to bare their teeth, with striker Mário Rui and left-back Rocco Gagliardi putting shots just off target. Mário Rui - once capped by Germany - would go on to open the scoring after 20 minutes. The former Bayern Munich striker met Marcus Cowley's free-kick with a diving header that left Mariusz Tylak flailing helplessly in the Dagenham goal.

Another Cowley set-piece almost undid us again four minutes later. The England full-back's corner was headed away by Velimir Radosavljevic, but only as far as Mário Rui, who let fly with a half-volley that drifted well off target. The Red Devils would then hammer us with even more shots from a host of players, including striker Sean Jordan and the newly-crowned FIFA Ballon d'Or winner Sebastián Núnez.

When the visitors did eventually double their lead after 44 minutes, the goal came from a rather less esteemed player. Tylak blocked a header from United captain José Luis, but he was unable to prevent left-winger Phil Hunter from converting the rebound. Our poor record against Manchester's big two looked almost certain to continue, and seemed incredibly unlikely that our FA Cup run would do likewise.

I told my team that they had to take the game to Manchester United a bit more in the second half if they were to stand any chance of staying in the competition. We did go on to launch a promising attack in the 51st minute, but United's German centre-back Leszek Michniewicz broke it down with a firm tackle on Ante Djuzel in the penalty area. On another day, the referee might've awarded us a penalty, but Michniewicz wasn't the only Kraut who would leave us feeling sour early in the second period.

Mário Rui found the net again after 53 minutes, volleying home Jordan's flick-on from Hunter's cross. It was 3-0 to Manchester United, and pretty much time for us to give up on the FA Cup. Captain William Barnes wasn't quite willing to wave the white flag in the 67th minute, when he sent a shot inches wide, but there was no hope of us coming back from such a heavy deficit.

Our very best chance to bloody the Red Devils' noses was smashed against the bar by MacKenzie on 73 minutes. Fellow striker Souleymane Nomaou and Tristan Egueh also missed late opportunities, although Tristan did force Pierce into a save after 85 minutes. Five minutes earlier at the other end, a superb save from Tylak had denied Mário Rui his hat-trick, but the damage had already been dealt. Congrats, Manchester United. Time to focus fully on the league now.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Manchester United - 3 (Mário Rui 20,53, Hunter 44)

FA Cup Round 3, Attendance 12,000

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Tylak, Banton, Jaafar (Habu), Moser, Radosavljevic, Djuzel, Barnes, Fraser (Hutchinson), Brkic, MacKenzie (Egueh), Nomaou.

To be honest, our FA Cup days were numbered as soon as we were paired with United. At least we came away from this match with club-record gate receipts of £386,000.

Centre-half Jameel Bailey's five-month loan at Walsall expired after that weekend. Left-back Rocco Mazzola also returned to the Daggers from Crewe Alexandra, but Adrian Bailey went in the opposite direction, having agreed to spend the rest of this season at Gresty Road.

Elsewhere, I rejected a couple of miserly loan offers from Notts County for Jacques Polomat before stepping up my search for a new attacking midfielder. My latest target was Croatia Under-21s starlet Dzenan Genjac, but Dinamo Zagreb rebuffed my first two offers for the 16-year-old playmaker. I might go back in for him later...

Some other less positive news came in the form of a serious injury to Neil McCann. The box-to-box midfielder sustained a lower back stress fracture and was expected to be out for the next two months.

Our FA Cup loss was followed up by three more home games back-to-back in the league. Rochdale, who were well clear of relegation danger in 9th place, were the next team to arrive at Victoria Road.

13 January 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Rochdale

Dagenham right-back Arran Banton had a poor start to this match, as he picked up a yellow card in the 8th minute after lunging in on Rochdale's left-back Reece Richards. Three minutes later, though, Banton played a nice crossfield ball to Dave Hutchinson deep in Dale territory. Hutchinson took the ball forward before being hacked down by centre-back Moses Beasant. The referee waved play on, and Stipo Brkic lashed in the loose ball to give us an early opener!

Daniel O'Reilly looked for a second Daggers goal on 14 minutes, but his vicious strike was charged down by Republic of Ireland colleague and Rochdale captain Terry Curry. The visitors made another vital block on 16 minutes, when Beasant got in the way of an effort from Rob McLoughlin.

That was the end of our attacking efforts for the first half. Rochdale couldn't create any real chances of their own before the break, as although they did rack up several corners, striker Mario Tortora was kept rather quiet on his return to Victoria Road.

Stipo had been excellent for us in recent weeks, so there was understandably some concern when he stayed down after a slide tackle on young Rochdale midfielder Kevin Thomson on 47 minutes. Thankfully, Brkic suffered little more than some bruising, and he went on to put in a superb 'man of the match' performance. His midfield colleague Matthew Fraser could've rivalled him for that accolade had he managed to pull off a sensational long-range half-volley in the 66th minute. Sadly, the Scot's shot drifted just over.

We would go on to rue Fraser's miss in the 70th minute. Ex-Daggers hero Tortora left us feeling sick when he outjumped Velimir Radosavljevic to head home from Richards' flick-on into the penalty area. The move that eventually led to the Italian's equaliser had come about after O'Reilly had a header intercepted by Ross Grierson.

Daniel's day didn't get any better when he was booked after 84 minutes for persistent fouling. A minute after that, his old mate Tortora picked up a through-ball from Grierson, and we were very relieved to see Super Mario hit the side netting.

Just as normal time was coming to an end, however, O'Reilly took his clumsy tackling a little too far. A trip on England Under-21s striker Jordan Connor led to Daniel's second yellow card and subsequent dismissal. We now had to defend against a Tortora free-kick in a dangerous position against 10 men. Fortunately, Rochdale screwed up their attack from the set-piece, and so - despite our lack of discipline - we managed to get away with a 1-1 draw.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Brkic 11)

Rochdale - 1 (Tortora 70)

Premier League, Attendance 11,557 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 14th, Rochdale 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Buac, Banton (Moser), O'Reilly, Fraser (Killick), Hutchinson, Brkic, McLoughlin, Edmundo (Nomaou). BOOKED: Banton, Fraser, O'Reilly. SENT OFF: O'Reilly.

I was quite annoyed at full-time, and not just because we drew a match we really should've won. Daniel O'Reilly had been utterly awful, and his sending-off was another sign that he was perhaps not up to Premier League standard. Was our long love affair with the Irish left-back coming towards an end?

CFuller · June 23, 2017

JANUARY 2035 (continued)

I started my January transfer business by agreeing to sign a Malian international midfielder on a Bosman free transfer. 24-year-old Oumar Fofana is an energetic and aggressive ball-winner who will join our ranks when his contract at Serbian SuperLiga club FK Rad expires in the summer.

Meanwhile, I decided to loan out centre-back Carl Quinn yet again. The 20-year-old is still trying to make his mark in senior football, and I hope a four-month stint at Forest Green Rovers in League Two will finally spark him into life.

The Dagenham & Redbridge first-team had a couple more home Premier League games in January. Before our grudge match against Lee Clark's Burnley, we grappled with Thomas O'Brien and his Tottenham Hotspur side, who were in 7th place.

20 January 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Tottenham Hotspur

I showed plenty of faith in 19-year-old Tristan Egueh by fielding him from the start against a strong Tottenham side. Tristan proved his worth in the first eight minutes, when he struck three excellent shots that were saved by veteran Spurs goalkeeper Stephen Palacios.

Captain William Barnes' first effort - a 25-yard volley after six minutes - wasn't quite on target, though he would almost find the net with his next attempt. In the 10th minute, Will met Matthew Fraser's corner with a header that Daniel Poulsen had to hack away from Tottenham's goal line.

We would have our first defensive scare after 20 minutes, when goalkeeper Kieran Whalley was called upon to catch a free-kick from Adi Nasser Al-Din. Five minutes later, striker Álvaro Carrascal ran at our defence before pulling an awful shot wide. Three more Spurs players - right-winger Iván Brandan, left-winger Poulsen, and midfielder Vladimir Sipcic - missed the target towards the end of what proved to be a goalless first half.

Although our short-passing game was working quite well, I felt that a few more direct balls would help to open Tottenham up in the second period. We put that change of approach into effect in the first minute after the restart. John Moser sought out Egueh, who turned past the ageing Spurs centre-half Kristoffer Svendsen, only to see his shot blocked by full-back Juan Francisco Luperdi.

Three minutes later, Peru international Luperdi intercepted a clearance from Daggers left-back Ante Djuzel and hoofed it first-time into our penalty area. Luperdi found his fellow South American Carrascal, but the Colombian's header bounced wide.

The tide turned again in the 58th minute, when a poor clearance from Luperdi proved costly. Captain Barnes claimed the ball for us and crossed to Rob McLoughlin, who flicked a header to the centre and watched Tristan thrash it home! 1-0 to the Daggers!

This was a very welcome return to form for Will, although he did have to watch his step from the 65th minute onwards after being booked for tripping Tottenham's defensive midfielder Rob King. In the 70th minute, George Darvill almost made it 2-0 Dagenham with a header that only just cleared the bar. Another chance to double our lead came and went on 85 minutes. As Spurs tried to push for an equaliser, we hit them with a counter-attacking move that surely would've led to a second Egueh goal but for yet another superb Palacios save.

We had shown ourselves to be more than a match for Tottenham, who failed to produce another shot on target after that Nasser Al-Din free-kick midway through the first period. Another excellent victory meant that we'd now picked up 10 points from our last four league games!

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Egueh 58)

Tottenham Hotspur - 0

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Tottenham 7th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Jaafar, Darvill, Djuzel, Brennan, Barnes, Fraser (Hutchinson), Brkic (Polomat), McLoughlin (Edmundo), Egueh. BOOKED: Barnes.

Stipo Brkic's 20th league appearance of the season entitled him to an automatic contract extension that will now keep the popular Danish midfielder here for at least another campaign. Tristan Egueh also extended his stay with the Daggers, as he was rewarded for his match-winning goal with a new four-and-a-half-year deal.

We stayed at Victoria Road for our next match four days later, which gave us a chance to exact revenge on Burnley, who'd thrashed us 4-0 at Turf Moor in September. Clarets boss Lee Clark bad-mouthed us a few weeks after that result, saying that we were "just not cut out for Premier League football" and that we would be relegated sooner rather than later.

Well, who's crowing now, Lee? We were actually five points ahead of 16th-placed Burnley when they arrived in Dagenham, so it perhaps just as well that Clark kept his gob shut in the build-up to this game.

24 January 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Burnley

Robbie MacKenzie was back in the Daggers' starting line-up... but he couldn't have got off to a worse start. Just seconds after kick-off, MacKenzie misdirected a pass to Burnley winger Marciel Quadros, who started off a counter-attack that ended with him whipping in a cross for Perry Darlington to head home. We were 1-0 behind after 24 seconds!

We looked to retaliate quickly, but George Darvill's 5th-minute header looped wide before Stipo Brkic's effort a minute later was caught by Clarets goalie Jon Wigley. Our keeper Kieran Whalley made his first save on 11 minutes, tipping behind Burnley centre-back Tris Christie's header from Quadros' corner.

Daggers midfielder Matthew Fraser then had a couple of chances to draw us level from dead-ball situations. The first was a 15th-minute free-kick that flew over the bar, and the second came from the penalty spot three minutes later after Brkic was brought down in the area by Ion Pavelescu. Fraser's record on penalties had declined in recent times... and it would get worse, as Wigley easily pushed away a shot that was fired to his right-hand side.

Wigley produced another save in the 23rd minute, this time from Edmundo, as we started to feel the tension. Fraser was booked for tripping Burnley winger Jakub Kotora on 24 minutes, and his midfield colleague Greg Killick would also see yellow on 35 minutes after pushing Pavelescu.

Another of our midfielders - Dave Hutchinson - made a more positive contribution in the 40th minute. Hutch notched up his first top-flight assist when Edmundo collected his pass, rode over a slide tackle from Christie, and cracked in a superb shot with his weaker left foot! That goal sent us into the break level at 1-1... but not before Darlington headed over a glorious chance to restore Burnley's advantage in stoppage time!

We entered the second period with renewed confidence. Edmundo could've been celebrating a second goal on 48 minutes but for another fine Wigley save. Whalley made a vital stoppage at the other end in the 55th minute, blocking Lyle Donaldson's attempt to dribble a Quadros centre over the goal line.

Four minutes later, another foul on Brkic in the Burnley area - this time by right-back Roman Feurstein - led to us being awarded a second penalty! Matthew insisted that he was in the right frame of mind to take another penalty, but the Scotsman's body language didn't exactly shout confidence. Sure enough, his second spot-kick turned out to be a virtual carbon copy of the first, with Wigley comfortably saving to his right. Fraser was devastated, and he would be substituted a few minutes later, with Seb Brennan coming on instead.

MacKenzie had also underperformed badly, but a narrow miss in the 62nd minute, when he chipped a 20-yard shot inches over, convinced me to keep him on. Seven minutes later, Robbie repaid my continued faith in him. The big man latched onto Hutchinson's through-ball into the penalty area before cutting it across to an unmarked Brkic, who tapped in our second goal!

We would find the net again in the 79th minute, but MacKenzie had already been flagged offside by the time he fired home from Edmundo's incisive pass. MacKenzie then had a header caught by Wigley in the 85th minute before Burnley renewed their attacking efforts late on.

With barely a minute to go, Dagenham defender Stevo Buac - a half-time replacement for Killick - fouled Darlington near the touchline deep in our half. Stevo then failed to keep track of Darlington before the 32-year-old striker prodded Quadros' free-kick delivery into the net and grabbed a late Burnley equaliser. Two more potentially crucial points had slipped away from our grasp.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Edmundo 40, Brkic 69)

Burnley - 2 (Darlington 1,90)

Premier League, Attendance 11,899 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 14th, Burnley 16th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Banton, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Djuzel, Killick (Buac), Fraser (Brennan), Hutchinson, Brkic, Edmundo (Nomaou), MacKenzie. BOOKED: Fraser, Killick, Hutchinson.

I doubt we'll see Matthew Fraser take any more penalties in the near future, then...

We certainly won't see any more of goalkeeper Jerome Farrell, defender Paul Habu, or striker Tristan Egueh in the Daggers first-team this season. Those three youngsters been sent to the Czech Republic, and to our new feeder club Ceské Budejovice, where they'll be finishing this campaign. I'm hoping that they can reap the benefits of playing regular top-flight football in another country.

Back in east London, we finished the month off with our first ever visit to the Olympic Stadium - home of West Ham United. The Hammers had started this campaign terribly before ditching manager Elvis Scoria and bringing in Paul Clement, who had since guided them up to 6th place.

30 January 2035: West Ham United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Stipo Brkic wasn't known for being a particularly dirty player, so it was concerning that he picked up a rare booking after just two minutes for tripping West Ham left-back Casey Turnbull. Our start threatened to worsen in the 10th minute. Hammers right-back Bill Middleton met Jérémy Jossic's corner with a header that looked goalbound until his Daggers counterpart John Moser nodded it off the line just in time!

Two minutes later, Jossic was on the receiving end of a corner from Luke O'Leary. The French left-winger's header flew over the bar, but West Ham's right-winger would end our respite a minute later. It was a truly outstanding goal from Patrik Petrus that opened the scoring, as the Slovakian left our defenders chasing his mazy run inside before he planted a shot past Kieran Whalley.

1-0 could've turned into 2-0 after 16 minutes, but Kieran bailed us out by saving shots from England internationals Ben Clarke and Nathan Guppy. 20 minutes passed, and then another of United's Three Lions contingent - centre-back and captain Francis Windsor - powered forward a header that Whalley did well to catch. Windsor would again miss out on getting his name of the scoresheet in the 39th minute. A goalmouth scramble ended with Windsor unleashing a shot that Kieran parried before John hacked it clear.

West Ham's current stars were giving the home fans plenty of reason for encouragement, but in the 43rd minute, a former hero almost stunned the Olympic Stadium! Our first attack of the match saw Brkic play a lovely ball ahead of Rob McLoughlin, who burst through and slipped a shot inches past the post! We remained a goal down, and we would have plenty of work to do in the second half.

I switched from the 4-4-2 diamond to a 3-5-2 for the second half, but I didn't make any personnel changes. I did, though, move Moser into the centre of our defence and switch Seb Brennan to right wing-back. Seb proved his worth in the 47th minute, clearing a Windsor header off the line in a similar manner to how John had frustrated Middleton earlier on.

Brennan was rather less calm in the 58th minute, when he brought down Jossic and got booked. Two minutes after that, we smashed the Hammers with a cool and composed counter-attack. Left-back Rocco Mazzola moved the ball inside to striker Edmundo - via Brkic and McLoughlin - before the Brazilian drilled in his fourth goal of the month!

West Ham boss Paul Clement decided at that moment to replace holding midfielder Yannick Atangana with Portuguese striker Ewerton. The 21-year-old - a summer signing from Sporting CP - darted part George Darvill in the 68th minute, but he then fired a shot over.

Ewerton found out just how significant that miss would be six minutes later. Dagenham captain William Barnes tackled the ball off a hesitant Guppy and knocked it to McLoughlin, who burst forward and dealt a devastating blow on his former colleagues! 2-1 to Dagenham!

A third goal for us would've surely been the killer, but although Hammers goalkeeper Carlton John-Lewis denied Edmundo a chance to score it, it turned out that we wouldn't need one anyway. A typically brave defensive display by Darvill, and an injury-time save by Whalley from the unfortunate O'Leary, helped us to cross the finishing line in first place at the Olympic Stadium.

West Ham United - 1 (Petrus 13)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Edmundo 60, McLoughlin 74)

Premier League, Attendance 34,681 - POSITIONS: West Ham 6th, Dag & Red 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Mazzola, Brennan (Jaafar), Hutchinson, Barnes (Fraser), Brkic, McLoughlin, Edmundo (Honeyball). BOOKED: Brkic, Brennan, Hutchinson.

We're now onto 30 points - 10 points above the relegation zone! We're steadily pulling clear of danger.

The transfer window closed the following day, though not before I pipped Inter Milan to the signing of Iceland's new boy wonder Engilbert Sverrisson. At the age of just 17, the diminutive attacking midfielder had already been capped by his country three times at senior level. Engilbert cost us a mere £50,000 from Úrvalsdeid club Breidablik and could one day go on to be worth much, much more.

Nigel Atta was a very exciting prospect for us once upon a time. Now aged 21, the winger was running out of time to make a major impact with the Daggers. I loaned Nigel out to Kidderminster Harriers in League One for the next three months, but this was pretty much his last chance to convince me that he was first-team ready.

One player who had run out of time at Victoria Road was right-back Arran Banton. After 133 league appearances in five-and-a-half seasons, I decided to cash in on Arran and focus on developing our younger right-backs. Banton subsequently agreed a £500,000 move to Corby Town, who were pushing for promotion from League One.

CFuller · June 23, 2017

Premier League Table (End of January 2035)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Man Utd                25    17    5     3     64    19    +45   56
2.          Man City               25    15    6     4     62    28    +34   51
3.          Arsenal                24    14    6     4     40    18    +22   48
4.          Liverpool              25    14    5     6     48    30    +18   47
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.          Southampton            25    13    7     5     34    22    +12   46
6.          West Ham               25    11    7     7     37    25    +12   40
7.          Tottenham              24    11    5     8     39    32    +7    38
8.          Derby                  25    10    6     9     25    26    -1    36
9.          Chelsea                25    10    5     10    24    25    -1    35
10.         Rochdale               25    10    5     10    33    38    -5    35
11.         Fulham                 25    9     5     11    32    34    -2    32
12.         West Brom              24    8     8     8     34    47    -13   32
13.         Dag & Red              25    8     6     11    30    37    -7    30
14.         Norwich                24    7     8     9     27    30    -3    29
15.         Wolves                 25    8     4     13    28    40    -12   28
16.         Burnley                25    6     7     12    27    36    -9    25
17.         Everton                25    6     3     16    27    52    -25   21
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.         Huddersfield           25    5     5     15    23    47    -24   20
19.         Brighton               25    5     4     16    38    62    -24   19
20.         Nottm Forest           25    4     7     14    30    54    -24   19

CFuller · June 24, 2017

FEBRUARY 2035

Five of our loan stars returned to Dagenham & Redbridge early in February. Right-back Ross Pearson was almost ready to become a permanent part of the first-team picture after impressing for League One leaders Bolton Wanderers. Meanwhile, winger Shaun Powell played in no fewer than 38 games for Championship club Leeds United, registering four goals and eight assists.

Then there were the strikers. Peguy Kasongo continued his steady progress by scoring 11 goals for Oldham Athletic, while Christophe Smith managed eight for Wrexham. Toby Faithfull's more underwhelming tally of three goals for Wycombe Wanderers suggested that the 17-year-old had perhaps stepped up to senior football too early.

Our first league match of February saw us go toe-to-toe with Chelsea again - at Stamford Bridge. Lee Nicholls' Blues were on course to put up the worst title defence in Premier League history, as they were placed in mid-table with 10 wins, 10 defeats, and 5 draws. One of those losses, you'll surely remember, came at Victoria Road in October.

3 February 2035: Chelsea vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Chelsea's feeble title defence was largely down to an impotent attack. The extent of the champions' attacking Blues became evident in the first half. Spanish midfielder Guillermo Mas smashed their first shot well off target after 11 minutes. Three minutes after that, Mas' compatriot Humberto Cano had to prevent Chelsea from going 1-0 down by saving an effort from our Brazilian striker Edmundo. That would prove to be our only serious attacking foray in the entire opening 45 minutes.

The hosts could only muster three more attempts on goal during the last half-hour of that period. Striker Alun Harding's 16th-minute header was easily caught by Kieran Whalley, while midfielder Khaled Fahim curled a free-kick just over in the 19th.

The last opportunity fell to leading scorer Gianni Improta in injury time, but the Italian's effort from the edge of the area drifted well off target. The Blues had quite frankly been awful, but I could sense at half-time that a couple of my players were getting surprisingly cocky, so I opted to make two substitutions during the break.

Chelsea looked like they needed either a stroke of luck or a Dagenham mistake to take the lead. After 47 minutes, they got a mixture of both. Whalley collected a back-pass from George Darvill and bravely took it out of his penalty area, only to panic as Improta closed him down. Kieran tried to hoof the ball upfield, but it bounced off Improta and left the 24-year-old free to tap in his 10th Premier League goal of the season.

That was an embarrassing moment for our goalkeeper, but I could still see the funny side of it! I certainly wouldn't have been laughing had Improta converted his next scoring chance just a couple of minutes later.

Our first real opportunity to get back on terms came after Chelsea captain Christopher Khan clipped the back of Rob McLoughlin's heels in the 62nd minute. Khan was booked, and Matthew Fraser dispatched his free-kick just wide.

We would then find out just why the Blues, while not scoring many goals, didn't concede many either. Khan and co restricted us to just a couple more scoring attempts in the closing stages. McLoughlin wasted an opening in the 87th minute, while centre-back Hamzah Jaafar had a header caught by Cano right in the final seconds of stoppage time. Our unbeaten start to 2035 in the league ended here at Stamford Bridge, but we had done tremendously well to restrict the champs to a 1-0 win, especially after winger Tomas Jazvin struck the bar in the 84th minute.

Chelsea - 1 (Improta 47)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 43,000 - POSITIONS: Chelsea 8th, Dag & Red 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Jaafar, Darvill, Djuzel (O'Reilly), Brennan (Killick), Barnes, Fraser, Brkic, McLoughlin, Edmundo (Nomaou).

Despite that loss, we remained nine points clear of the drop zone by the time we entertained Liverpool at Victoria Road. The Reds had recently emerged as outside contenders for what would be their first league championship in 45 years, sitting below only the Manchester clubs in 3rd place.

We had right-back Albert Khumalo back in the squad for this match following his return from the Africa Cup of Nations. However, Albert was seriously short on match fitness, having not played a single minute at the tournament before South Africa were eliminated by Tunisia in the Quarter Finals.

7 February 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Liverpool

Liverpool's defence got off to an uncharacteristically slow start. We took full advantage of their lethargy in the second minute, when Souleymane Nomaou ran through and powered Stipo Brkic's weighted pass into the corner of their net!

That made it 1-0 to Dagenham... but only for about a minute, as our own defenders seemed to have nodded off as well! Daggers captain Kieran Whalley angrily ordered his colleagues to wake up when Dave Weaver's header from a Pavle Oljaca corner beat him at his near post, thus drawing Liverpool level.

We did wake up after that scare... but the Reds fell asleep again in the fifth minute! When Robbie MacKenzie drove another sublime Brkic pass through the away defence and beyond goalkeeper Gavin Stopforth, we suddenly found ourselves back in the lead at 2-1!

Brkic really was looking red-hot, and he burnt the Reds again with another excellent ball to Nomaou in the 9th minute. Unfortunately, Sol couldn't quite make it an early hat-trick of assists for Stipo, as his shot clipped the outside of Stopforth's left-hand post and deflected behind.

Two minutes later, Liverpool striker Liam Baldwin looked like he would get the game's fourth game when he collected an Oljaca cross on the edge of our penalty area. Whalley managed to parry Baldwin's half-volley and keep us in front, but this match was starting to become a bit of a free-for-all! Surely this frenetic pace couldn't be sustained...

When Nomaou went down hurt under a crunching tackle from Reds centre-half Victor Hugo in the 15th minute, there was a real fear that we might have lost our momentum. Sol had to come off with a gashed leg, and Edmundo was sent from the bench to replace him. With Brkic still in the team, though, we remained as threatening as ever. Stipo stunned Liverpool again after 25 minutes with his third assist of the game, which set up fellow midfielder Greg Killick's powerfully-struck first ever goal for the Daggers!

The Stipo Brkic show continued three minutes later, when the dynamic Dane made it FOUR assists in a mere 28 minutes! Brkic muscled Liverpool middleman René Wijmer off the ball and moved it forward to MacKenzie, who almost ripped the net open with his second goal of the night! We weren't even a third of the way through the match, yet it was already 4-1 to the Daggers!

Liverpool realistically had to score again before half-time if they were to stay in the game. Baldwin tried his best to do that in the 36th minute with a blistering shot that Whalley knocked behind the byline for a corner. Daggers defender Hamzah Jaafar made a poor interception from Adi Music's corner, and Weaver pounced on it with an excellent header. It looked like it was 4-2... but then the ref blew his whistle for a foul on MacKenzie from Weaver, who disgustedly chucked the ball away and was lucky not to be booked for dissent. Had that big call effectively won us the game before the second half?

I demanded a professional and ruthless attitude for the second period, two minutes into which we almost scored a fifth goal through Seb Brennan. Seb was doing a fine job at right wing-back, and he would win us a penalty in the 53rd minute. Brennan went down under a push from Reds left-back Erik Molenaar as both men went after a direct ball from Matthew Fraser, prompting the referee to point to the spot.

Fraser is rubbish at penalties nowadays, so MacKenzie took this opportunity to wrap up his hat-trick... but Stopforth put a stop to his plans! The new England number 1 then punched away the subsequent Fraser corner to keep our lead at 4-1.

Liverpool finally seemed to have figured our gameplan out, and they were pushing higher up the pitch to try and put us under greater pressure. That plan didn't work for them on the attacking side of things, though they managed to stave off any attacks we could throw at them - until the 76th minute. Then Matthew drifted a corner to our substitute centre-half Stevo Buac, who didn't score at all in 442 Chelsea appearances, yet managed to find the net in his 11th game for the Daggers! 5-1 to Dagenham, and game over?

Not quite. Liverpool managed to pull it back to 5-2 in the 79th minute through another excellent corner delivery. Weaver's diving header was parried by Whalley into the path of Wales full-back Ken Moore, who finished the move for his first Reds goal. Liverpool then made it 5-3 from another corner a minute later, with Weaver's second strike putting a few doubts in our mind.

The visitors could not continue their comeback, though, and a slack pass from Baldwin in injury time led to them conceding yet again. Brkic intercepted the pass and played it to MacKenzie, who promptly set up Edmundo for the game's ninth and final goal. In a truly pulsating encounter, we had defeated Liverpool by 6 goals to 3!

Dagenham & Redbridge - 6 (Nomaou 2, MacKenzie 5,28, Killick 25, Buac 76, Edmundo 90)

Liverpool - 3 (Weaver 3,80, Moore 79)

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Liverpool 3rd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Jaafar (Buac), Brennan (Khumalo), O'Reilly, Killick, Fraser, Brkic, MacKenzie, Nomaou (Edmundo). BOOKED: Jaafar.

Unfortunately, the gash to Souleymane Nomaou's leg would keep him out of our next game three days later. After defeating the 18-time English champions, we faced 26-time champions Manchester United at Old Trafford.

United were on course for title number 27, as they were six points clear of noisy neighbours Manchester City at the Premier League summit. Star striker Sean Jordan had torn his hamstring in their most recent game at Nottingham Forest, but the Red Devils had another lethal hitman in Salford-bred Moses Penfold, who was on an impressive 24 PL goals this season.

10 February 2035: Manchester United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Manchester United didn't take long to give ex-Manchester City trainee Kieran Whalley his first test in the Dagenham goal. After barely half a minute, Moses Penfold flicked a Marcus Cowley header towards goal, only for Whalley to pull off a breathtaking save that palmed it away! Kieran would save another header, this time from United's Paraguayan centre-back Cristino Valdez, in the 6th minute.

Two minutes after that, we found out just why Old Trafford was nicknamed the 'Theatre of Dreams'. Daggers defender Velimir Radosavljevic's wildest dream came true when he prodded a rebound shot into the net after his colleague George Darvill's header had rattled the post! Believe it or not, it was Manchester United 0 Dagenham & Redbridge 1!

That scoreline could've become more incredible in the 13th minute, but another Darvill header at goal bypassed Radosavljevic and the post. By the 20th minute, our dream would be over. Shortly after Sebastián Núnez went close to erasing our lead, the Argentine megastar cut the ball to Marcus Cowley, who whipped a cross into our penalty area. The cross cleared Velimir and fell towards Penfold, whose diving header was far too lethal.

Penfold, to quote the great Manchester band The Stone Roses, felt "so good to have equalised", and he was soon looking to shoot us down again. The England ace collected a centre from full-back Rocco Gagliardi in the 27th minute and was only denied a second goal by a point-blank save from Whalley. Darvill's attacking misfortunes continued after 35 minutes, when a header from Matthew Fraser's led to him hitting the woodwork for a second time.

In the 39th minute, Daggers right-back John Moser was caught out at the other end. John failed to keep tabs on Gagliardi before the Italian curled in a cross that Penfold flicked past Kieran from a tight angle. Penfold's 26th goal of the league season completed the United resurrection, and we would go into the dressing room trailing 2-1.

Moser had already picked up a knock earlier in the first half, so I replaced him with Albert Khumalo for the second period. Albert and our defence struggled to deal with the Red Devils early in the second half, and Penfold could easily have secured his hat-trick on 52 minutes. Kieran made a fine catch to deny Penfold his treble, while his United counterpart Dave Pierce stopped a counter-attacking effort from Jacques Polomat.

That was as close as Polomat or his fellow Dagenham frontman Edmundo would get to scoring. Manchester United's defence appeared to be made of stone, and it was testament to their resilience that centre-back Darvill represented our biggest attacking threat to them - and exclusively from set-pieces.

As the half wore on, George's defensive abilities started to wilt under the extended pressure United were putting us under. In the 69th minute, he was beaten by a diving header from Penfold that Kieran desperately turned away just in time. The trickle of home shots was turning into a waterfall, and we would be swept away three minutes later. Substitute Sam Hohn breached our offside trap to tap Cowley's cross past Whalley and effectively wrap up the win for the Red Devils.

United wouldn't stop there, and in the 74th minute, they almost made it 'all 4-1' (okay, now I'm taking liberties with these Stone Roses references). Núnez's free-kick was well held by Whalley, who wouldn't let a couple of earlier lapses prevent him from keeping the scoreline respectable. When all was said and done, a 3-1 defeat at Old Trafford was still an admirable result from our point of view.

Manchester United - 3 (Penfold 20,39, Hohn 72)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Radosavljevic 8)

Premier League, Attendance 73,172 - POSITIONS: Man Utd 1st, Dag & Red 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser (Khumalo), Radosavljevic, Darvill, Djuzel, Brennan, Barnes, Fraser, Brkic, Polomat (McLoughlin), Edmundo (Honeyball). BOOKED: Barnes.

Because we were out of both cups, that was actually our last match in February. The next three weeks would be spent hard at work on the training field, while the first-teamers would also play in a reserve game or two to keep their match fitness up.

Meanwhile, I opted to send Welsh winger Shaun Powell back out on loan to another Championship team. He would spend the last three months of the season at Watford.

Although I'd upped the intensity of our training session, we got through our extended break relatively injury-free. Centre-back Hamzah Jaafar strained his knee ligaments and will be out until mid-April, but hopefully that's the worst of our problems. Hopefully.

mark wilson27 · June 24, 2017

@salkster2102 that was a good result for Liverpool. Well done CFuller excellent management :lol:

CFuller · June 25, 2017

21 hours ago, mark wilson27 said:

@salkster2102 that was a good result for Liverpool. Well done CFuller excellent management

That was just a crazy result. Liverpool's defending bordered on the shambolic at times - it felt like my birthday had come a couple of months early!

CFuller · June 25, 2017

MARCH 2035

Talk about tempting fate. At the end of February, I said that a knee ligament injury to Hamzah Jaafar would hopefully be the worst of our problems. Right at the very start of March, attacking midfielder Stipo Brkic sustained a slipped disc in weight training. He was subsequently ruled out of action for three months.

That's right, folks. Our best attacking midfield playmaker, who had 10 Premier League assists to his name, is done for the season. Brilliant.

Jacques Polomat therefore had to take Brkic's place just behind the strikers when we travelled to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest a couple of days later. Centre-back George Darvill, who'd just won the Premier League Young Player of the Month award yet again (I suspect his dad might be on the awards committee), continued his run of starting in every league game for us this season.

3 March 2035: Nottingham Forest vs Dagenham & Redbridge

A couple of defenders seemed to leave their heads in the dressing room, as Nottingham Forest got off to a flying start. Firstly, after a little under two minutes, Forest captain Andy Willis leapt above Dagenham centre-back Velimir Radosavljevic to meet Aleluia's corner with a header that deflected in off his colleague Jens Meertens. That goal was credited to the Dutch centre-half, but we sought to quickly cancel it out.

That was when we found Forest goalie Alex Albert to be far more alert than his Serbia team-mate Velimir. The Brazilian-born former West Ham United man kept out a couple of efforts from Souleymane Nomaou in the 6th and 7th minutes. The hosts would then go 2-0 ahead in the 8th minute, as our other Serb was caught out. Stevo Buac was beaten to a long ball from Bernard Bell by Terry Swann, who cut it across our area for Paul Doyle to apply a simple finish.

Two minutes later, another Daggers defender began to clear up his colleagues' mess. Left-back Rocco Mazzola snuck ahead of the Tricky Trees' defence to tap in Jacques Polomat's through-ball and halve our arrears with his first top-flight goal.

If that goal had shifted the momentum, though, it didn't show in the 15th minute. Paraguay winger Aleluia cut inside from the left and then pulled wide a shot that could've given the home team a 3-1 lead. Doyle also missed a chance to make it 3-1 in the 20th minute.

Five minutes later, our right-back Albert Khumalo halted another run inside from Aleluia with a superb tackle. We then steadily probed the ball forward before Polomat laid on a killer pass that Robbie MacKenzie drilled into the bottom corner! We were back level at 2-2!

Mind you, Arjan Krasniqi could've restored Forest's advantage just a minute later with a header that thankfully bounced safely into Kieran Whalley's grasp. Two minutes after that, Aleluia's outswinging corner into the Dagenham area was powered just over by centre-back Bell. Our covering defender George Darvill picked up his first booking of the season a few moments later for pulling back on Doyle's shirt. We then survived a couple more scares, with Forest midfielders Krasniqi and John Woods each missing the target before half-time.

Whalley showed real anxiety in the second minute of the second half, when he hooked a long ball that was intercepted by Swann. 32-year-old Swann was on 18 Premier League goals for the season, and he attempted a spectacular drive that didn't get particularly close to making it 19.

Another awful shot came in the 50th minute from Nomaou, whose attempt to chip Alex Albert in the Forest goal was blown well off course. The home attack that followed was devastating. Krasniqi lobbed the ball ahead of Doyle, who broke clear of Radosavljevic before lashing in a stunning half-volley from a tight angle!

Forest were 3-2 up, but there was real concern at the City Ground when captain Willis twisted his knee in the 52nd minute. Willis hobbled on for a few minutes before a rough challenge from Polomat aggravated his injury further and forced him to come off for good. Forest didn't look so secure without their skipper, and we looked to take advantage midway through the second period.

Velimir, who'd arguably cost us one if not two goals, headed over a chance to make amends and draw us level on 62 minutes. Sol was also having a day to forget, and I opted to substitute him after he blazed a shot high in the 65th minute. Stevo would also be subbed, though not before we almost let in a fourth goal on 74 minutes. Whalley displayed fantastic reflexes to tip behind a piledriver from Swann that had seemingly been heading for the top corner.

Five minutes later, a Daggers breakaway ended with substitute striker Edmundo being brought down in the six-yard box by a clumsy Bell. MacKenzie may have missed our last penalty, but he still felt confident enough to take this one. Robbie's self-belief shone through as he sent Alex Albert the wrong way for his 10th goal of the season - and the sixth goal of another thrilling match!

Two minutes after being pegged back to 3-3, Nottingham Forest went back on the offensive, with midfield substitute Alex Payne forcing Whalley into a difficult save. The next attack from either side came in the first minute of injury time. Edmundo collected the ball from fellow Daggers sub Greg Killick and formed a passing triangle with Robbie and Jacques before hammering a shot at goal. We held our collective breaths in the Dagenham dugout... and then groaned in agony as the Brazilian's strike fizzed over.

Those groans would become more pronounced three minutes later. We were just moments from taking an away point when Swann climbed above George to nod Jonas Niederhauser's left-wing cross into the net and secure all three for Forest. Gutted.

Nottingham Forest - 4 (Meertens 2, Doyle 8,50, Swann 90)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Mazzola 10, MacKenzie 25,pen80)

Premier League, Attendance 16,403 - POSITIONS: Nottm Forest 17th, Dag & Red 15th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Buac (Moser), Darvill, Radosavljevic, Khumalo, Mazzola, Fraser, Barnes (Killick), Polomat, MacKenzie, Nomaou (Edmundo). BOOKED: Darvill.

Well, that was a real defensive disaster, wasn't it? I held Serbian stoppers Stevo Buac and Velimir Radosavljevic responsible for most of the damage, and neither of them would be playing in our next game.

Matthew Fraser would also be out of our home match against 12th-placed West Bromwich Albion, having sustained a rib injury late on in Nottingham. Matthew was joined on a fast-growing injury list by Joel Honeyball, who'd broken a cheekbone in training and couldn't play again for at least four weeks.

CFuller · June 26, 2017

MARCH 2035 (continued)

7 March 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs West Bromwich Albion

19-year-old right-back Ross Pearson made his Premier League debut in this match, and he won us a corner off West Brom's left-back Dane Brough after just three minutes. Despite that, it was West Brom who had the first real opportunity to score. On seven minutes, winger Luis Sevilla turned past our holding midfielder Seb Brennan and unleashed a shot that goalkeeper Kieran Whalley had to push away. Sevilla would later be booked in the 17th minute after catching Brennan with a clumsy tackle.

We started to create a host of scoring opportunities midway through the half. Jacques Polomat went high and wide in the 18th minute before Edmundo had an effort easily saved by Baggies goalkeeper Eudald Teijo a minute later. On 23 minutes, Edmundo glided past West Brom right-back Emmitt Hatton, only to slip his shot just the wrong side of the post. Rob McLoughlin made his first bid for goal three minutes later, and he was denied by a strong save from the evergreen 38-year-old Teijo.

It was Dagenham captain William Barnes' turn to go close after 29 minutes, when he floated a free-kick within inches of the target. Midfielder Dave Hutchinson and right-back Albert Khumalo were also denied by Teijo, who then produced a fabulous acrobatic save in the 36th minute to tip away a swerving effort from Edmundo. Our Brazilian loanee's self-belief dwindled further after 43 minutes, as he took the ball beyond Albion skipper Justin Gibbs but then pulled it wide.

Teijo finished the first half with an injury-time save from Polomat, and the experienced Spaniard continued to resist us in the opening minute of the second period, when he deflected away a Hutchinson volley. A rare West Brom attack two minutes led to the Baggies going very close to scoring via a corner. Sevilla's hanging ball reached Gibbs, but the England centre-back's header clipped the crossbar before going behind.

Normal service resumed following that near-miss, and Daggers substitute Robbie MacKenzie would soon find out for himself just how alert Teijo was. In the 61st minute, MacKenzie nodded Rocco Mazzola's deep cross goalwards, only to see Teijo tip it over the bar for a corner.

As Seb whipped the delivery in, Edmundo went down under a shove from Baggies defender Bradley Rees. The referee pointed to the penalty spot, from which Robbie had a chance to score for the second time in succession. This time, however, MacKenzie failed to outwit Teijo, whose latest save once again prevented us from going 1-0 up.

We would be ruing our luck again seven minutes later, as we went 1-0 down. When Baggies sub Terry Grayson latched onto a Sevilla free-kick and nodded it beyond Whalley, I sighed, "That's just bloody typical, isn't it?"

Grayson's goal would prove to be the winner for Albion, as we struggled to get our game up and running again. West Brom only just deserved the victory, but they could've won by more than the single goal had Kieran not saved late attempts from midfielder Richard Boucher and striker David Houska. After another bruising encounter, we once again slunk away with our tails between our legs.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

West Bromwich Albion - 1 (Grayson 69)

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 15th, West Brom 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Pearson, Khumalo, Darvill, Mazzola, Brennan, Hutchinson, Barnes (Killick), Polomat (Charles), McLoughlin (MacKenzie), Edmundo. BOOKED: Barnes, Hutchinson.

That was our third defeat in a row, and we were now only six points above 18th. Was this going to be a potentially costly slump?

We now had 10 days before our next match. In the middle of that intermission, I took time out to watch the latest batch of Dagenham & Redbridge youth trialists take on our Under-18s. The schoolboys won 3-0, with centre-back Roy Anderson and forwards Ollie Brothers and Djibril Ibrahim particularly catching my eye. Those three were among the 10 who were awarded youth contracts with Daggers, but there's someone else I'd really love to tell you about.

It was Elliot Cook - a 15-year-old Dagenham boy born and bred - who really stole the show in that trial match, scoring one goal and creating another. The striker had pace to burn, excellent finishing ability, and the professional attitude of someone at least a decade older.

I watched that match with Curtis Langton, our Head of Youth Development, and Langton was in no doubt that Cook was the best schoolboy footballer he'd ever come across while at Dagenham & Redbridge. If Curtis' forecast is right, Elliot's potential could be boundless.

Meanwhile, the big boys continued their bid for Premier League survival by hosting second-from-bottom Brighton & Hove Albion. It went without saying that we had to halt our mini-decline right here.

17 March 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Brighton & Hove Albion

Brighton made it clear from the fifth minute that, although they were in 19th place, they weren't afraid to push their weight around. An awful challenge from left-back Gregory Joosten sent our attacking midfielder Jacques Polomat to the turf in agony, though play continued for quite some time.

Jacques was heavily bruised in that encounter, but unlike in his younger years, he wouldn't be beaten so easily. Just after the 15-minute mark, the French midfielder spotted a gap in the Brighton backline. Polomat threaded the ball through to William Barnes, who outmuscled Seagulls defensive midfielder Tibor Horváth and powered in his first goal of the season!

Barnesy's second goal could've come just two minutes later, but Brighton's Danish goalkeeper Andreas Jensen made light work of his free-kick. Another three minutes went by, and then Will kept up our forward momentum with an excellent weighted pass to Rob McLoughlin. Rob tried to take the ball past Albion defender Tom Dakin, who dove in with a tackle that accidentally diverted the ball into his own net!

It was well known that Dakin was very unhappy at Brighton, and I heard one of our fans quip - with tongue firmly in cheek - that "he did that on purpose". Regardless of whether the own goal might've been deliberate or not, we were still 2-0 to the good!

We went on to coast through the rest of the first period, creating a few half-chances to extend our lead. The best of them was a diving header in the 40th minute from McLoughlin, but Jensen's save at least kept the score respectable from the Seagulls' standpoint.

Our two R-Macs linked up to put another shot into the Brighton net after 52 minutes. However, MacKenzie was offside when McLoughlin played the pass that his Scots colleague scored from, and so we remained 'only' 2-0 up.

Another Anglo-Scottish partnership created another Daggers chance another minute later, but Barnes couldn't quite guide his header from Fraser's free-kick into the target. Nevertheless, this was still a fantastic performance from captain Will, who ran the show for virtually the entire 90 minutes, despite picking up a knock and a yellow card later on.

Our three-man defence also deserved credit for almost completely shutting out Brighton strikers Carmine Fabris and Sam Price. They would only allow Albion's front two a solitary shot all game - a 72nd-minute Fabris strike that was inadvertently blocked by his team-mate Jacob Broe before we cleared the danger. The Seagulls never looked like they could fight back, so I felt confident enough to give teenagers Christophe Smith and Engilbert Sverrisson their Premier League debuts during the closing stages of a comfortable victory.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Barnes 16, Dakin og21)

Brighton & Hove Albion - 0

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 15th, Brighton 19th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo (Buac), Darvill, Radosavljevic, Brennan, Mazzola, Barnes, Fraser, Polomat (Sverrisson), MacKenzie, McLoughlin (Smith). BOOKED: Barnes, Radosavljevic.

We're now nine points clear of the drop, and that mythical 40-point mark for Premier League survival is almost within our reach. Although we've still got to play some very difficult opponents in our final seven fixtures, I'm now more confident than ever that we'll avoid relegation.

March ended with the latest round of international fixtures. Robbie MacKenzie's transformation from bit-part player to our top league scorer was rewarded with his first call-up to the Scotland squad. The 26-year-old had a dream introduction to international football, scoring twice on his debut against the United Arab Emirates before finding the net again in a UEFA Euro 2036 qualifying win over Slovakia. Matthew Fraser also played in both matches for the Tartan Army.

Five more Daggers, including Serbia centre-half Velimir Radosavljevic and South Africa right-back Albert Khumalo, added to their senior international caps. Martin Thompson - on loan at Cardiff City - made his debut for England Under-21s alongside George Darvill, who now has 16 caps with the Young Lions in that age group.

Of course, I was also out on international duty, managing my Norway team in a friendly against Albania and a Euro 2036 qualifier against Northern Ireland. Frankly, I'd rather not talk about those two games, so I won't! Not here, anyway.

CFuller · June 26, 2017

Premier League Table (End of March 2035)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    EL    Man Utd                31    22    6     3     78    22    +56   72
2.          Man City               31    19    8     4     80    32    +48   65
3.          Arsenal                30    18    8     4     52    22    +30   62
4.          Southampton            31    15    10    6     40    27    +13   55
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.          Liverpool              31    16    5     10    60    42    +18   53
6.          West Ham               31    13    10    8     42    29    +13   49
7.          Rochdale               31    14    7     10    41    41    0     49
8.          Tottenham              31    13    6     12    48    47    +1    45
9.          West Brom              31    12    8     11    43    61    -18   44
10.         Chelsea                31    12    7     12    35    33    +2    43
11.         Fulham                 31    11    7     13    41    44    -3    40
12.         Wolves                 31    11    6     14    42    51    -9    39
13.         Norwich                31    10    8     13    34    39    -5    38
14.         Derby                  31    10    7     14    30    40    -10   37
15.         Dag & Red              31    10    6     15    42    49    -7    36
16.         Nottm Forest           31    7     9     15    40    61    -21   30
17.         Burnley                30    7     7     16    31    45    -14   28
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.         Huddersfield           31    7     6     18    27    57    -30   27
19.         Brighton               31    6     5     20    47    77    -30   23
20.         Everton                31    6     4     21    30    64    -34   22

CFuller · June 27, 2017

APRIL 2035

Surprisingly, Dagenham & Redbridge's players cleaned up in the Premier League's monthly awards for March. Jacques Polomat was named Player of the Month after setting up three goals in as many matches. He received his accolade alongside George Darvill, who yet again picked up the Young Player of the Month award. That award might as well have been renamed 'George Darvill of the Month' by now.

Completing the set was Rocco Mazzola, whose goal against Nottingham Forest won him the Goal of the Month accolade. Rocco had been in fine form throughout March, and the Italian was providing Ante Djuzel and Daniel O'Reilly with serious competition for that left-back slot.

As we only won one of our three matches last month, I had no chance of winning Manager of the Month, but that solitary victory left us nine points clear of the relegation zone. If we could hold our nerve in our final seven matches, survival would be ours:

7 April: vs Derby County (H) - Derby were 14th, and had not won any of their last nine matches

14 April: vs Huddersfield Town (H) - Huddersfield were 18th, and had scored the fewest goals in the PL so far

22 April: vs Norwich City (A) - Norwich were 13th, and had not drawn a league game since December

28 April: vs Arsenal (A) - Arsenal were 3rd, and were unbeaten in seven PL matches

5 May: vs Everton (A) - Everton were 20th, and had won one point from their last nine PL games

12 May: vs Fulham (H) - Fulham were 11th, and had gone unbeaten in their last four matches

19 May: vs Manchester City (H) - Man City were 2nd, and had lost once in their last 26 games

Every game in that run-in would be important, but the first two were particularly critical. A couple of strong results at home to Derby County and Huddersfield Town would ease the pressure on us, while any defeats would only pile it on further.

First up was a visit from John Sullivan's Derby County, who had never lost to us in our previous nine meetings. This was my 1,200th competitive match as a manager - and my last one before my 50th birthday. Where does the time fly?

7 April 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Derby County

Our newly-capped Scotland striker Robbie MacKenzie got us off to a blistering start after three minutes, thanks to some help from a colleague for club and country. Robbie got above Derby goalkeeper Marko Stipic to head home his compatriot Matthew Fraser's corner and delight the home fans at Victoria Road!

County looked to erase our lead within five minutes of us taking it, but Iain Kane's header from Jonny Smith's cross was caught by Daggers goalie Kieran Whalley. Kane and Smith linked up to create another chance in the 14th minute, but this time, it was the latter whose header failed to find the target.

That said, there were worrying signs that the Rams were about to hit back and continue their excellent record against us. Their silky passing abilities gave our defence a much harder workout than expected, and we really had to press hard to retake the ball. Inevitably, we conceded quite a few fouls - and one of them, from captain William Barnes in the 32nd minute, led to a massive opportunity for Derby. Rams defender Larry Coburn got his head to Kane's free-kick delivery from just outside our penalty area, but Whalley had no trouble in catching it.

Four minutes later, County were having to defend against a couple of our own set-pieces. After his free-kick deflected behind the Derby wall, Fraser saw his subsequent corner cleared by the visitors' record signing - Swedish left-back Jon Falt Ohr. Jacques Polomat retook the ball and sidefooted it to Barnes, who smashed a breathtaking left-footer beyond Stipic's reach and into the net! That was arguably one of the finest goals Victoria Road had seen in many a year, and it had given us a 2-0 half-time lead!

When a back-pass from MacKenzie was intercepted by Derby striker Aarran Bryan in the 49th minute, we feared an early second-half goal from the Rams. Derby's other frontman Dave Hartley took the loose ball into our penalty area and then played it back to Kane, whose cross found Bryant in point-blank range. Fortunately, Whalley made a fantastic save from Bryant's half-volley, and we remained two goals up.

We had another scare on 56 minutes, when Kieran tipped a header from County substitute James Rudd onto his bar. The ball bounced down and back into play, but just as Bryant was about to slide it across the goal line, Daggers centre-back Stevo Buac came in with a vital saving tackle!

These were nervous times, and it didn't help that Barnes blasted a couple of ambitious long-rangers high and wide at around the half-hour mark. Then, after 62 minutes, former Newcastle United full-back Falt Ohr floated in a cross that cleared our defence and found Rudd. We held our collective breaths again as Rudd powered another header goalwards... and against the crossbar!

More anxiety crept into our game, and our tackling in particular. Three Dagenham players - including Fraser and Barnes - would receive yellow cards between the 64th and 78th minutes. Another clumsy foul, from Barnes' late replacement Greg Killick, gave Derby another free-kick within shooting range on 81 minutes. Marcus Pitman took the set-piece... but the ex-Southampton winger couldn't get it beyond Whalley.

Only then did I feel confident that we would finally beat the Rams - at the TENTH time of asking. We would secure the three points in injury time, when Brazilian substitute Edmundo prodded MacKenzie's through-ball into the net for a 3-0 win.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (MacKenzie 3, Barnes 36, Edmundo 90)

Derby County - 0

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Derby 15th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Buac, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Khumalo, Mazzola, Barnes (Killick), Fraser, Polomat (Honeyball), MacKenzie, McLoughlin (Edmundo). BOOKED: McLoughlin, Radosavljevic, Fraser, Barnes.

18th-placed Huddersfield Town could only draw their game at West Bromwich Albion, so that meant we were now 11 points clear of the Terriers, with 18 left to play for. We had the chance to increase that gap to an almost insurmountable 14 points the following weekend, when Huddersfield challenged us at Victoria Road.

14 April 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Huddersfield Town

Buoyed by his wonder goal against Derby County, William Barnes tried to serve up another corker for the Dagenham & Redbridge fans two minutes into this game. However, the captain's 20-yard rocket was closer to flying out of Victoria Road than into the net! Robbie MacKenzie went much closer in the 7th minute, as he smashed the far post with an angled effort after being set up by Jacques Polomat. Edmundo met the rebound with a diving header, but Huddersfield keeper Orhan Guner caught the ball inches from his goal line!

Our attacking misfortunes didn't improve midway through the first half. On 20 minutes, Matthew Fraser scuffed an awful rebound shot wide after his initial free-kick had been deflected away from the Huddersfield area by centre-back Kamen Genchev. Barnes took our next direct free-kick five minutes later, and curled it just over the bar.

In the 32nd minute, Daggers wing-back Rocco Mazzola lost his marker and got behind the Terriers' defence to collect a weighted pass from Edmundo. Unfortunately, Guner stuck out a leg to block the Italian's shot. Polomat sent MacKenzie clean through in the 39th, but Huddersfield captain Théo Forster got back just in the nick of time to slide the ball off Robbie's feet. Guner then saved an injury-time effort from Barnes as a first half in which we had been completely dominant somehow finished goalless!

I reassured the Dagenham players at half-time that they were doing all the right things, and that they had just been incredibly unlucky not to break the deadlock. I continued to keep faith in my boys on 54 minutes, when Barnesy's next pop at goal went within a whisker of clipping the top of the bar.

In the 59th minute, though, Polomat went down hurt after being strongly challenged by Huddersfield midfielder Manuel Chacón. Jacques seemed to have picked up only a minor knock, as opposed to a more serious injury, but I couldn't take any chances with my only fit senior attacking midfielder. Polomat was replaced three minutes later with Icelandic teenager Engilbert Sverrisson.

The game then took a more aggressive tone, with the referee booking a player each from both sides before Town winger Emerson had a 69th-minute free-kick saved by Whalley. A couple of minutes after that, Edmundo dribbled with the ball into Huddersfield's box before going down under a seemingly tame challenge from Genchev. Even I was seriously questioning whether Edmundo had dived, but the referee made his mind up quickly - and awarded us a penalty!

Edmundo faced a torrent of boos from the away end as he dusted himself down and took the spot-kick, which he comfortably slotted past an almost static Guner. The Brazilian's 10th Premier League goal of the season had put us ever closer to securing our top-flight status!

Although Huddersfield tried their best to draw level and put serious doubts in our mind, they didn't quite have it in them. An 84th-minute strike from midfielder Harrison Atkins, which Whalley made light work of, was the closest the Terriers would get to denying us a third straight victory.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Edmundo pen72)

Huddersfield Town - 0

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 12th, Huddersfield 18th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo (Jaafar), Darvill, Radosavljevic, Brennan, Mazzola, Barnes (McCann), Fraser, Polomat (Sverrisson), MacKenzie, Edmundo. BOOKED: Khumalo, Barnes.

That was by no means our most convincing win of the season, but it was possibly our most significant. We were now just two points away from guaranteeing Premier League survival... but because of Huddersfield Town's massively inferior goal difference compared to ours, we realistically only needed one more point.

ONE more point, and we would be safe. Could we wrap it up before May?

CFuller · June 28, 2017

APRIL 2035 (continued)

Erm... it turned out that we didn't need one more point to retain our Premier League place. By the time we faced fellow mid-tablers Norwich City at Carrow Road on Sunday 22 April, we were actually already guaranteed to stay up. 18th-placed Huddersfield Town's 4-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon had ensured that we would not be going down.

We could now take things a little easier, but that didn't mean that I was going to take my foot off the pedal completely. The aim now was to move as far up the table as possible, because the higher the position we finished in, the greater the prize money we would receive.

22 April 2035: Norwich City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

With both teams merely playing for positions rather than survival, it wasn't surprising that this match got off to a very slow start. Norwich manager Ange Diallo gave a Premier League debut to Steve Jevons - an 18-year-old striker from Great Yarmouth who was being tipped for great things. The fledgling Canary would gain his wings after 19 minutes. Jevons' header from a Gareth Twyman cross was tipped against the bar by Kieran Whalley, but the teenager delighted the Carrow Road faithful by converting the rebound.

Dagenham centre-back George Darvill shouldered most of the blame after misjudging the flight of Twyman's cross, but we tried to forget about that goal quickly. On 21 minutes, Dagenham striker Edmundo - making what would be the last appearance of his loan spell - blasted a 25-yard effort well wide.

Norwich midfielder Neil Cable - another young homegrown player in the Canaries ranks - then had a couple of chances to bolster his side's lead at around the half-hour mark. Kieran saved the latter of them in the 31st minute, palming a low drive behind. The game took a decisive turn three minutes later, with Norwich defender Andrew Dean committing a reckless two-footed lunge on Jacques Polomat. 18-year-old Dean was dismissed, and we now had licence to control the game.

We could've made the most of our extra man in the 42nd minute. Norwich goalkeeper Stuart Burns got his fingertips to a cross from Robbie MacKenzie, and his centre-back Antonio José Alcázar hacked away a follow-up header from Matthew Fraser. We would go one better a minute later, when Polomat scored from an Albert Khumalo cross that had been poorly intercepted by City midfielder Aziz Ngassa. That made it 1-1, and the Daggers were now looking like firm favourites to win the game.

A furious Diallo replaced Ngassa with ex-Liverpool midfielder Shane Stevens during the interval. The desperate state of Diallo's gameplan became clear six minutes into the second half, when Ivorian made his third and final substitution. Twyman was replaced with Israeli centre-half Yarden Tubul, who twisted his knee just a couple of minutes after coming on. Tardul had to play through the pain, otherwise the Canaries would have been down to nine men.

Despite looking increasingly in disarray, Norwich launched the first serious attack of the second half after just under an hour. Jevons couldn't quite follow up his debut goal with another, heading Marco Paiva's cross well wide.

We then claimed for a penalty in the 64th minute, after Khumalo was slide-tackled in the Norwich area by Stevens. The referee ignored our protests, but when William Barnes went in hard on Paiva in the 75th minute, he did punish our captain with a yellow card. Will was the second Dagger to go into the book, following centre-half Velimir Radosavljevic late in the first half.

After that, the game pretty much fizzled out into a 1-1 draw. The hosts only had a couple of long-distance punts in the closing stages, while 16-year-old substitute Jonas Kjaerulff was unable to make an impact on his second Premier League appearance for us.

Norwich City - 1 (Jevons 19)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Polomat 43)

Premier League, Attendance 24,138 - POSITIONS: Norwich 14th, Dag & Red 12th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Buac, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Khumalo (Pearson), Mazzola, Barnes (Killick), Fraser, Polomat, MacKenzie, Edmundo (Kjaerulff). BOOKED: Radosavljevic, Barnes.

After that match, I learnt of some rather worrying reports that Tottenham Hotspur were planning to make an offer for our highly-rated 16-year-old youth striker Elliot Cook. I really didn't want to lose this prodigiously talented schoolboy, so I persuaded Elliot and his family to sign a pre-contract agreement, which would see him turn professional with us upon his 17th birthday next March. While I was at it, I also gave a first full-time deal to midfielder Daryl Ryan II, who had himself just turned 17.

Our next game was at the Emirates Stadium against 2nd-placed Arsenal, who were 10 points behind league leaders Manchester United and realistically had to win to keep their title ambitions alive.

Although I'm a lifelong Arsenal fan, I'm also a professional, so I still fielded a strong starting line-up. Attacking midfield playmaker Jacques Polomat was part of the XI, even though he had strained his thigh just a few days earlier in training.

28 April 2035: Arsenal vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Souleymane Nomaou returned to my starting XI after I left him out of the squad altogether for our previous five matches. The Niger striker tried to kick off his return with a goal after nine minutes, but his hopeful punt from distance flew high and wide. Daggers captain William Barnes was also unsuccessful from long range in the 12th minute, as was Arsenal's skipper Willy Wawa six minutes later.

A scrappy first period would also see yellow cards for Dagenham right-back Seb Brennan in the 15th minute, and Gunners striker Shane Hay in the 21st. It was Hay who provided the game with its first shot on target after 28 minutes. Arsenal winger Plínio's run into the box was halted by a pinpoint slide tackle from Brennan, but Velimir Radosavljevic inadvertently knocked the ball on to Hay, whose strike was parried by Kieran Whalley.

Hay went close again after 37 minutes, when the 25-year-old England striker headed his club and international colleague Romaric Mawéné's cross over the bar. We launched our next attack just moments later, with Jacques Polomat playing the ball through to Nomaou, who was denied by Gunners goalie Shaun Murat.

Play would continue to switch from end to end, almost until half-time. Hay cracked a header against the crossbar on 40 minutes before Radosavljevic hacked the ball into touch. Three minutes after that, Wawa sent a half-volley inches over the bar. Although the scoreline remained 0-0 at the break, one could sense that Arsenal were starting to show their class.

Two more of Arsenal's England internationals - midfielder Liam Wood and winger Gordon Hubbuck - put shots wide in the opening stages of the second half. Just before the hour mark, though, Dagenham left-back Rocco Mazzola got through the Gunners defence to collect a pass from Barnes and blast it goalward. Murat had to push the shot behind for a corner, from which we would take a surprise lead. Matthew Fraser's delivery found Velimir, whose header just evaded Murat's gloves en route to the net!

Arsenal responded brightly, and Wood gave us a real warning in the 65th minute, when his piledriver forced a catch out of Whalley. In the 68th minute, Wood was involved in a one-two with Mawéné, who sent a right-wing cross to Hay at the near post. A simple finish followed, and our lead was gone.

By the 77th minute, the Gunners were looking good value to edge in front. Plínio floated a wonderful ball into our six-yard box for Hay, who outjumped Rocco but couldn't quite prevent his header from clearing the bar. Hay would be kicking himself for that miss a couple of minutes later.

Dagenham's target man Robbie MacKenzie beat Arsenal defender Thulani Kama to a Whalley goal kick and nodded it to Polomat, who then played it ahead of substitute Rob McLoughlin. Rob had only been on the pitch for a matter of minutes, but the experienced striker gobbled up Jacques' pass and drilled it into the far corner! We were now 2-1 up, and Arsenal were fast running out of time to keep themselves in the title race!

Hay hooked the Gunners' last shot on target into Kieran's hands on 86 minutes, and our rearguard put in a spirited display later on to preserve our lead. After young substitute Dave Hutchinson headed away a last-ditch corner from Hubbuck in the final seconds, the ref blew the whistle on another famous Daggers win!

Arsenal - 1 (Hay 68)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Radosavljevic 61, McLoughlin 79)

Premier League, Attendance 60,361 - POSITIONS: Arsenal 2nd, Dag & Red 12th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Brennan (Jaafar), Mazzola, Barnes, Fraser, Polomat (Hutchinson), MacKenzie, Nomaou (McLoughlin). BOOKED: Brennan.

Whoops! I appear to have cost my beloved Arsenal the Premier League title! Ah well...

Inflicting just a second home league defeat of the season on their greatest rivals certainly impressed Tottenham Hotspur, who offered me the chance to become their new manager the very next day! I replied with two simple words. I won't repeat them here, but you could probably guess which ones they were.

Despite putting in an excellent performance at the Emirates Stadium, Jacques Polomat was now likely to miss the rest of the season with that thigh strain. Fellow midfielder Greg Killick's own season was over for sure, as he was suffering from a hernia. At this stage in the campaign, though, those two injuries will not prove terminal.

CFuller · June 29, 2017

MAY 2035

The end of our maiden Premier League campaign was almost in sight. We'd already secured our survival, so our mission now was to finish as high as we could.

With three rounds to go, we trailed 6th-placed West Ham United by a mere five points, so there was still a slim chance that we could qualify for the UEFA Europa League if we kept on winning! A top-half finish seemed a more realistic target, with 10th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers only two points clear of us.

Our final away game of the season was at Goodison Park against rock-bottom Everton, who had already been consigned to Championship football in 2035/2036. Cauley Woodrow's Toffees were creamed 3-0 when they visited Victoria Road just before Christmas, and I fancied us to complete a double over these sleeping giants.

I would use these final three games to blood some of our younger players. Among the beneficiaries were Nordic teenagers Engilbert Sverrisson and Jonas Kjaerulff, who both made their first Premier League starts on Merseyside.

5 May 2035: Everton vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Everton showed some lack of discipline in the very first minute, when winger Biyoko N'Gabsi was booked for a trip on Ante Djuzel. The Toffees then displayed aggression of a different kind, as target man Simon Ohlsson headed wide their first scoring chance from an N'Gabsi cross after three minutes. Shortly after that, left-winger Stacy Palmer attempted a volley that deflected off George Darvill and ricocheted behind off the crossbar!

We remained on the back foot throughout the opening stages, and we were very fortunate not to concede in the 10th minute. Christian Stucki cut the ball across our goalmouth to Ohlsson, who struck the post from just outside our six-yard box. Had Ohlsson scored, that would've gone down as a mistake for Velimir Radosavljevic, who'd given the Swede enough space to shoot. Matthew Fraser also looked far from his best when he upended Everton striker Josh Bowerman to earn a yellow card after 13 minutes.

Over the next five minutes, though, we troubled Toffees goalie Christian Allinson with a couple of blistering shots from Robbie MacKenzie and Engilbert Sverrisson. The latter would go on to create the goal that broke the deadlock in the 26th minute. Sverrisson played an excellent through-ball to McCann, and the Mancunian midfielder powered in his first goal for the Daggers!

Jonas Kjaerulff should've broken his Daggers duck in the 29th minute, but the 16-year-old Dane blasted the ball over the bar after receiving a fantastic pass from Fraser. Jonas was denied another opportunity by a well-timed intervention from Stucki on 36 minutes, but another youngster would get on the scoresheet for the first time two minutes later.

Engilbert rounded off an impressive first-half display with a sublime solo dribble that he followed up with a fitting finish. We would enter the half-time interval leading 2-0, though not before luckless Everton hit the woodwork for a THIRD time through Ohlsson.

A dispirited Everton team would hardly cause us any problems in the second period, even after they brought on former Dagenham playmaker Paul Hart early on. Kjaerulff could have killed them off in the 65th minute, but his 25-yard drive narrowly cleared the bar. In the 72nd minute, captain William Barnes had a free-kick saved by Allinson. Two minutes later, our right-back Ross Pearson cleared the Toffees defence with a fantastic weighted ball to MacKenzie, who struck it disappointingly wide.

Those chances turned out to be our best ones from a tepid second period that ended with Goodison Park barely half-full. Everton fans left early in large numbers after substitute striker Callum Whealing put a header wide in the 78th minute. They would miss an 85th-minute volley from Bowerman that came within inches of giving the Toffees fresh hope.

As it was, we managed to shut out Everton for a second time this season and claw our fifth win in six matches! Indeed, that latest victory took us into the top half for the first time in goodness knows how long!

Everton - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (McCann 26, Sverrisson 38)

Premier League, Attendance 25,706 - POSITIONS: Everton 20th, Dag & Red 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Pearson, Djuzel (Mazzola), Fraser (Barnes), McCann, Sverrisson, MacKenzie, Kjaerulff (Honeyball). BOOKED: Fraser, Djuzel.

That's a goal and an assist on his full debut for Engilbert Sverrisson. At £50,000, he looks like being quite a bargain!

We went back to Victoria Road the following weekend, and it seemed fitting that our former parent club Fulham were the penultimate visitors to the old ground. A lot had changed since I first faced the Cottagers when we were in the Conference Premier and they were regularly playing in Europe. In fact, were we to win here, we would guarantee that we finished above Fulham!

12 May 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Fulham

Worryingly, our captain William Barnes was booked after just two minutes for clattering into Fulham midfielder Catatau. Two minutes later, the 21-year-old Brazilian found Martyn Thomas with a corner that the Cottagers captain diverted onto the near post. Velimir Radosavljevic then hacked the ball away to dispel the danger.

Thomas would hit the woodwork again in the 14th minute with a free-kick. That set-piece had come about after Barnes brought Catatau down again, tearing his own groin muscle in the process. Will's campaign was over, and our excellent late-season run was soon put in serious jeopardy. On 19 minutes, shortly after Fulham blocked a couple of shots from our 17-year-old striker Toby Faithfull, the Cottagers stole the lead through an excellent strike from Australia winger Dominic Turner.

Fulham looked to add a second goal soon afterwards, but Kieran Whalley kept them at bay with strong catches from Thomas in the 22nd minute and Daniele Gatti in the 31st. Shortly after that latter save, Kieran began a counter-attacking move that ended with Engilbert Sverrisson lobbing a shot over the Cottagers' crossbar.

Our next major chance came about after 38 minutes, when Sverrisson was brought down just outside the Fulham 'D' by Wayne James. Matthew Fraser curled the resulting free-kick plum into the top corner, and we were back level at 1-1!

Sverrisson and Faithfull each missed opportunities to put us in the ascendancy early in the second half. Gatti and James then did likewise for Fulham before their colleague Catatau's free-kick in the 63rd minute was saved by Whalley. There would be few other highlights in what was a second period very typical of a late-season dead rubber.

What little attacking momentum we had was disrupted in the 72nd minute, when Rocco Mazzola pulled his hamstring in a touchline tackle on Turner. Mazzola would come off three minutes later to be replaced with Daniel O'Reilly, who made his 240th - and possibly final - league appearance for Dagenham & Redbridge. At the same time, I brought on Christophe Smith - a player very much on the opposite end of the experience scale to O'Reilly - for his fellow teenage striker Faithfull.

That latter switch would prove to be decisive two minutes from full-time. Engilbert's third assist in two matches came after he played in Christophe, who lashed his first Premier League goal past Fulham keeper Djibril Abdoulaye and earned us a 2-1 win!

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Fraser 39, Smith 88)

Fulham - 1 (Turner 19)

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 9th, Fulham 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Jaafar, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Pearson, Mazzola (O'Reilly), Fraser, Barnes (Hutchinson), Sverrisson, Faithfull (Smith), MacKenzie. BOOKED: Barnes.

Gone were the days when losing heavily to Fulham was an annual pre-season ritual for us. We were now the team that dished out the beatings to our old landlords - home and away.

Time was almost up for us at Victoria Road, but there was still one final game to play. Get your tissues at the ready. This'll be emotional.

CFuller · June 30, 2017

MAY 2035 (continued)

19 May 2035. After 118 years of staging football matches, the final whistle was about to be blown on Victoria Road. This was Dagenham & Redbridge's last match of their last season at their historic stadium - and the mighty Manchester City were the visitors.

We went into this curtain-closer sitting in 9th place in the Premier League. The lowest position we could end up in was 13th. Our highest possible position was 7th, which would yield the final English place in next season's UEFA Europa League.

To stand a chance of claiming that European spot, we would need to - at the very least - beat City, and hope that 8th-placed Rochdale could not record a victory at West Bromwich Albion. We also required erstwhile champions Chelsea, who were three points ahead of us in 7th, to lose heavily against West Ham United, who were directly above them.

The Europa League looked like an almost impossible dream, then, but this occasion was not about aiming to qualify for continental competitions. It was about celebrating what had already been a wonderful first PL season that had surpassed all our expectations - and, of course, it was about celebrating our soon-to-be-former fortress.

This final game at Victoria Road doubled up as some sort of all-class reunion, with many Dagenham & Redbridge heroes from the past returning to say their farewells. It was wonderful to once again meet the likes of centre-back Gavin Dalton, midfielder Geraint Harding, and record scorer Mark West - all of whom had been integral parts of our rise to prominence.

We were also reacquainted with right-back Tim Beech, defensive rock Wayne Coton, and Egyptian enigma Yasser Ibrahim - three more stars from when we were still playing lower-league and non-league football.

Then there were those Dagenham icons who preceded my time in charge - record appearance maker Chris Lewington, and former captain Scott Doe, along with Paul Cobb, Tim Cole and Lee Matthews from the very early days in the 1990s.

They were all there to witness a real moment of Dagenham & Redbridge history. Could we sign off from Victoria Road, and head to our new ground at Rainham Road, on the back of an unforgettable win over Manchester City?

19 May 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Manchester City

I chose to field a fairly young team for this final match, with only captain Kieran Whalley and centre-back George Darvill who could really be described as regular starters. 27-year-old Joel Honeyball led the frontline alongside teenager Peguy Kasongo, who made his first league start for the Daggers.

While our midfield and attack in particular looked - in all honesty - rather suspect, Manchester City's starting XI oozed experience and class. Rogier Molhoek selected a side that had over 800 international caps in total, while the front three of Martin Klonz, Jozef Kral and Peter Jakubicka had scored exactly 50 league goals between them this term.

This was no dead-rubber as far as Manchester City were concerned, as they knew that victory would see them clinch 2nd place ahead of Arsenal. Kral fired their first attempt at goal over the bar after just three minutes.

Four minutes later, Seb Brennan went close to giving us a surprise lead with an audacious lob from distance. City goalie Andy Boyes was never going to be caught out by it, though, as the 37-year-old pushed Brennan's ambitious attempt over. The former England custodian also kept out efforts from Honeyball in the 8th minute and Kasongo in the 19th.

After 22 minutes, though, the tide turned City's way again. Despite picking up a knock early on, Citizens midfielder Kike Martínez was still able to muscle our young playmaker Engilbert Sverrisson off the ball deep in our half and hammer a shot that Kieran Whalley desperately pushed away.

The visitors' next effort came in the 32nd minute from Portuguese winger Diogo Dias, whose strike deflected behind off Daggers left-back Ante Djuzel. Dias gave us another scare after 36 minutes with a cross that Jakubicka headed straight at Whalley. City's persistence would pay off a minute later. Domenico Papa demonstrated his corner expertise with a fantastic delivery that United States centre-back Mike Martin volleyed home for his fifth goal of the season - and his third against us.

Dias could've added another goal in the 42nd minute after taking the ball off Djuzel in the Citizens' half and dribbling all the way to our penalty area. He couldn't direct his strike goalwards, though, and so our deficit remained at 1-0.

Manchester City continued to pile the pressure on us after the restart. Slovakia striker Jakubicka twice missed the target in the opening eight minutes with headers that he could easily have turned into the net on another day. This was turning into a bit of a struggle for us - and for Sverrisson especially. Engilbert hurt himself while beating Papa to a 50-50 ball in the 54th minute, and he couldn't regain the excellent form that had seen him named 'man of the match' in his previous two games.

After 61 minutes, a missed interception from Dagenham centre-back John Moser saw Papa's left-wing cross reach Kral. The 25-year-old Slovak looked almost certain to score, but Kieran got a glove to the ball before George headed it clear. Papa was then fouled moments later by Brennan, who got a booking for his troubles. That was one of Seb's last contributions to the game before he was replaced with 17-year-old Daryl Ryan II, who was given a league debut from the bench.

Manchester City took their foot off the gas for a while, but they steadily got themselves going again after Boyes caught an equalising attempt from Honeyball in the 67th minute. Four minutes later, Ante dispossessed Kral with a slide tackle in our penalty area, only to knock the ball on for Jakubicka to score an easy tap-in.

At 2-0 down, the game was surely up, so I brought on 16-year-old prodigy Elliot Cook to replace Peguy for the closing moments. By the 77th minute, it really was all over. Dias effectively secured victory for the Citizens with an impressive solo effort that increased our arrears to 3-0.

Honeyball would have one last Dagenham shot at goal saved by the ever-excellent Boyes before his game ended prematurely after 84 minutes due to a shin injury. Although all four of our 'official' shots were on target, we never really did enough to merit any consolation goals. Our final ever game at Victoria Road ended with a disappointing 3-0 defeat - but not even victory would have been enough to get us into Europe, as Chelsea had won 1-0 against West Ham United.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Manchester City - 3 (Martin 37, Jakubicka 71, Dias 77)

Premier League, Attendance 12,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 12th, Man City 2nd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Darvill, Buac, Brennan (Ryan), Djuzel, McCann, Sverrisson, Hutchinson, Kasongo (Cook), Honeyball (Smith). BOOKED: Brennan.

Admittedly, that was not the best way to end the season, but there was no disgrace at all in losing to a far superior Manchester City side. We still finished our inaugural Premier League campaign in a very respectable 12th place - above Tottenham Hotspur on goal difference. As an Arsenal fan, that really did make me smile.

All there was left to do was give our ground a fitting send-off, with a closing performance from a local musical icon. Highbury had Roger Daltrey. Upton Park had the Cockney Rejects. White Hart Lane had the 'Go Compare' opera singer. The Etihad Stadium had an Oasis reunion after a 25-year breakup. Victoria Road had... erm, the grime rapper Devlin and a Sandie Shaw tribute act.

And so a historic campaign for Dagenham & Redbridge came to an end. 12th place earned us £12.5million in prize money, and that cash helped the board to wipe out a significant portion of our outstanding debts.

Chairman Neil Booth was also pleased to announce at the end-of-season board meeting that work had begun on building a new training complex for our senior and youth teams. Construction would cost around £4.7million, and Mr Booth estimated that the new ground would be ready by early January.

The chairman also confirmed that we had enough money in the bank for him to offer me a "significant increase" to my transfer and wage budgets. Mr Booth wouldn't go into specifics just yet, but this was a very exciting development.

After the meeting, I set about renewing contracts for my staff members. Everyone whose contract was due to expire shortly was offered - and accepted - improved terms, while there were also four new recruits. A couple of them might be familiar to you.

Mario Djokic was hugely popular at Dagenham when he played for the club between 2029 and 2033, scoring 48 goals in 109 Championship appearances. The Montenegrin then retired from playing following a brief stint at Maccabi Tel Aviv, and after taking a break from the sport, it was announced that he had returned to Dagenham as an Under-18s coach. 35-year-old Mario joins a growing list of Daggers alumni who have joined our backroom staff since hanging up their boots.

Djokic's fellow Daggers alumnus George Green, who played in midfield for us during our double-winning 2023/2024 season, was brought back to the club as a scout. I also appointed a couple more talent-spotters from overseas - Kevin Mensah from Denmark, and Roscoe Young from Australia - as we expanded our scouting network beyond Europe for the first time.

There were also new deals for several of our players. Joel Honeyball was among them, as the stalwart forward committed to us until at least 2038. Although Joel doesn't play for the first-team much nowadays, the 27-year-old is a good mentor for our younger players and pretty much has a job for life here at Dagenham & Redbridge.

Youth right-back Thomas Jones turned professional upon signing a three-year deal. Tom might prefer the green green grass of home, but it's not unusual for a young prospect to be loaned out at this stage in their development, so that could well happen to him next term.

Also agreeing a new three-year contract was Martin Thompson - one of nine players who returned to the Daggers after spending time out on loan. The 18-year-old midfielder had just been named as the Championship Apprentice of the Year after a solid campaign with Cardiff City. Martin can expect to be part of my first-team plans from this summer onwards.

Several players would not have their services retained. I declined to sign Brazilian striker Edmundo permanently from Brighton & Hove Albion after his season-long loan, during which he scored 10 goals in 28 league games. Fellow forward Souleymane Nomaou was also on his way out, having been allowed to join Leighton Town when they move up to League One next term.

Serbian centre-back Stevo Buac was another player who was told to look elsewhere for a future in football. Stevo quickly decided that he didn't have one, and so he announced his retirement at the age of 34.

Daniel O'Reilly is also set to leave after I placed the long-serving left-back on the transfer list. Daniel subsequently agreed a £1million transfer to Blackburn Rovers... but the deal fell through at the 11th hour, as Blackburn couldn't free enough funds to complete it. I'll hope to find another club to move O'Reilly on to sooner or later.

So, those are some of the departures from Dagenham this summer. What about the new arrivals? Well, all I can tell you right now is to expect big news on that front very soon...

CFuller · June 30, 2017

Premier League Table (End of 2034/2035)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C/CL  Man Utd                38    26    8     4     90    27    +63   86
2.    CL    Man City               38    22    10    6     97    41    +56   76
3.    CL    Arsenal                38    21    11    6     67    33    +34   74
4.    CL    Southampton            38    18    12    8     51    34    +17   66
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.    EL    Liverpool              38    19    6     13    70    57    +13   63
6.    EL    Chelsea                38    16    10    12    46    39    +7    58
7.    EL    West Ham               38    15    12    11    48    33    +15   57
8.          Rochdale               38    15    9     14    44    50    -6    54
9.          West Brom              38    15    9     14    56    74    -18   54
10.         Wolves                 38    15    8     15    54    57    -3    53
11.         Norwich                38    14    10    14    45    43    +2    52
12.         Dag & Red              38    15    7     16    53    55    -2    52
13.         Tottenham              38    15    7     16    61    66    -5    52
14.         Fulham                 38    13    7     18    50    57    -7    46
15.         Derby                  38    12    9     17    37    51    -14   45
16.         Burnley                38    11    9     18    43    57    -14   42
17.         Nottm Forest           38    10    10    18    48    70    -22   40
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.   R     Huddersfield           38    7     10    21    38    74    -36   31
19.   R     Brighton               38    7     6     25    55    94    -39   27
20.   R     Everton                38    7     4     27    37    78    -41   25

CFuller · June 30, 2017

Dagenham & Redbridge Player Statistics (2034/2035)

(Includes stats from all first-team matches & 3 Essex Senior Cup matches)

GOALKEEPERS               APPS    CON  CLN  MOM  P%   TR   ST%  Y    R    AV RAT
Jerome Farrell            3       6    0    0    49%  -    -    0    0    6.60
Mariusz Tylak             8       16   0    0    67%  -    -    0    0    6.81
Kieran Whalley            32      44   10   0    68%  0.03 -    0    0    6.84
OUTFIELD PLAYERS          APPS    GLS  AST  MOM  P%   TR   ST%  Y    R    AV RAT
Lee Allen                 1       0    0    0    72%  2.00 -    0    0    6.40
Nigel Atta                1       0    0    0    70%  1.00 -    0    0    5.80
Adrian Bailey             1       0    0    0    53%  -    -    0    0    6.70
Arran Banton              10 (2)  0    2    0    80%  6.76 25%  3    0    6.82
William Barnes            20 (3)  2    3    1    81%  7.94 27%  10   0    7.18
Seb Brennan               20 (5)  0    2    0    77%  7.55 0%   4    0    7.09
Stipo Brkic               22 (4)  3    10   4    82%  4.33 42%  2    0    7.44
Stevo Buac                12 (4)  1    0    0    70%  2.82 67%  0    0    6.92
Joe Charles               3 (4)   2    2    0    76%  2.02 45%  1    0    7.44
George Conlon             0 (1)   0    0    0    70%  0.00 -    0    0    6.00
Elliot Cook               0 (1)   0    0    0    75%  -    -    0    0    6.60
George Darvill            38      1    1    8    74%  2.37 43%  1    0    7.61
Ante Djuzel               15 (2)  0    1    0    76%  5.76 100% 1    0    7.02
Edmundo                   20 (8)  12   3    2    78%  2.13 51%  2    0    7.06
Tristan Egueh             4 (5)   2    0    0    80%  2.07 72%  0    0    7.01
Toby Faithfull            1       0    0    0    62%  -    33%  0    0    6.80
Matthew Fraser            31 (2)  3    6    2    82%  6.95 40%  5    0    7.24
Paul Habu                 4 (2)   1    0    0    57%  1.50 50%  0    0    6.95
Joel Honeyball            4 (7)   1    0    0    74%  2.55 100% 0    0    6.94
Jazzi Howley              1 (1)   0    0    0    71%  0.70 -    0    0    6.80
Dave Hutchinson           14 (5)  0    1    0    84%  5.71 57%  5    0    7.03
Hamzah Jaafar             15 (5)  0    0    1    73%  3.61 100% 2    0    7.13
Thomas Jones              2       0    0    0    78%  1.00 -    0    0    6.65
Peguy Kasongo             1       0    0    0    62%  2.47 100% 0    0    6.70
Albert Khumalo            24 (4)  0    3    0    74%  4.84 67%  1    0    7.20
Greg Killick              11 (10) 1    1    0    79%  6.36 40%  2    0    6.95
Jonas Kjaerulff           4 (2)   2    2    0    81%  2.23 42%  2    1    7.28
Rae Liversedge            0 (1)   0    0    0    86%  -    -    0    0    7.00
Thomas Lye                0 (1)   0    1    0    93%  0.00 -    0    0    7.00
Robbie MacKenzie          24 (3)  11   4    2    72%  2.58 47%  0    0    7.40
Marcel Mafe               2       0    0    0    66%  1.31 0%   1    0    6.95
Rocco Mazzola             9 (1)   1    0    0    79%  6.65 75%  0    0    7.12
Neil McCann               8 (4)   1    3    0    76%  5.22 50%  0    0    7.14
Rob McLoughlin            16 (6)  7    4    1    77%  2.70 51%  1    0    7.16
John Moser                9 (6)   0    0    0    81%  4.51 0%   0    0    6.85
Souleymane Nomaou         12 (7)  5    1    0    76%  2.23 40%  0    0    6.96
Evans Okyere              0 (1)   0    0    0    64%  0.00 -    0    0    6.10
Daniel O'Reilly           16 (3)  0    0    1    77%  7.96 17%  3    1    6.83
Ross Pearson              3 (1)   0    0    0    81%  4.50 -    0    0    6.97
Jacques Polomat           16 (7)  1    6    3    79%  2.95 43%  0    0    7.26
Velimir Radosavljevic     28 (1)  3    0    2    70%  3.42 43%  4    0    7.44
Duncan Rivers             1 (2)   0    0    0    64%  -    0%   0    0    6.40
Daryl Ryan II             2 (3)   0    0    0    71%  1.34 0%   0    0    6.82
Christophe Smith          0 (3)   1    0    0    64%  0.00 100% 0    0    7.03
Engilbert Sverrisson      3 (2)   1    3    2    68%  5.44 43%  0    0    7.60
Tom Virgo                 2       0    0    0    80%  -    -    1    1    6.70

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

CFuller · July 1, 2017

JUNE 2035

With our inaugural Premier League season now over, it was time for Dagenham & Redbridge's supporters to name their Best XI for 2034/2035. The eleven players they selected were Kieran Whalley, George Darvill, Velimir Radosavljevic, Hamzah Jaafar, Albert Khumalo, Daniel O'Reilly, William Barnes, Matthew Fraser, Stipo Brkic, Robbie MacKenzie, and Edmundo.

At least two of that Best XI would not be in my squad for the next season. However, the man that our fans named as their Player of the Year would most certainly be staying put. Centre-back George Darvill had been ubiquitous during our Premier League debut, playing in every minute of every match. His consistently strong performances had earned the now 22-year-old centre-back a top award from the fans... and a new contract from me.

After many, many months of negotiations, we had finally agreed terms with Darvill and his agent over a new deal. George received a massive weekly pay rise from £7,250 to £20,000 after penning a deal that would contract him to us until the summer of 2039.

George's representative did get his own way with regards to bonuses and clauses for his client. The defender would receive a 10% annual wage rise, his appearance fee increased to £10,000 per game, and he now had a minimum fee release clause of... wait for it... £60million. Frankly, I would be astounded if anyone came in with such a huge offer for Darvill, considering that nobody has bought a player for over £50million since 2011.

As soon as I heard rumours that Southampton were looking to sign Albert Khumalo for their UEFA Champions League campaign, I handed the South African right-back a bumper new four-year deal with the Daggers. Albert agreed to our terms and is now on the same £20,000-per-week salary as George and one of our new signings (more on him later).

Matthew Fraser also accepted an offer to stay with us for a little bit longer. The 28-year-old Scottish playmaker entered his tenth year as a Dagger by signing a £15,000-per-week deal until 2038. Matthew has currently made 286 league appearances for Dagenham & Redbridge, and I wouldn't be surprised if he threatens Chris Lewington's club record of 446 before he moves on.

Centre-half Hamzah Jaafar and striker Rob McLoughlin were two other players who would be staying on for at least another year. I pondered letting the pair move on, but I felt that their performances last season - not to mention their wealth of experience - justified new 12-month contracts.

Sadly, though, it was time to bid farewell to a couple of stalwarts. Firstly, we announced the sale of Irish left-back Daniel O'Reilly to Scottish Premier League giants Celtic for £1million. Daniel joined us aged 17 while we were in League Two, but after 240 league appearances in just over nine years, I felt that it was time to move him on and focus on developing our younger full-backs.

Jacques Polomat was also on his way out after five years with the Daggers. The attacking midfielder/support striker returned to France upon completing a £1.1million transfer to Ligue 1 side Ajaccio.

Like Jacques, defender John Moser was offered the chance to go back across the English Channel and play in Ligue 1 after we accepted a couple of £2.5million bids from Laval and Nice. However, John rejected their contract offers and decided to continue fighting for his place in the Dagenham line-up.

Six other players that loved and left us were the Under-18s sextet of Anthony Agbonifo, George Conlon, Marcel Mafe, Matthew McAnuff, Craig Ridings and Duncan Rivers. None of them would receive professional contracts - at least not here.

And that brings me nicely onto the subject of new signings. With money flowing into our coffers, the board gave me plenty of leeway in the transfer market. My player wage budget was hiked up to £300,000 per week, and my transfer budget was set at an almost unbelievable £34.5million. I would not be leaving most of it in the bank.

With all due respect to the likes of Robbie MacKenzie, we didn't have a 20-goal-a-season striker that a Premier League club arguably needs to challenge for European qualification. I could've signed one last summer, but I baulked at the last minute. It was a decision I would soon be kicking myself over.

Remember my Canadian namesake Ivan Fuller, whom I turned down the chance to sign for £3.9million from Crotone? Well, he moved to Inter Milan shortly after I rejected him. In his first season at the San Siro, Fuller scored a whopping 23 goals - the joint-highest total in Serie A, along with Napoli's Pietro Paolo Farris - as Inter finished 5th and qualified for the UEFA Europa League! Feel free to say that I bottled it...

I agreed to sign another striker for big money this summer - and this time, I didn't back out.

23-year-old Mark Washington is a pacey and resolute forward who excels at free-kicks and scored 15 goals for mid-table Freiburg in the 2. Bundesliga last season. A native of Maryland, he has twice been capped by the United States since they famously won the FIFA World Cup last summer.

We paid Freiburg an initial £4million up front, with another £1million due to come their way as soon as Mark scores his 20th league goal for the Daggers. Though Washington doesn't have a great deal of top-flight experience, I'm confident that he can justify his £20,000-a-week wages and grow into one of the PL's leading frontmen.

Our other major new signing was attacking midfielder Billy Stevenson - a £3.5million purchase from Dunfermline Athletic, for whom he scored six goals and made five assists in last season's SPL. The 23-year-old Yorkshireman, who started his career at Sheffield Wednesday, has won four caps for England Under-21s in the past. Billy possesses a fantastic first touch and is ridiculously fast, so he could cause opposing defenders all sorts of problems.

Mark and Billy were joined at Dagenham & Redbridge by Mali international midfielder Oumar Fofana, who completed his pre-arranged free transfer from FK Rad. They would be the first three signings of a new era at this football club, as we left Victoria Road for the final time and moved into a new home on Rainham Road.

Our brand-spanking new 17,848-seater stadium was completed in early June, and unofficially opened later that month with an exhibition game between a squad of ex-Daggers players and a team made up of some of our biggest fans. The first official match at the ground will be on 28 July, when we open the doors for a first-team friendly against Spanish giants Atlético Madrid.

As is typical these days, our new stadium has a title sponsor - a gambling firm, who'll pay us £500,000 per annum for the next eight years. As a traditionalist, though, I'll simply refer to the ground as Rainham Road. I feel that, once you rename your stadium at the whim of a sponsor, it's only a matter of time before you're playing at Duff Beer Krusty Burger Buzz Cola Costington's Department Store Kwik-E-Mart Stupid Flanders Park.

Our first Premier League game at 'Stupid Flanders Park', or whatever you want to call it, will be against Burnley on 18 August - the opening day of the 2035/2036 top-flight season. We'll then have our opening away fixture at Rochdale on 25 August, while Manchester City will pay an early visit to Rainham Road on 15 September. As for Manchester United, we'll face the defending champions at Old Trafford on 8 December, and at home on 19 April.

CFuller · July 1, 2017

Romford watch: 2034/2035

After last season's dramatic Conference South Play-Off Final win, Romford found themselves back in the Conference Premier. The onus was now firmly on manager Dominic Shimmin to keep them there.

Conference Premier: 20th

Romford were the pre-season favourites for relegation, and they did little to silence their doubters early on. After losing their first five games, including a heavy 3-0 home defeat against Gateshead, the Boro finally picked up a point at the sixth attempt, in a goalless draw with Hartlepool United. Although they went on to draw four of their next seven matches, failure to turn any of those results into wins kept them rooted at the bottom. This looked like being a long and hard season for Shimmin's side.

The Boro's first win of the season came in their 14th game, away to Bromley in October. That proved to be a false dawn, as Romford then lost four on the trot before racking up another win at Eastbourne Borough. Then came yet another bad run, during which they suffered a 5-1 defeat against eventual champions FC Halifax Town. It wouldn't be until December that they finally won at Ship Lane, overcoming fellow strugglers Crawley Town 3-1. Another win at Hartlepool soon followed, and Romford briefly rose to 23rd place, but they were back at the bottom by the turn of the year.

A massive lifeline came Romford's way on New Year's Eve, as mid-table Tranmere Rovers went into administration and were dragged into a relegation dogfight. The Boro then beat Tranmere 2-0 at Prenton Park the very next day. As Rovers went into freefall, Romford endured yet another drought that included three successive defeats late in January. The turning point for their league campaign came with a 2-1 victory over St Albans City. Five more victories followed in their next six games, and in mid-March, Romford moved out of the relegation zone at Tranmere's expense. The result that did that was a 5-0 demolition of Blackpool, during which Gareth Coe scored a hat-trick.

Although the Boro stumbled to a 3-1 loss at Maidstone United in their next game, an 89th-minute winner for Brynley Minton against Eastbourne helped them to regain their footing. Romford were now four points clear of 21st-placed Tranmere with just two matches to play. They only needed to beat Bury in their penultimate game to stay up... and that was exactly what happened, as they won 3-0 at Gigg Lane. A 3-1 home defeat to FC Halifax on the final day didn't matter, as Romford had ensured that they would be staying in the Conference Premier.

FA Cup: Qualifying Round 4

The less said about this, the better. Romford fell at the first hurdle, losing 2-0 at Bath City, who would end the season relegated from the Conference South.

FA Trophy: Semi Final

This turned out to be Romford's most successful FA Trophy run for many years, and it began with a narrow 1-0 win at Isthmian Premier side Enfield Town in Round 1. The Boro then secured home victories over divisional rivals Stevenage (3-2 in Round 2) and Gateshead (1-0 in Round 3) before booking their place in the last four by defeating Slough Town of the Conference South 2-0.

Romford advanced into a two-legged Semi Final with Eastbourne. The first leg took place at Ship Lane, where the hosts won 1-0, courtesy of a 32nd-minute goal from Coe. However, the Sports made the most of home advantage in the second leg at Priory Lane. That match ended 2-1 after 90 minutes, with Roger McClurg getting Romford's goal in between home strikes from Kevin Carroll and Jayden Griffiths. Eastbourne defender Martin Cleary then scored the winner for Eastbourne three minutes into extra-time and sent his team through to their first FA Trophy Final, which they won on penalties against Brentford.

Essex Senior Cup: Quarter Final

Romford's Essex Senior Cup challenge started well enough, as they put four unanswered goals past Heybridge Swifts in Round 3, and three beyond Waltham Forest in Round 4. However, the Boro would crash out at the Quarter Final stage for the second year in a row, as Witham Town brought their hopes to an end.

Best Players

Although Romford conceded more goals than any other team in the Conference South this season, their defence still put in some brave displays. Centre-backs Ruben Coombes and Roger McClurg continued to establish themselves as Boro favourites, and former AFC Wimbledon right-back Musa Chukwu became an instant hit after arriving in January. Goalkeeper Jack Dyer nailed down the number 1 jersey by keeping 10 clean sheets in 37 league matches.

At the other end, Liverpudlian striker Stewart Thomson notched up 17 goals in his first full season at Ship Lane. Thomson's regular strike partner Coe found the net 14 times, while experienced midfielder Harry Songhurst chipped in with six goals as well. Left-winger Carl Callander was way out in front on assists, as the former Salisbury City man set up 14 goals in a very productive first season with Romford.

The Future

Make no mistake, Romford were very lucky to survive - indeed, they would've gone down were it not for Tranmere's descent into administration. That said, their late-season surge will give Shimmin plenty of belief that he can keep the Boro up on merit in the next Conference Premier season.

CFuller · July 2, 2017

2034/2035 season round-up: Part 1

Premier League

It was a red-letter season for Manchester United, who won their first ever domestic trouble in Alexander Mejía's maiden campaign as manager. The 46-year-old Colombian made several major purchases, but it was existing stars such as striker Moses Penfold - with a league-best 30 goals - and centre-back José Luis who formed the backbone of an all-conquering team. United topped the Premier League by ten points from Manchester City, who would end this season empty-handed after losing the UEFA Europa League Final.

The Red Devils also won Finals in the League Cup against Arsenal, who finished 3rd in the PL, and in the FA Cup against great rivals Liverpool, who came 5th. 4th place, and a spot in next season's UEFA Champions League, went to Southampton, whose mostly English side achieved their best league finish for over 40 years. The Saints had narrowly avoided relegation 12 months earlier! Dethroned champions Chelsea had a below-par season and only leapt above West Ham United into 6th after beating the Hammers on the final day.

The three newly-promoted sides all survived fairly comfortably. Big-spending Rochdale (8th) and Dagenham & Redbridge (12th) finished above the likes of Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham, while 15th-placed Derby County stopped yo-yoing and finally stabilised themselves in the top flight. Derby's East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest didn't look so cool, as they finished just above the drop zone after four mid-table seasons.

Despite finishing 8th in the previous season, Everton fell apart spectacularly as their eight-year stint in the top flight came to an end. The Toffees, Brighton & Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town would all be relegated with seven wins apiece. Brighton took until mid-November to register their first league win of the campaign, and they eventually conceded 94 goals en route to the Championship.

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C/CL  Man Utd                38    26    8     4     90    27    +63   86
2.    CL    Man City               38    22    10    6     97    41    +56   76
3.    CL    Arsenal                38    21    11    6     67    33    +34   74
4.    CL    Southampton            38    18    12    8     51    34    +17   66
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.    EL    Liverpool              38    19    6     13    70    57    +13   63
6.    EL    Chelsea                38    16    10    12    46    39    +7    58
7.    EL    West Ham               38    15    12    11    48    33    +15   57
8.          Rochdale               38    15    9     14    44    50    -6    54
9.          West Brom              38    15    9     14    56    74    -18   54
10.         Wolves                 38    15    8     15    54    57    -3    53
11.         Norwich                38    14    10    14    45    43    +2    52
12.         Dag & Red              38    15    7     16    53    55    -2    52
13.         Tottenham              38    15    7     16    61    66    -5    52
14.         Fulham                 38    13    7     18    50    57    -7    46
15.         Derby                  38    12    9     17    37    51    -14   45
16.         Burnley                38    11    9     18    43    57    -14   42
17.         Nottm Forest           38    10    10    18    48    70    -22   40
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.   R     Huddersfield           38    7     10    21    38    74    -36   31
19.   R     Brighton               38    7     6     25    55    94    -39   27
20.   R     Everton                38    7     4     27    37    78    -41   25

Championship

It was third time lucky for Aston Villa, who returned to the Premier League after winning the Championship by six points. There would also be promotion celebrations at 2nd-placed Sheffield United, as new manager Zema Abbey won 16 of his first 22 league games after moving to Bramall Lane.

Reading beat Blackburn Rovers 3-2 on aggregate in their Play-Off Semi Final, while Stoke City needed extra-time before overcoming Sunderland by the same scoreline. Stoke drew first blood in the Final at Wembley via a goal from Justin Middleton after 13 minutes. However, Marc Bennett equalised midway through the first half and scored again after the restart to end Reading's four-year absence from the top flight.

Newcastle United were bumped out of the play-off spots on the final day by Stoke. There was also disappointment for Leeds United, as 33 goals from Steve Heaton couldn't get them higher than 13th. As for newly-promoted Oxford United, they got off to a fantastic start before dramatically falling away and ending up fifth-from-bottom.

Crystal Palace's 13th successive season at this level ended with them bring up the rear with a miserable -61 goal difference. Northampton Town also suffered relegation at the end of an awful campaign, while Stockport County weren't quite able to keep themselves up in the Championship.

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C     Aston Villa            46    30    7     9     83    42    +41   97
2.    P     Sheff Utd              46    26    13    7     88    54    +34   91
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Sunderland             46    27    8     11    97    56    +41   89
4.    P     Reading                46    25    10    11    87    62    +25   85
5.          Blackburn              46    23    13    10    83    49    +34   82
6.          Stoke                  46    22    14    10    79    52    +27   80
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Newcastle              46    23    9     14    78    53    +25   78
8.          Sheff Wed              46    19    16    11    69    55    +14   73
9.          Ipswich                46    21    8     17    70    62    +8    71
10.         Coventry               46    18    12    16    73    65    +8    66
11.         Plymouth               46    18    9     19    58    61    -3    63
12.         Watford                46    16    13    17    68    55    +13   61
13.         Leeds                  46    16    11    19    65    74    -9    59
14.         Bradford               46    15    11    20    60    69    -9    56
15.         Luton                  46    14    12    20    63    67    -4    54
16.         Notts County           46    14    11    21    54    64    -10   53
17.         Cardiff                46    13    13    20    65    76    -11   52
18.         Charlton               46    13    10    23    57    87    -30   49
19.         Crewe                  46    11    15    20    59    77    -18   48
20.         Oxford                 46    13    8     25    57    89    -32   47
21.         Doncaster              46    10    16    20    47    66    -19   46
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.   R     Stockport              46    10    13    23    41    73    -32   43
23.   R     Northampton            46    9     12    25    50    82    -32   39
24.   R     Crystal Palace         46    8     12    26    35    96    -61   36

League One

Bolton Wanderers grabbed hold of top spot in League One early on, and the Trotters eventually won the division at a canter. The distant runners-up were Chesterfield, whose long-serving manager Johnnie Jackson took the Spireites up into the second tier for the first time since 1950/1951.

Wigan Athletic and Corby Town contested the Play-Off Final at Wembley following their respective Semi Final triumphs over Exeter City and Kidderminster Harriers. Adem Draskic gave the Latics the lead after three minutes, but Thomas Edwards quickly equalised for Corby, whose experienced striker Deale Flynn won the game five minutes from time. In just eight years, the Steelmen had moved up from the 8th level of English football to the 2nd!

Birmingham City and Bristol Rovers both went straight back down to League Two after just a single season up. Also enduring the pain of relegation were Oldham Athletic, who returned to the bottom division for the first time since 1971, and Hull City.

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C     Bolton                 46    28    10    8     76    43    +33   94
2.    P     Chesterfield           46    24    8     14    78    57    +21   80
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.          Wigan                  46    21    13    12    64    46    +18   76
4.    P     Corby                  46    20    15    11    64    56    +8    75
5.          Kidderminster          46    21    10    15    70    56    +14   73
6.          Exeter                 46    20    11    15    65    52    +13   71
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7.          Wrexham                46    21    8     17    67    59    +8    71
8.          York                   46    19    10    17    67    59    +8    67
9.          Portsmouth             46    19    10    17    54    56    -2    67
10.         Leicester              46    17    15    14    68    60    +8    66
11.         Dartford               46    18    12    16    59    54    +5    66
12.         Bournemouth            46    17    14    15    64    66    -2    65
13.         AFC Telford            46    17    12    17    57    60    -3    63
14.         Millwall               46    16    15    15    43    48    -5    63
15.         Swansea                46    16    14    16    59    59    0     62
16.         Wycombe                46    18    7     21    61    64    -3    61
17.         Middlesbrough          46    16    11    19    51    61    -10   59
18.         Peterborough           46    16    10    20    55    65    -10   58
19.         Colchester             46    14    15    17    53    60    -7    57
20.         Cambridge              46    14    14    18    56    61    -5    56
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.   R     Hull                   46    12    13    21    48    60    -12   49
22.   R     Oldham                 46    11    13    22    48    63    -15   46
23.   R     Bristol Rovers         46    9     9     28    41    74    -33   36
24.   R     Birmingham             46    8     11    27    44    73    -29   35

League Two

After losing to Rotherham United in last season's Play-Offs, Leighton Town set about righting their wrongs. They went on to lift the League Two title, though not before Rotherham pushed them close, while Hereford United pipped their A49 rivals Shrewsbury Town to the other automatic promotion place on goal difference.

Shrewsbury's agony continued in the Play-Off Semi Final as they lost against AFC Wimbledon, who went through to a Wembley showdown with Fleetwood Town. Fleetwood had withstood a late fightback from Scunthorpe United in their Semi, but the Cod Army would be silenced in the Final. The decider finished 1-1 after 90 minutes, and Leigh Colwill bagged the vital goal during extra-time to power Wimbledon into League One.

There was misery for bottom club Mansfield Town, and absolute heartache for Yeovil Town. Failure to beat Grimsby Town on the final day meant that the Glovers were relegated on goal difference, and Barnsley held onto their Football League status by the skin of their teeth.

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C     Leighton               46    25    13    8     71    37    +34   88
2.    P     Rotherham              46    24    14    8     75    47    +28   86
3.    P     Hereford               46    23    11    12    77    51    +26   80
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.          Shrewsbury             46    24    8     14    75    52    +23   80
5.          Scunthorpe             46    23    9     14    68    57    +11   78
6.          Fleetwood              46    18    16    12    66    50    +16   70
7.    P     AFC Wimbledon          46    19    13    14    71    63    +8    70
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.          QPR                    46    20    10    16    69    64    +5    70
9.          Kingstonian            46    18    14    14    64    54    +10   68
10.         Gillingham             46    18    13    15    61    57    +4    67
11.         Bristol City           46    17    13    16    53    54    -1    64
12.         Chester                46    15    14    17    47    43    +4    59
13.         Walsall                46    13    18    15    49    55    -6    57
14.         Aldershot              46    16    9     21    47    71    -24   57
15.         Port Vale              46    15    11    20    50    58    -8    56
16.         Ashford Town           46    15    11    20    52    72    -20   56
17.         Grimsby                46    13    14    19    57    64    -7    53
18.         Cheltenham             46    15    8     23    51    67    -16   53
19.         Preston                46    14    10    22    48    63    -15   52
20.         Morecambe              46    12    14    20    57    57    0     50
21.         Forest Green           46    10    20    16    44    59    -15   50
22.         Barnsley               46    10    19    17    54    62    -8    49
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23.   R     Yeovil                 46    10    19    17    43    56    -13   49
24.   R     Mansfield              46    9     11    26    30    66    -36   38

Conference Premier

The Shay is finally a Football League ground again after FC Halifax Town romped to the Conference Premier title, finishing 20 points ahead of runners-up Barnet with 91 goals and just six defeats.

Barnet suffered a late Play-Off Semi Final loss to Hartlepool United, who faced off against Southend United after the Shrimpers overcame Southport. Southend had top scorer Martyn Ludlam sent off during a 1-1 draw, but the Essex club were all smiles at the end, as Roy Grand scored the decisive penalty in a 5-4 shoot-out win!

Bromley, Crawley Town and Ebbsfleet United were all relegated back to the Conference South. Romford looked set to join them, but a 10-point deduction for cash-strapped Tranmere Rovers saw the Wirral club go down instead.

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.    C     FC Halifax             46    31    9     6     91    41    +50   102
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.          Barnet                 46    23    13    10    70    40    +30   82
3.    P     Southend               46    23    11    12    66    42    +24   80
4.          Southport              46    22    13    11    66    44    +22   79
5.          Hartlepool             46    22    10    14    54    42    +12   76
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6.          Barrow                 46    17    21    8     62    47    +15   72
7.          St Albans              46    19    12    15    55    52    +3    69
8.          Gateshead              46    18    15    13    57    55    +2    69
9.          Darlington             46    18    14    14    66    55    +11   68
10.         Harrogate              46    17    16    13    61    59    +2    67
11.         Swindon                46    18    12    16    51    57    -6    66
12.         Stevenage              46    16    15    15    57    55    +2    63
13.         Maidstone              46    16    12    18    65    58    +7    60
14.         Leyton Orient          46    16    12    18    45    54    -9    60
15.         Eastbourne Boro        46    15    14    17    55    55    0     59
16.         Lincoln                46    15    11    20    52    56    -4    56
17.         Mossley                46    15    11    20    54    62    -8    56
18.         Bury                   46    14    12    20    50    63    -13   54
19.         Blackpool              46    13    13    20    43    64    -21   52
20.         Romford                46    13    7     26    47    70    -23   46
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.   R     Tranmere               46    12    17    17    46    54    -8    43 *
22.   R     Ebbsfleet              46    8     18    20    37    64    -27   42
23.   R     Crawley                46    9     12    25    39    67    -28   39
24.   R     Bromley                46    7     10    29    31    64    -33   31

* Tranmere deducted 10 points for entering administration

Conference North

Promoted: Boston United (1st, 85 pts), FC United of Manchester (4th, 74 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Tamworth (2nd, 78 pts), Matlock Town (3rd, 77 pts), Marine (5th, 68 pts).

Relegated: Solihull Moors (20th, 41 pts), St Neots Town (21st, 37 pts), Chasetown (22nd, 8 pts*).

* 10 points deducted

Conference South

Promoted: Woking (1st, 84 pts), Staines Town (5th, 63 pts).

Also in Play-Offs: Torquay United (2nd, 73 pts), Brentford (3rd, 72 pts), Hitchin Town (4th, 66 pts).

Relegated: Tiverton Town (20th, 42 pts), Bath City (21st, 31 pts*), Welling United (22nd, 25 pts).

* 10 points deducted

Regional Premier Divisions

Promoted from Northern Premier League Premier: Alfreton Town (1st), Market Drayton Town (4th).

Promoted from Isthmian League Premier: Bishop's Stortford (1st), Aveley (3rd).

Promoted from Southern League Premier: Salisbury City (1st), Banbury United (2nd).

CFuller · July 2, 2017

2034/2035 season round-up: Part 2

Major Transfers

Manchester United left no stone unturned in their title to regain the Premier League. They spent over £80million on new recruits in the summer, including at least £20million each on 1.FC Koln defender Leszek Michniewicz, Newcastle United anchor Denis Bosnjak, and Estudiantes de La Plata midfielder Sebastián Núnez. All three big-money signings would play major roles in what proved to be an incredibly successful season at Old Trafford, and Núnez was also rewarded with the 2034 FIFA Ballon d'Or.
There were also a couple of significant additions at Manchester City. After former Citizens skipper Chad Gauss moved to Atlético Madrid, manager Rogier Molhoek opted to replace him at centre-half with Cagliari's Willy Danza at a cost of £17.25million. Meanwhile, Slovakia striker Jozef Kral - a £20million signing from West Bromwich Albion - joined what was already a mighty frontline at the Yaya Touré Arena.
Two of the Premier League's London clubs broke their transfer records in the summer. In west London, Dmitrijs Morozs made what will likely be his last extravagant purchase as Fulham owner, spending £22million on Wolverhampton Wanderers' American striker Daniele Gatti. In the east, West Ham United handed Marseille no less than £19.75million for 22-year-old French left-winger Jérémy Jossic.
Chelsea replaced the retired Valentín Castillo with Argentine-born Spain goalkeeper Humberto Cano, who cost them £12million from River Plate. The champions also spent significantly on Arsenal winger Maximiliano Fernández and Hibernian striker Alun Harding, but they lost England midfielder Danny Reid to Valencia for £8.25million.
Real Madrid signed three players from Real Sociedad before the new season, including defensive midfielder Mikel Etxebarria for £43million and goalkeeper Oscar Gonzáles on a free transfer. They then added a left-back in January, recruiting Georgia ace Irakli Kvaratskhelia from Fulham for £16.5million.
Barcelona also snapped up a new goalkeeper in the summer - Germany's Dawid Wisniewski, who kept 16 La Liga clean sheets in his first season after moving on a Bosman from Bayer Leverkusen. Their biggest purchase was 22-year-old France midfielder Gilles Causse, who cost £34million from Monaco. When it came to January, Barca forked out £14.5million on Manchester United's German striker Mário Rui, who'd score five goals in his first five La Liga matches.

Managerial Movements

England dispensed with Nemanja Covic after a dismal performance at the 2034 FIFA World Cup and appointed yet another foreign coach in Sylvain Marveaux. The then 48-year-old Frenchman was replaced at Manchester United by former AC Milan boss Alexander Mejía, who went on to win the domestic treble in his first season at Old Trafford.
Barcelona adopted a German approach after the retirement of Neil Lennon, with Dirk Orlishausen leaving Borussia Dortmund to start a Teutonic revolution at the Nou Camp. Dortmund subsequently brought back club legend Ilkay Gundogan from Real Betis, where new coach Covic would quickly about restoring his reputation.
Robbie Simpson suffered the ignominy of helping to relegate both Brighton & Hove Albion and Huddersfield Town from the Premier League. Shortly after losing his job at bottom club Brighton to Josh Carson in November, Simpson wound up at Huddersfield and eventually failed to keep them up. The 49-year-old arrived at the John Smith's Stadium as a replacement for Paul Clement, who guided West Ham United up to 7th place after the Hammers had made a terrible start under Elvis Scoria.
Everton sacked club icon Leighton Baines after nine years in charge, and the Toffees would go on to meet a sticky end under ex-Notts County chief Cauley Woodrow. Asmir Begovic left Blackburn Rovers and became Dmitrijs Morozs' 17th different manager at Fulham, following Joris Mathijsen's move to Valencia. Meanwhile, West Bromwich Albion appointed just their second ever foreign manager - Croatian Filip Skvorc, who was poached from Fenerbahce as a replacement for Ross Barkley.
With just a few weeks left in the season, Ben Turner left 4th-placed Southampton to accept a massive pay rise at 12th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers, whose manager Vladimir Weiss had just scarpered off to Lyon. Opportunity knocked for Thomas O'Brien, who walked out on Tottenham Hotspur to help the Saints secure a UEFA Champions League place. Spurs, meanwhile, were left having to rebuild under Eugene Seleznyov, who had lasted just six months as Mejía's successor at AC Milan.
Valenciennes finished 7th in Ligue 1 and failed to qualify for Europe for the first time in a decade. That prompted them to sack their Cameroonian coach Rodrigue Kome and bring in another African - Ange Diallo - from Norwich City. The Canaries will start this coming season with a new manager in Anthony Furlonge, who took Stockport County into the Championship... and then back down to League One.

Other Major Stories

Porto and Bayern Munich contested what will surely go down as, frankly, one of the worst UEFA Champions League Finals in history. The referee dished out no fewer than eight yellow cards in a bitter contest that was ultimately decided by a headed goal from Porto striker Rui after 102 turgid minutes. As forgettable as the victory was, it represented manager Moanes Dabour's third Champions League triumph in four seasons.
Bayern Munich's European defeat saw them narrowly miss out on a famous treble, having earlier wrapped up the Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal titles. This success was rather impressive, considering that they had a relatively inexperienced manager in Robin Knoche, who'd joined from newly-promoted Karlsruhe after Lewis Holtby became Germany's new head coach. The Bavarian giants will now move into the brand new 97,825-capacity Allianz-Park next season with their status as a European powerhouse restored.
FC Utrecht won their first Eredivisie crown since 2028, and then followed that up with a maiden European triumph. Utrecht recovered from conceding a very early opener against Manchester City to win the UEFA Europa League Final 2-1, thanks to goals from midfielder César Monllor and striker Jack Powers.
Argentine striker Leonel Aguilar scored an impressive 32 goals as Barcelona finished six points clear of Real Madrid and regained La Liga. There was also an impressive resurgence from Granada, who finished 4th in their first top-flight season since coming back up from the Segunda División. Meanwhile in Serie A, a mere six points separated the top five at the end of a thrilling title race. Juventus retained their scudetto after pipping Empoli on head-to-head, with Napoli, Brescia and Inter Milan just behind them.
Lokomotiv Moscow ended a 31-year wait to win the Russian Premier League after finishing just one point ahead of holders Anji Ramenskoye. Indeed, this was the first time in nine years that Russia's league championship had gone to a team based in the capital! Elsewhere, Edinburgh's finest continued to dominate the Scottish Premier League, which Hibernian won for the third season in a row. Rangers were gallant runners-up once again, while Celtic were still nowhere to be seen.
Chelsea's iconic Portuguese striker Casca hung up his boots aged 35 after scoring 175 times in 416 Premier League games. His Blues team-mate - Dutch winger Ronald Pot - also retired, as did Manchester United midfielders Paulinho and Cheick Tigana, and Manchester City's all-time top scorer Glauco Dotto.

Cup Winners

FA Cup: Manchester United 2-0 Liverpool.

League Cup: Manchester United 3-0 Arsenal.

Community Shield: Norwich City 1-0 Chelsea.

Football League Trophy: Leicester City 3-2 Swansea City.

UEFA Champions League: Porto 1-0 Bayern Munich (aet) - at Stade de France, Saint-Denis.

UEFA Europa League: FC Utrecht 2-1 Manchester City - at Olympiastadion, Helsinki.

UEFA Super Cup: Arsenal 2-0 Lyon - at Huseyin Avni Aker, Trabzon.

FIFA Club World Championship: Lyon 2-1 Estudiantes de La Plata - at Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul.

Major European Leagues

Dutch Eredivisie: FC Utrecht (1st), Feyenoord (2nd), PSV (3rd).

French Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain (1st), Lille (2nd), Marseille (3rd).

German Bundesliga: Bayern Munich (1st), Schalke 04 (2nd), Borussia Dortmund (3rd).

Italian Serie A: Juventus (1st), Empoli (2nd), Napoli (3rd).

Portuguese Primeira Liga: Porto (1st), Benfica (2nd), Guimaraes (3rd).

Russian Premier League: Lokomotiv Moscow (1st), Anji Ramenskoye (2nd), Kuban Krasnodar (3rd).

Scottish Premier League: Hibernian (1st), Rangers (2nd), Dunfermline Athletic (3rd).

Spanish La Liga: Barcelona (1st), Real Madrid (2nd), Real Betis (3rd).

Award Winners

PFA Player of the Year: Domenico Papa (Manchester City).

PFA Young Player of the Year: Maurice Hockley (Southampton).

FWA Footballer of the Year: Dudu Ashkenazi (Manchester United).

Premier League Manager of the Season: Alexander Mejía (Manchester United).

PFA Premier League Team of the Year:

Carlton John-Lewis (West Ham United and England)
Matheo Honoré (Manchester United and France)
Christopher Khan (Chelsea and England)
Mike Martin (Manchester City and United States)
Steffen Stampe (Manchester United and Denmark)
Dudu Ashkenazi (Manchester United and Israel)
Denis Bosnjak (Manchester United and Canada)
Paul Sherwood (Derby County and England)
Domenico Papa (Manchester City and Italy)
Shane Hay (Arsenal and England)
Moses Penfold (Manchester United and England)

FIFA Ballon d'Or: Sebastián Núnez (Manchester United).

World Soccer World Player of the Year: Sebastián Núnez (Manchester United).

European Golden Shoe: Leonel Aguilar (Barcelona).

UEFA Best Player in Europe: Clive Johnson (Arsenal).

FIFA/FIFPro World XI:

Ander Bengoetxea (Paris Saint-Germain and Spain)
Cristian Soriano (Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina)
Mike Martin (Manchester City and United States)
Diego Corvalán (Borussia Dortmund and Argentina)
Shane Horner (Real Madrid and United States)
Sebastián Núnez (Manchester United and Argentina)
Rafael Pinau (Lyon and France)
Ricardo Venturelli (Empoli and Argentina)
Inaki Arce (Barcelona and Spain)
Adrián Gil (Bayern Munich and Argentina)
Sean Jordan (Manchester United and United States)

CFuller · July 2, 2017

And that will be the last update for either of my FM13 stories for the time being.

I'll now take a break from this particular adventure to focus on my FM17 England story "An Impossible Man", and also to put the finishing touches on my FM16 story, which I promise is still coming, even if it's a long way behind schedule! I'll also be going on a holiday/house-hunting tour in the middle of this month (in Cambridgeshire, if you ask), so don't be surprised if I'm not here as often as I usually am.

"House of Flying Daggers" and "Bygmester Fuller" will most likely return in August. Until then, thank you very much for reading.

Christopher Fuller (CFuller)
2 July 2017

CFuller · July 31, 2017

JULY 2035

Surviving one Premier League season is one thing when you've never graced the top flight before. Surviving a second, and consolidating your place amongst English football's elite, is quite another.

Dagenham & Redbridge's sophomore year at this level wasn't going to be an easy one, but there was no reason why we couldn't beat the odds again. We had a new stadium, plenty of money in the bank, and a tight-knit squad that possessed plenty of quality. Everything was in place for us to not simply survive in the Premier League, but thrive.

Our players reconvened for pre-season training in high spirits, and with three new faces amongst the ranks. Oumar Fofana and Billy Stevenson would add to our midfield depth, and in United States international Mark Washington, I felt that we now had the goal machine we'd lacked last season.

I would make a fourth new signing before we kicked a ball in anger - and he was very much one for the future.

Following Everton's relegation to the Championship, we raided the Toffees for their up-and-coming 17-year-old goalkeeper Kayo Rowe. At 5ft 11in, he might not be the most towering figure, but Kayo is an England Under-19s international who has the potential to win caps for the Three Lions at senior level.

Meanwhile, I once again set about farming out some of our best young players on loan. Wales winger Shaun Powell's first taste of PL football would not come with the Daggers, but with Derby County, whom he joined on a season-long loan.

Powell spent most of last season at Championship side Leeds United, and that was where 20-year-old midfielder Dave Hutchinson would spend this campaign. Following him to West Yorkshire was another exciting midfield talent in Neil McCann, who was loaned to Leeds' divisional and local rivals Bradford City.

Other loanees included goalkeeper Courtney Gallagher, who went to Southend United in League Two for the next six months. Teenage midfielder Daryl Ryan II joined Cheltenham Town in the same division for seven months.

In League One, York City completed the permanent signings of two Daggers youngsters who hadn't quite developed as well as I had hoped. Centre-half Carl Quinn was sold for £75,000, and we let the Minstermen have goalie Jerome Farrell on a free transfer as well, because I'm a generous man.

We also cut ties with 22-year-old striker Derek Wright, selling him to our feeder club - and reigning League Two champions - Leighton Town for £250,000. We were likely to come up against Derek and several other ex-Daggers in our first friendly, which was against the League One newcomers at Bell Close.

Unfortunately, we wouldn't have centre-half Paul Habu or right-back Albert Khumalo available for this game. Paul had sustained a chest injury in training, while Albert strained his back on international duty with South Africa and would consequently miss most of pre-season.

13 July 2035: Leighton Town vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Teen striker Tristan Egueh made a promising run for goal in the fifth minute, with only Leighton goalkeeper Micky Ormondroyd's fingertips denying him an early opener. Wingers Andrew Howarth and Khadim Sarr then had chances to give the hosts the lead before we got lucky on 13 minutes. Stipo Brkic's floating corner was nodded home by Rob McLoughlin, and we had the lead... but not for long.

Our defence looked somewhat slack in the early stages, and we were duly punished after 21 minutes. Town midfielder Jake Bailey sent a fantastic forward pass to right-winger Andrew Howarth in space. The former Manchester City trainee turned sharply to cut past a flat-footed Ante Djuzel, after which he stroked the ball effortlessly into the far corner of the net.

McLoughlin almost retook the lead for us through another Brkic corner three minutes later, but this time, Rob was denied by the crossbar. A couple of minutes after that, McLoughlin chipped a promising ball to Egueh, who was unfortunate not to get the better of Ormondroyd.

There was further bad luck for our new Malian midfielder Oumar Fofana in the 38th minute. Fofana attempted to bend the ball into Leighton's goal from 40 yards out... but his shot rebounded off the bar before it was knocked behind for a corner. That aside, it had been a nervy debut for Oumar.

We went into the second half very disappointed not to be ahead... and by the 54th minute, we were looking like falling behind! Howarth ran at our defence again before pulling a dismal shot into the advertising boards.

Howarth did give Daggers goalkeeper Mariusz Tylak a bit more to think about five minutes later, but Mariusz comfortably caught the 26-year-old Mancunian's free-kick. His opposite number Ormondroyd also looked unflappable as he held onto a 67th-minute shot from our attacking midfielder Brkic. Stipo looked in excellent form for us before being replaced by Billy Stevenson - another summer signing.

Stevenson failed to impress with a couple of poor shots late on, although Robbie MacKenzie did have an injury-time effort saved by Leighton's substitute keeper Josh Milton. After another dogged defensive display, the League One Reds held us to a draw for the fourth pre-season in a row.

Leighton Town - 1 (Howarth 21)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (McLoughlin 13)

Friendly, Attendance 2,159

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Tylak (Whalley), A Bailey (Allen), Darvill (J Bailey), Radosavljevic (Jaafar), Pearson (Moser), Djuzel (Moran), Fofana (Brennan), Thompson (Fraser), Brkic (Stevenson), McLoughlin (MacKenzie), Egueh (Faithfull). BOOKED: Fraser.

Following an indifferent start to pre-season, we flew out to Austria for a three-game tour. Once there, we linked up with our latest recruit.

We had pipped Scottish Premier League giants Hibernian to the £4.7million signing of Austria Wien's commanding centre-back Tomo Kurtovic. The lanky 23-year-old was born and raised in Belgium, but he has won six international caps for Croatia - the country where his parents originally came from.

Tomo would make his Daggers bow in our opening friendly of this Austrian tour. We arrived in the far east of the country to face SV Mattersburg, who had just been promoted to the Bundesliga after winning the Erste Liga last term.

17 July 2035: SV Mattersburg vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Mattersburg were coming to the end of their pre-season preparations, so it was no surprise that they looked more switched-on from the start. After 14 minutes, midfielder and captain Arcadio Paone came within inches of heading them into the lead through a corner from striker Heinrich Kesinovic.

About a couple of minutes later, our skipper William Barnes was booked for a clumsy tackle on the hosts' attacking midfielder Juanma Martí. Daniel Seidel swung the resulting free-kick to Paone, whose header almost crept into the net off Kieran Whalley's fingers. Kieran just about diverted the ball against the woodwork before left-back Rocco Mazzola knocked it behind.

Eventually, though, the difference in both sides' match fitness began to tell. After 33 minutes, Mazzola's missed interception allowed Seidel to open the scoring from Kesinovic's cross. Mattersburg were 1-0 up, and goalkeeper Jules Bengondo kept them ahead by stopping a couple of half-volleys from Billy Stevenson and Seb Brennan just before half-time. We were feeling rather envious of the men in green.

Another Seidel free-kick would cause us problems in the 50th minute. His target on that occasion was Mattersburg centre-half Joe Osman, whose header clipped the underside of our crossbar and bounced back into play. Osman had another opportunity from the corner that followed, but a fantastic save by Whalley kept the Canadian's name off the scoresheet.

We would start taking the game to our opponents in the 72nd minute, when Engilbert Sverrisson swerved a half-volley inches wide of the target. Fellow Daggers prospect Christophe Smith went closer to scoring on 75 minutes, forcing Bengondo to clear his shot off the goal line.

Mattersburg also had an increasing number of injury problems to contend with, including a shin injury that ended former Real Madrid midfielder Martí's game after 85 minutes. However, the home side looked like they would emerge victorious.

Then, in the second minute of injury time, Ante Djuzel swung a corner into Mattersburg's penalty area. Ante found his Croatian compatriot Tomo Kurtovic, who flicked the ball against the woodwork before nonchalantly nodding the rebound past Bengondo. A debut goal from Tomo had saved us from defeat, but a 1-1 draw was a result we had barely deserved.

SV Mattersburg - 1 (Seidel 33)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Kurtovic 90)

Friendly, Attendance 2,012

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Tylak), Moser (Pearson), A Bailey (Darvill), Jaafar (Kurtovic), Mazzola (Djuzel), Barnes (Thompson), Brennan (Killick), Fraser (Atta), Stevenson (Smith), Honeyball (Sverrisson), Washington (Egueh). BOOKED: Barnes.

"We got a little lucky there, lads," I told the players at full-time. "I think we underestimated them somewhat - and not only that, but a few of you - I won't mention any names - looked very lazy. If that's how you're going to approach the next two games, then I might as well send you on the next flight home. This is supposed to be a training camp, not a holiday camp."

A couple of unconvincing away draws against lesser opposition didn't exactly suggest that we would be anywhere near the Premier League's title challengers. Manchester City were Evens favourites to regain their crown, followed by holders Manchester United at 3-1, and Arsenal at 6-1.

We were just about in the middle of the pack at 1,000-1 to win the league - but, more importantly, we were not amongst the favourites to go down. That's progress.

CFuller · August 1, 2017

JULY 2035 (continued)

Three young Daggers left our Austrian tour early to fly out to Portugal on international duty. Tristan Egueh, Ross Pearson and Martin Thompson had all been selected to represent England Under-20s at the FIFA U20 World Cup. They would be the first Dagenham & Redbridge players to play for England in a global competition.

After wishing our young starlets the best of luck in the Iberian peninsula, I travelled with my squad to the south-eastern town of Kapfenberg. Our next opponents, Kapfenberger SV, had graced the Bundesliga as recently as 2020/2021 but were now in the third tier of Austria's football pyramid.

21 July 2035: Kapfenberger SV vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Robbie MacKenzie nearly got us off to a flyer after four minutes, when he smashed a 20-yarder against the post. Stipo Brkic then drilled a shot wide in the 18th minute, although he would fare better with his next opportunity six minutes later. Kapfenberger defender Salih Delic was unable to get Oumar Fofana's byline cross away from Stipo Brkic, who buried the opening goal for the Daggers.

William Barnes could've had our second after 32 minutes, but Robin Lang made a fine save for Die Falken. Although we were well on top, we were giving the ball away rather cheaply to our opponents. We could've been punished for that in the 38th minute, but Guinea-Bissau midfielder José Correia couldn't quite get his shot beyond our goalkeeper Mariusz Tylak. Three minutes later, though, Stipo thundered in an unstoppable free-kick to give us a bigger safety net - in the form of a two-goal lead.

Brkic's work was done, as he was replaced by youngster Engilbert Sverrisson - one of four substitutes I brought on for the start of the second half. Those changes appeared to knock us off our stride, as Kapfenberger looked the better team after the restart. They had a couple of chances to pull a goal back, but striker Zeljko Mpassy-Nzoumba and winger Héctor were both denied by Tylak.

We would eventually click back into gear before carving our opponents open in the 63rd minute. It was our two Nordic prodigies who produced the goods, as Jonas Kjaerulff teed up Sverrisson for a fantastic strike into the top corner.

Die Falken were unable to get off the ground after that. Ex-Valencia left-back David Huerta's half-volley went clean over the bar in the 70th minute before a few more efforts from Mpassy-Nzoumba were wasted. Our defence would remain largely untroubled as we secured a comfortable 3-0 win.

Kapfenberger SV - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Brkic 24,41, Sverrisson 63)

Friendly, Attendance 1,736

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Tylak (Rowe), Moser (Jones), Kurtovic (Habu), Radosavljevic (J Bailey), Djuzel (Mazzola), Killick (Allen), Barnes (Atta), Fofana (Honeyball), Brkic (Sverrisson), MacKenzie (McLoughlin (Kasongo)), Washington (Kjaerulff). BOOKED: MacKenzie.

I was happy enough with the win, but the performance itself still left plenty to be desired. Worryingly, we had conceded 15 fouls - and most of the possession - to our third-division opponents. Against a much stronger team, we surely would not have come away victorious.

We would have to up our game, then, when we faced Admira Wacker Moding. Based a little less than 10 miles south of Vienna, Admira had been ever-present in the Austrian Bundesliga since 2011.

24 July 2035: Admira Wacker Modling vs Dagenham & Redbridge

New Dagenham midfielder Billy Stevenson tried to make his mark after just 70 seconds, when he drilled forward a shot that was comfortably held by Admira goalkeeper Danny Schmidt. The Austrians would give us an almighty scare in the 7th minute, when schoolboy winger Deniz Uzun powered a shot against our woodwork. Daggers defender Paul Habu then frantically cleared the ball into touch before we steadily recomposed.

Shortly afterwards, striker Peguy Kasongo spotted Stevenson making a run into Admira's half. Peguy knocked a lovely ball into Billy's path, and the Yorkshireman dribbled unchallenged towards goal before slipping the ball into the far end of the net!

The hosts were shaken, and we nearly sent them further behind in the 16th minute, when Matthew Fraser curled a free-kick just wide. Admira's relief would be short-lived, as two minutes later, Jonas Kjaerulff did make it 2-0 with a cool finish. That was a landmark first senior goal for Jonas, who'd signed a professional contract on his 17th birthday just a couple of days earlier.

After Kjaerulff received his belated birthday present, we gifted our opponents a goal in the 31st minute. Dagenham left-back Rocco Mazzola gave Uzun too much room out wide, and our other defenders failed to deal with the winger's cross before Lukas Fasching powered it into the net.

Having seen our lead get cut down to 2-1, I decided to take off midfielder Joel Honeyball, who'd seriously struggled ever since picking up an early yellow card. His replacement Greg Killick's first major contribution was to set up a chance in the 37th minute for Kjaerulff, who ballooned it well over. Jonas went in on goal again two minutes later after running onto Billy's through-ball... but the Danish teen panicked and pulled his shot wide.

For the start of the second half, Kjaerulff would be joined up front by another exciting attacking talent in Toby Faithfull. My faith in Toby wouldn't be repaid, though, as the 17-year-old put a couple of shots wide.

Admira then had three equalising opportunities in as many minutes midway through the half. Fortunately, the home trio of Fasching, Frank Dorn and Jude Godwin all missed the target. Nigerian striker Godwin did register a shot on target in the 71st minute, when he nodded Stefan Schonegger's cross into the hands of Kieran Whalley.

Admira would then give us one final scare in the 89th minute. Forward Andrej Barisic rattled our bar with a header before Daggers centre-back Velimir Radosavljevic cleared the ball off the line. In the end, our fast start proved to be decisive, as we edged a very tight match 2-1.

Admira Wacker Modling - 1 (Fasching 31)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Stevenson 8, Kjaerulff 18)

Friendly, Attendance 2,111

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Rowe), Jaafar (Fofana), Darvill (Radosavljevic), Habu (Kurtovic), Brennan (Jones), Mazzola (Moran), Honeyball (Killick), Fraser (Cook), Stevenson (Brkic), Kjaerulff (MacKenzie), Kasongo (Faithfull). BOOKED: Honeyball.

Much like against Kapfenberger, the manner of our victory here had not exactly been earth-shatteringly brilliant. Nevertheless, we returned from our tour of Austria unbeaten... and then we began to settle into our new home.

Dagenham & Redbridge's brand new stadium on Rainham Road was officially opened on 28 July. After a short opening ceremony that included speeches from our chairman Neil Booth and the local Member of Parliament, we took to the field for a marquee friendly against Atlético Madrid.

Although Atlético had not played in the UEFA Champions League for over a decade or won La Liga for nearly four, they were still regarded as one of the biggest teams in Europe. They played an exciting brand of attacking football under head coach Jonathan Viera, and striker José Ramón Álvarez was as lethal a finisher as anyone at the highest level.

28 July 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Atlético Madrid

Although Rainham Road wasn't quite full for its inaugural match, there was still a healthy crowd in attendance. Alas, we could not impress our fans with a quick start. Left-back Ante Djuzel made a mess of our first shot in the 10th minute, flicking Stipo Brkic's free-kick well wide. Seven minutes later, Atlético Madrid forward Milan Svoboda almost spoiled the party with a blistering shot that Kieran Whalley only just clawed away from his goal.

Kieran's rival in the Atlético goal was called into action after 22 minutes, as Fidel Díaz caught an effort from Engilbert Sverrisson. The deadlock would be broken four minutes later... and the first ever goal at Rainham Road was an absolute beauty from the visitors. After Marino Anic's shot was blocked by Daggers right-back John Moser, Atlético midfielder Jan Vagner struck a sweet rebound volley into the corner of the net!

We had chances to get back level quickly, but by the 39th minute, Los Colchoneros were really asserting their class on proceedings. Vagner knocked a lovely ball ahead of his Czech compatriot Milan Svoboda, and the ex-Southampton striker powered an excellent shot past Whalley.

Atlético's two-goal cushion wouldn't last. Barely a minute later, Velimir Radosavljevic sent the Daggers fans into raptures by heading in a lovely corner from Stipo Brkic. That was our first goal at our new ground... and the second would come in injury time.

After clearing a poor Atlético corner, Stipo knocked the ball forward 30 yards to Rob McLoughlin. Rob then dribbled with the ball almost the entire length of our visitors' half before slotting it beyond Díaz! Incredibly, we were on level terms with the Spanish giants at half-time!

Atlético Madrid lost their right-back Steffen Ozer to a broken arm early in the second period. That didn't upset their rhythm, though. Indeed, in the 51st minute, they retook the lead through their attacking midfielder Anic. The Germany Under-21s starlet got past Matthew Fraser to collect a through-ball from José Ramón Álvarez and slot it past our onrushing substitute keeper Mariusz Tylak.

A 3-2 lead for Los Colchoneros could've been wiped out in the 57th minute, but Díaz denied Nigel Atta our second equaliser. After 68 minutes, we would find ourselves two goals down for the second time. Young Daggers centre-back Adrian Bailey was comfortably beaten in the air by his Spanish counterpart Javi, who nodded home from Vagner's corner. With Atlético skipper Vagner in such superb form, this felt like the 'Ride of the Valkyries' for us.

Our captain William Barnes could've got us back in the game on 75 minutes, when he met Rocco Mazzola's left-wing cross with a deft header. Unfortunately, he rattled the near post, and Díaz parried the ball away for Belarus right-back Pavel Pavlov to clear. Díaz would be beaten by a header from Mark Washington in the 82nd minute... but our new American striker was denied his first Daggers goal after the linesman raised his offside flag.

We did eventually claw back a third goal in stoppage time, as local hero Joel Honeyball converted Billy Stevenson's cross from the right flank to send our fans home happy. We may have been beaten, but we'd put three goals past a top-quality Atlético Madrid side - and that was good enough for most of us.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Radosavljevic 40, McLoughlin 45, Honeyball 90)

Atlético Madrid - 4 (Vagner 26, Svoboda 39, Anic 51, Javi 68)

Friendly, Attendance 12,474

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Tylak), Moser (Okyere), Kurtovic (A Bailey), Radosavljevic (Darvill), Djuzel (Mazzola), Fofana (Fraser), Killick (Brennan), Atta (Barnes), Brkic (Stevenson), Sverrisson (Honeyball), McLoughlin (Washington).

The Rainham Road era was now well and truly underway. Although we'd suffered our first defeat of pre-season, I was still feeling optimistic about our prospects in the upcoming campaign.

CFuller · August 2, 2017

AUGUST 2035

August began with the announcement of another new sponsorship deal for Dagenham & Redbridge. A new four-year deal with a fitness club franchise meant that we were now making nearly £2million per year on sponsorships alone. Granted, we didn't have anywhere near as many corporate agreements as the Manchester giants, but we were financially in rude health, if you'll pardon the pun.

On the pitch, we continued our build-up to the season with an away match against Watford. The Hornets' 12th-place finish in the Championship last season was their worst for nearly a quarter of a century. Much improvement would be expected from the Hertfordshire side and their manager Nathan Redmond this time around.

1 August 2035: Watford vs Dagenham & Redbridge

From the off, it became clear that Watford had not yet bounced back from their sub-standard 2034/2035 season. We took control early on, hitting the Hornets with a number of shots. Although Mark Washington and Billy Stevenson each missed the target after 9 and 11 minutes respectively, we gradually edged closer to a breakthrough goal. On 12 minutes, Washington had his second effort blocked by Watford midfielder Adrian Ademeno. William Barnes was first to the rebound, but the Dagenham skipper could only hit the post.

Following further misses from Washington and Stevenson, we would finally take the lead in the 28th minute. As the hosts' defence became stretched out in their penalty area, Mark passed the ball back from the byline to Will, who smashed a blistering drive beyond goalie Glenn Nordh and into the net!

We were 1-0 up and looking comfortable - perhaps too comfortable. Complacency crept into our game late in the first half, and had either Ademeno or left-winger Pat McCann been more lethal for Watford, we could well have lost our lead.

Six minutes into the second period, the dangers of fielding a high defensive line against a quick striker like Watford's Ryan Barnsley became all too clear. Our right-back Albert Khumalo tried to head the ball back from the Hornets' half to fellow Daggers defender Hamzah Jaafar, only to see Barnsley make a quick interception. Barnsley went for goal on his own as our defenders rushed back, but Watford's frontman could only find the side netting.

The home fans were left disappointed, and their woes continued when midfielder Charles Catchpole was injured by Stipo Brkic in the 53rd minute. Catchpole had to come off, and Watford wouldn't get close to our goal again until the 76th minute. McCann tried to lift the ball over Mariusz Tylak from the edge of the Dagenham area, but Mariusz was having none of it. Tylak pushed the shot away, and he also made light work of a free-kick from Mickey Cox four minutes later.

Our goalkeeper's sheet remained clean, and the scoreline remained 1-0 to the Daggers, despite Lee Allen's best efforts to drive home our second goal after 84 minutes. We had 11 shots at goal in this match, and only ONE was on target - but that one proved to be the decisive one!

Watford - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Barnes 28)

Friendly, Attendance 4,359

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Tylak (Whalley), Jones (Khumalo), Jaafar (Habu), Darvill (A Bailey), Mazzola (Djuzel), Brennan (Allen), Fraser (Killick), Barnes (Fofana), Stevenson (Brkic), MacKenzie (McLoughlin), Washington (Faithfull).

Three days after that, we played Sampdoria in our second match at the new Rainham Road stadium - and I felt that we had a great opportunity to take our first win. The Blucerchiati had finished in the top half of Serie A for 14 consecutive seasons before their most recent campaign, which saw them drop down to 13th.

4 August 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Sampdoria

This looked like being a close encounter, but it was us who made the much brighter start. Matthew Fraser threatened Sampdoria's goal with a swerving effort in the first minute, though he couldn't quite get it past keeper Godfrey Majola. Another Scottish star would have better luck after 10 minutes. Jorge Castro's trip on Daggers left-back Rocco Mazzola gave us a free-kick on the edge of the Samp area, and Robbie MacKenzie curled it plum into the top corner!

The Blucerchiati threatened to lose their heads when striker Diego Tersigni was booked in the 13th minute, and by the 20th minute, they were fortunate not to be 2-0 down. Matthew's cross from the right found Tomo Kurtovic at the back post, but Tomo couldn't find the target.

That Kurtovic miss would prove to be costly, though not as much as a rare error from Kieran Whalley in the 31st minute. The Dagenham goalkeeper fumbled a header from Ecuador winger Castro, and Tersigni slid the follow-up across the line to draw Sampdoria level. Castro sent another headed effort narrowly over the bar two minutes before half-time. Make no mistake, we were in a real battle.

Greg Killick had disappointed me in pre-season so far, but the midfielder almost got his campaign up and running after 55 minutes. A powerful drive from the young Cumbrian narrowly cleared Samp's crossbar. The game became rather scrappy after that, although our Italian visitors did miss a couple of scoring opportunities midway through the half.

It wasn't until the 82nd minute that things livened up. Seb Brennan floated a Daggers corner to John Moser, who played it short to Oumar Fofana in Sampdoria's six-yard box. A tackle from Blucerchiati anchorman Simone D'Antimi denied Oumar the chance to score his first Daggers goal... but John reacted quickly to stab in his maiden strike for us!

Moser's goal looked like being the decisive one... until we let our guard down five minutes from time. Samp wing-back Guido De Crescenzo's first-time cross found Castro at the far post, and the Ecuadorean's header looped over our substitute goalie Kayo Rowe's head and into the net. The match therefore finished 2-2 - and to be fair, neither side could really complain about that result.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (MacKenzie 10, Moser 82)

Sampdoria - 2 (Tersigni 31, Castro 85)

Friendly, Attendance 11,424

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley (Rowe), Khumalo (Okyere), Kurtovic (Radosavljevic), Moser (J Bailey), Mazzola (Djuzel), Brennan (Allen), Fraser (Fofana), Killick (Barnes), Brkic (Sverrisson), MacKenzie (Smith), Honeyball (Washington). BOOKED: MacKenzie.

We had come so close to victory... but a draw against a team of Sampdoria's stature was still a creditable one.

Over the next few days, I organised loan deals for a couple of our young centre-halves. Adrian Bailey and Paul Habu would both be dropping down to League One until the New Year, with Bailey joining Crystal Palace, and Habu moving to Colchester United.

17-year-old right-back Thomas Jones, who'd played in a couple of pre-season friendlies, also left us - for good.

Ambitious Championship side Coventry City offered us £200,000, plus a sell-on clause, to sign Jones permanently. Although Tom was decent enough for his age, I felt that he wasn't going to develop into a world-beater, so I accepted Coventry's offer and reluctantly bade farewell to the lad I liked to jokingly call 'Sex Bomb'. (Good lord, come to think of it, I could get in a whole lotta trouble for that if the police ever launch another Operation Yewtree!)

Pre-season was coming towards an end, but before we could kick off our Premier League campaign against Burnley, we still had two more friendlies to play. The first of them would be an emotional homecoming for me.

CFuller · August 3, 2017

AUGUST 2035 (continued)

I can still just about recall that day 23 years ago when I first set foot on Ship Lane as Romford's new manager. I was a somewhat precocious 27-year-old back then, but I would mature greatly as a coach over the next decade, guiding my hometown club from the Isthmian League Division 1 North to the upper reaches of the Conference South.

My departure from Romford 13 years ago was amicable, and although I had since returned occasionally to Ship Lane as a spectator, I'd never been back in either dugout... until now.

Since being appointed Dagenham & Redbridge manager, I'd made a point of not returning to my old stomping ground, in the hope that we'd get drawn against them in a cup competition. Sadly, that dream never came to pass.

However, with both clubs coming off the back of their best ever league finishes, I felt the time was now right for my current squad to take on my old team. While we were about to kick off our second season in the Premier League, the Boro were planning for their second consecutive campaign in the Conference Premier.

13 years is a very long time in football, and this Boro team was unsurprisingly very different from mine. The likes of Kieron Gray, Duncan Greenwood and Nicky Reynolds were all long gone. One thing hadn't changed, though - the presence of my former coach Dominic Shimmin, who was now in his fifth season as Romford's manager. Would the apprentice overcome his master?

8 August 2035: Romford vs Dagenham & Redbridge

I left a lot of my key players behind, but Mark Washington was not among them. I really wanted to see our new record signing break his Daggers duck sooner rather than later - and, sure enough, he would do just that within the first two minutes. Billy Stevenson did most of the hard work, running at the Romford defence before setting up an easy tap-in for Mark.

We'd scored with our first shot of the match... but our hosts would do the same in the 13th minute. The Ship Lane faithful roared into life when Boro striker Gareth Coe's defence-splitting pass created an equaliser for winger Carl Callander.

Seven minutes later, the non-leaguers gave us even more to think about. Target man Brynley Minton got his head to Rod Anthony's corner, but his attempt clipped the underside of the bar before Dagenham right-back Evans Okyere cleared it away! Having gone so close to falling behind, we looked to regain control before Romford could strike again. Stevenson made a bid for goal in the 26th minute, though his effort was too tame to seriously trouble our former youth goalkeeper Engin Cetinkaya.

Joel Honeyball then went close on 30 minutes, before Ante Djuzel's luck deserted him twice in the final five minutes of the first half! The Croatian left-back hit the upright from out wide in the 41st minute, and he powered a half-volley just over the bar a minute after that. We remained locked at 1-1 at half-time, but we really should've been ahead.

I brought on a few more big guns for the second half, with Velimir Radosavljevic, William Barnes and Matthew Fraser all looking to turn the match firmly in our favour. Shortly after play resumed, Washington hit a wild shot that went nowhere near the Romford goal. Our £5million man was rather more composed in the 54th minute, when he stabbed in Albert Khumalo's centre for another simple finish. Mark had been heavily involved in the build-up to that goal, and it was plain to see that the United States international was a class above everyone else on the pitch.

Captain Barnes wasn't having his best game, and a 66th-minute yellow card for a foul on Musa Chukwu was a cause for concern. Four minutes later, Boro right-back Chukwu unsuccessfully cried for a penalty after being challenged by Radosavljevic. As for our other big-name substitute, Fraser nearly made his mark with a 77th-minute corner that Velimir nodded inches past the post.

In the end, it would take a couple of our less experienced players to effectively secure the win. Jonas Kjaerulff flicked a long ball from left-back Jefferson Moran into the path of his fellow teenage striker Elliot Cook. The 16-year-old showed just why our youth coaches rated him so highly, with his diving header leaving Cetinkaya - and Romford - helplessly beaten.

There was still time, though, for Dagenham goalkeeper Mariusz Tylak to throw away half of our two-goal lead. A careless throw from the Pole was intercepted by Boro striker Stewart Thomson, who powered in a consolation strike after 89 minutes. Romford had had the final say in this match, but my return to Ship Lane was still a victorious one.

Romford - 2 (Callander 13, Thomson 89)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Washington 2,54, Cook 80)

Friendly, Attendance 3,817

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Rowe (Tylak), Jaafar (Radosavljevic), Khumalo (Davies), Charles (J Bailey), Okyere (Fraser), Djuzel (Moran), Honeyball (Barnes), Allen (Atta), Stevenson (Smith), McLoughlin (Kjaerulff (Faithfull)), Washington (Cook). BOOKED: Barnes.

'Could do better' has pretty much been the slogan for this pre-season campaign, and that very much applied here. Although I'd fielded a weakened team, I'd still expected us to win much more comfortably against our Conference Premier opponents.

That said, we'd still only suffered one defeat by the time we played our final friendly. Our opponents were big by name and big by nature. Borussia Moenchengladbach had finished outside the Bundesliga's top six just once in the last 24 years, and they really did have some fantastic players in their ranks.

12 August 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Borussia Moenchengladbach

Both sides struggled to get shots away early on. After seven minutes, Scottish target man Robbie MacKenzie headed wide our first scoring attempt of the opening half. It would also be our last.

Gladbach started to pose a serious threat to us in the 16th minute, when American midfielder Matt Herrera floated a corner into our box. Sander Blinker flicked the corner goalwards, and centre-back Alon Schulte almost turned it in with a diving header. Fortunately for us, our young left-back Ante Djuzel saved the day with a fantastic volleyed clearance!

Ante looked fired up, and so did Daggers skipper William Barnes, who was booked in the 26th minute for upending Herrera. That said, our best performer in the first half was undoubtedly Kieran Whalley. The goalkeeper held onto a couple of shots from midfielder Gabriel Steffen and striker Blinker just before the hour mark. Kieran also kept out another effort from Blinker, albeit only after the Dutchman had been flagged offside. By half-time, Die Fohlen were perhaps wondering how they weren't in front.

Gladbach goalie Maximiliano Fagúndez hardly had anything to do in the first period, but the 35-year-old Uruguayan would be rather more active after the break. Unsurprisingly, it was our star man in pre-season - playmaker Stipo Brkic - who gave Fagúndez his first real tests in the away goal. The Dane hit a couple of long-rangers in the 64th minute, and the one-time Reading keeper did well to catch them both. Fagúndez then made a third save in barely a minute to deny our other attacking midfielder Billy Stevenson.

Our bright spell didn't last, and we were soon having to defend again. On 74 minutes, Whalley made light work of a poor strike from Fohlen forward Patrick Hatch - an Englishman who'd spent the last six years in Moenchengladbach. We then survived a couple of late corners before coming away with a hard-earned goalless draw.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Borussia Moenchengladbach - 0

Friendly, Attendance 12,416

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic (Moran), J Bailey (Fofana), Kurtovic (Charles), Brennan (Moser), Djuzel (Mazzola), Fraser (Jaafar), Barnes (Killick), Stevenson (Cook), MacKenzie (Brkic), Kasongo (McLoughlin). BOOKED: Barnes.

Dagenham & Redbridge fans were still waiting for their first win at Rainham Road, but I was reasonably satisfied about how pre-season had gone. Four wins, four draws and a solitary defeat sent us into the Premier League campaign in reasonable spirits.

Our first PL match at our new ground would come against Burnley a week later... but not before a brief international interlude. This break would see a breakthrough for 20-year-old left-back Ante Djuzel, who was awarded his first senior cap for Croatia in a draw against Italy. Djuzel played alongside his new team-mate for club and country, Tomo Kurtovic, who was capped for the 7th time.

Matthew Fraser (Scotland), Albert Khumalo (South Africa) and Mark Washington (United States) also made appearances for their respective sides. Meanwhile, our England Under-20s trio of Tristan Egueh, Ross Pearson and Martin Thompson helped the Young Lions reach the FIFA U20 World Cup Quarter Finals with a 2-1 victory over France. Their adventure in Portugal would be continuing for a little bit longer.

While I was away with the Norway national team, Dagenham & Redbridge completed a deal to sign one of the world's most promising teenage defenders. 18-year-old Vicente Gridelli, who could play anywhere across the back line but preferred the right flank, was acquired from Boca Juniors for £3.5million.

The Argentina Under-20s international arrived in England without requiring a work permit, as he held an Italian passport. Gridelli was immediately the subject of loan offers from countless lower-league clubs, and he subsequently agreed to join Championship outfit Blackburn Rovers until January.

Four more youngsters joined our band of 'loan rangers' on the eve of the new season. Winger Nigel Atta and forward Peguy Kasongo went abroad to start season-long loans with our Czech feeder club Ceské Budejovice.

Out-of-favour midfielder Tom Virgo rejected a permanent move to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, though he did agree to join Leighton Town - our other feeder club - on loan until the end of the season. He would be joined at Bell Close by 17-year-old striker Jonas Kjaerulff, but only for the next five months.

Once the midweek break was over, I set my sights on our opening Premier League game against Burnley. Due to international call-ups, this match would kick off on Sunday as opposed to Saturday.

Although Burnley took four points off us last season, we still managed to finish four places above them in the standings. That outcome was particularly sweet, as in the middle of that campaign, Clarets boss Lee Clark had mouthed off about us not being good enough to play in the Premier League.

Now the shoe was on the other foot. On the Saturday morning before our second PL season got underway, I told the press, "To be honest, I think Burnley are really going to struggle to stay up this time around. I'm confident that we can make things difficult for them tomorrow at our new stadium."

The war of words between Clark and me was heating up. Now it was up to the Dagenham & Redbridge players to back up my words with a strong performance - and a dream start to life at Rainham Road.

CFuller · August 3, 2017

Dagenham & Redbridge squad - Start of 2035/2036 season

(All information correct as of 1 August 2035)

GOALKEEPERS

1. Kieran Whalley (age 24)

English [capped at Under-19s level]

Kieran's already a fine Premier League goalkeeper, though he can still become a lot better. While he's fantastic at commanding his area, he's not too hot when it comes to rushing out.

13. Mariusz Tylak (age 24)

Polish [2 caps, 0 goals]

Mariusz has yet to keep a competitive clean sheet for us but is still a decent backup goalie.

DEFENDERS

2. Albert Khumalo (age 22)

South African [11 caps, 0 goals]

I'm so glad we got Albert tied down to a new contract before a bigger club came calling. This fast and powerful right-back has great potential and will surely become one of the world's leading defenders.

3. Ante Djuzel (age 20)

Croatian [capped at Under-21s level]

Ante shows incredible composure and maturity for such a young left-back. The next few weeks will tell me whether this 5ft 4in 'pocket rocket' is ready to hold down a regular starting berth.

5. John Moser (age 21)

French [capped at Under-21s level]

John's an astute young defender who provides more than adequate cover at right-back or centre-half.

6. George Darvill (age 22)

English [capped at Under-21s level]

George played every minute of our maiden PL campaign and will surely remain undroppable. There are so few weaknesses in this covering defender's game that an England call-up might not be far away.

16. Velimir Radosavljevic (age 22)

Serbian [4 caps, 0 goals]

Velimir's settled into the top flight rather well, but now is the time for him to really push on. The left-footed centre-back could do with improving his heading, as well as his composure under pressure.

19. Tomo Kurtovic (age 23)

Croatian [6 caps, 0 goals]

Tomo will be our main central defensive stopper this season after his arrival from Austria Wien. The Belgian-born Croat is resolute and incredibly strong in the air, and his best years are still ahead of him.

24. Hamzah Jaafar (age 29)

Austrian [41 caps, 0 goals]

I've kept Hamzah on for another year as we look to further consolidate our position among England's elite. He's mainly a centre-back, though he can also put his ball-winning skills to good use in midfield.

25. Rocco Mazzola (age 23)

Italian

Rocco is not a bad alternative to Djuzel at left-back, although I do have some doubts about his crossing skills.

31. Ross Pearson (age 19)

English [capped at Under-20s level]

Promising right-back Ross could soon be ready to play in the Premier League on a regular basis.

MIDFIELDERS

4. William Barnes (age 26)

English [capped at Under-21s level]

William is still an excellent leader who gives us plenty of bite in midfield. However, serious injuries have taken their toll on his physical fitness, and he might find it harder to stay in the team now.

8. Stipo Brkic (age 30)

Danish [capped at Under-19s level]

Like a fine wine, Stipo simply gets better with age. The creative attacking midfielder has a fabulous first touch, and he made 10 assists last season before unfortunately suffering a slipped disc in March.

11. Billy Stevenson (age 23)

English [capped at Under-21s level]

If anyone can challenge Brkic for our main attacking midfield spot, it's Billy. The Yorkshireman has the athleticism of a sprinter, the stamina of a marathon runner, and he's not bad on the ball either.

12. Neil McCann (age 20)

English [capped at Under-19s level]

Midfielder Neil has joined Bradford City on loan for this season as he builds up his first-team experience.

14. Matthew Fraser (age 28)

Scottish [11 caps, 2 goals]

Matthew's been part of the Dagenham furniture for nearly a decade. With his eye for a great long pass, and his ability to dictate the tempo of the match, it's not hard to understand why.

17. Greg Killick (age 23)

English [capped at Under-21s level]

Defensive midfielder Greg has not yet justified his £4million fee but still has loads of time on his side.

18. Dave Hutchinson (age 20)

English [capped at Under-19s level]

Dave played in nearly half of our PL games last term but will spend this season on loan at Leeds United.

21. Oumar Fofana (age 24)

Malian [36 caps, 3 goals]

Summer signing Oumar is a very aggressive midfield man who might need time to settle into this country.

23. Seb Brennan (age 26)

English

Seb was one of our unsung heroes from last season. Few midfielders can win a tackle as convincingly as the south Londoner, and even fewer can do a brilliant job at wing-back as well.

28. Martin Thompson (age 19)

English [capped at Under-21s level]

After spending the last two years out on loan, Martin is ready to challenge for a first-team place with us.

FORWARDS

9. Mark Washington (age 23)

American [2 caps, 0 goals]

Mark has a big weight on his shoulders, having cost us a potential £5million from Freiburg. With his explosive pace and poacher's instinct, I'm confident he'll bag enough goals to justify the hype surrounding him.

10. Robbie MacKenzie (age 26)

Scottish [4 caps, 4 goals]

Robbie was almost discarded at the start of last term, but he was our leading scorer by the end. The giant target man created trouble for many a defender, but is he the real deal or simply a one-season wonder?

15. Joel Honeyball (age 27)

English

I'm determined to keep our longest-serving player Joel here for at least another four years, even if only as a backup option. Though he's never going to be a PL superstar, this forward can play beyond himself at times.

26. Tristan Egueh (age 19)

English [capped at Under-20s level]

Tristan is an enthusiastic striker who will be hoping for a major breakthrough over the next 12 months.

27. Rob McLoughlin (age 33)

English [1 cap, 0 goals]

Though he's not the goal machine of old, Rob's vast experience and intelligence will come in very handy.

RESERVE & YOUTH PLAYERS

Goalkeepers: Courtney Gallagher (on loan at Southend United), Alex Lund, Kayo Rowe

Defenders: Roy Anderson, Adrian Bailey (on loan at Crystal Palace), Jameel Bailey, Bradley Charles, Mathew Davies, Vicente Gridelli (on loan at Blackburn Rovers), Paul Habu (on loan at Colchester United), Liam Hamsher, Jazzi Howley, Jefferson Moran, Evans Okyere, Axel Svonne, Colin Thompson

Midfielders: Lee Allen, Nigel Atta (on loan at Ceské Budejovice), Dan Judge, Thomas Lye, Shaun Powell (on loan at Derby County), Daryl Ryan II (on loan at Cheltenham Town), Engilbert Sverrisson, Tom Virgo (on loan at Leighton Town)

Forwards: Ollie Brothers, Elliot Cook, Toby Faithfull, Djibril Ibrahim, Peguy Kasongo (on loan at Ceské Budejovice), Jonas Kjaerulff (on loan at Leighton Town), Rae Liversedge, Christophe Smith

BACKROOM STAFF

Manager: Christopher Fuller

Assistant Manager: Fabio Saraiva

Coaches: Jamie Cochrane, Richaee Derby, Lewis Proudfoot, Marco Verratti

Fitness Coaches: Andy Boles, David Wheater

Goalkeeping Coaches: Scott Carson, Andy Lonergan

Physios: Adam Hutchings (head), Andrew Marks

Scouts: Callum Donnelly (chief), George Green, Chris Lewington, Dylan McGeouch, Kevin Mensah, Thierry Monteny, Antonino Pirozzi, Nicky Reynolds, Roscoe Young

Reserves Manager: Sean O'Callaghan

Head of Youth Development: Curtis Langton

Under-18s Manager: Tom Ince

Under-18s Assistant Manager: Aaron McEwan

Under-18s Coaches: Mario Djokic, James Dunne, Joseph Yoffe

Under-18s Goalkeeping Coach: Tunde Shoretire

CFuller · August 3, 2017

And the depth chart...

GK: Whalley / Tylak

D/WB L: Djuzel / Mazzola / Barnes
D C: Darvill / Kurtovic / Radosavljevic / Moser / Khumalo / Jaafar
D/WB R: Khumalo / Moser / Pearson / Brennan

DM C: Brennan / Barnes / Killick / Hutchinson

M/AM L: [I don't use wingers currently]
M C: Barnes / Fraser / Brennan / Killick / Fofana / Hutchinson / Jaafar / Thompson
M/AM R: [I don't use wingers currently]

AM C: Stevenson / Brkic / Sverrisson / Washington

F C (strikers): Washington / Egueh / Honeyball
F C (centre-forwards): MacKenzie / McLoughlin

JayR2003 · August 3, 2017

You are starting to see some real depth in the team. I hope Washington is the real deal up top.

CFuller · August 4, 2017

17 hours ago, JayR2003 said:

You are starting to see some real depth in the team. I hope Washington is the real deal up top.

You certainly need plenty of depth in the Premier League. I'm particularly happy with the various options we have in midfield.

I have high hopes for your fellow American. Although Washington doesn't have much experience at the highest level, he's got some very good attribute ratings in the right places - and at 23, he still has some potential to grow. If all goes well for him, he could be here for the long haul.

CFuller · August 4, 2017

AUGUST 2035 (continued)

19 August 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Burnley

Stipo Brkic almost gave us the perfect start at Rainham Road in the first minute, when his low strike was only just pushed away by Burnley goalkeeper Souza. That could've been a moment to remember - but in the third minute, our goalkeeper Kieran Whalley had a moment to forget! Kieran's goal kick was intercepted by Ivor Boyce, and the on-loan Manchester United striker raced through before driving in the Clarets' first goal!

Much to our horror, a second would follow in the 9th minute. 21-year-old Boyce showed his predatory instincts again when he got ahead of Daggers defender George Darvill to prod in Jakub Kotora's centre from close range.

At 2-0 down, this looked like being the baptism of fire some of us had feared. To make matters worse, Robbie MacKenzie - our goalscoring hero from last season - appeared to be some way off his best. The big Scot drove his first shot wide in the 12th minute, and his next attempt three minutes later was comfortably saved by Souza.

An even bigger concern was our high foul count, particularly from our midfielders. William Barnes and Matthew Fraser each received bookings midway through the opening half, with Matthew's coming shortly after he created our best scoring chance on 27 minutes. Fraser's corner found the head of Darvill, but Marciel Quadros nodded it clear for Burnley.

The Clarets then pushed on in search of a third goal, with Lyle Donaldson and Boyce each missing chances for 3-0. Boyce should've sealed his hat-trick in the 38th minute, but Kieran atoned for his earlier error by pushing the youngster's header over his bar. The first half ended with further Dagenham misses from MacKenzie and Barnes, and we remained 2-0 down.

A half-time rollicking was in order, as was a change of formation. Barnes looked like a red card waiting to happen, so the skipper made way for Velimir Radosavljevic as we switched to 3-5-2. Burnley boss Lee Clark would be forced to make a change to his defence just two minutes after the restart, as centre-half Danijel Dedic sustained a dead leg in a challenge on MacKenzie.

Meanwhile, 'Boycie' continued to make our defenders look like 'Only Fools and Horses' on a pitch that didn't quite feel like 'The Green Green Grass' of home. After 50 minutes, Boyce slid left-back Mark Dobson's cross into the net to wrap up a debut hat-trick for the Lancastrian side.

Our frustrations grew further over the next three minutes, with Souza saving a couple of promising efforts from Brkic and MacKenzie. We had done little wrong in our maiden Premier League game last season against Wolverhampton Wanderers, but on the opening weekend on this campaign, it seemed we couldn't get anything RIGHT!

When MacKenzie blazed over an absolute sitter in the 58th minute, it looked for all the world that our first home game in the new stadium would end in a crushing defeat. A minute later, though, we showed that we wouldn't necessarily go down without a fight. An excellent display of quick short passing ended with Stipo Brkic knocking the ball ahead of Mark Washington, who tapped it past Souza! This really was a moment to savour for Washington, who had scored on his competitive Daggers debut - and on his 24th birthday!

Mark was at it again in the 68th minute, as a slide-rule pass from Robbie teed him up for his second goal! Were we about to launch an unbelievable comeback from 3-0 down?

The match appeared to be heading that way after 74 minutes, when Washington glided past Burnley defender Daniel Kelly to give himself a shot at 3-3. Alas, he could only fire it at Souza, who pushed it away. Three minutes later, MacKenzie narrowly missed the target with his header from Radosavljevic's long ball.

Our purple patch ended there, and indeed, the Clarets could've killed us off with a fourth goal on 86 minutes. Whalley had to tip behind Donaldson's fierce drive from Ion Pavelescu's free-kick - the result of one of 20 fouls that we conceded. With Brkic and Seb Brennan joining Barnes and Fraser in the referee's notebook, it was clear that we had problems with controlling our discipline. Such carelessness played a big role in us losing our opener by the narrowest of margins.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Washington 59,68)

Burnley - 3 (Boyce 3,9,50)

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Burnley 5th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Kurtovic, Darvill, Djuzel, Brennan, Fraser (Fofana), Barnes (Radosavljevic), Brkic (Stevenson), MacKenzie, Washington. BOOKED: Barnes, Fraser, Brkic, Brennan.

That was almost a stirring late comeback from us, but we just fell short in a game that we really could've done with winning. If we were to indeed consolidate our top-flight status, we would have to get that first win at our new dwellings sooner rather than later.

There was also disappointment for our England Under-20s trio, as the Young Lions were knocked out of the FIFA U20 World Cup by hosts Portugal in the Quarter Finals. Tristan Egueh, Ross Pearson and Martin Thompson all returned to the Daggers squad in time for our next game at Rochdale, although only Pearson was named in the matchday squad.

Rochdale had been highly impressive in their first season up, narrowly missing out on European qualification. Backed by Adrian Roznik's millions, they continued to spend big this summer, bringing in the likes of England centre-back Alan Jordan from Wolverhampton Wanderers and midfielder Mijo Djuzel from Liverpool. They may have lost their opening game of this campaign at Liverpool, but I expected a strong riposte from the Dale.

25 August 2035: Rochdale vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Burnley had made a quick start against us a week earlier, and Rochdale threatened to get on the board early here as well. After three minutes, Dagenham goalkeeper Kieran Whalley pushed Thomas Potter's cross behind, and then watched Andrei Isache head wide the subsequent corner from Mijo Djuzel.

32-year-old Djuzel - the cousin of our own Ante - would be a constant menace to our defenders, particularly from set-pieces. Another corner from the Croatia international caused us problems in the 13th minute, with Mario Tortora heading it just over. Then, as the game took a scrappy turn over the next five minutes, the referee issued yellow cards to Daggers skipper William Barnes and Dale leader Terry Curry.

Djuzel would push us close again on 26 minutes, volleying a shot inches wide after Abderrahim Benyamina's cross had been poorly cleared by Dagenham defender Velimir Radosavljevic. We had yet another close shave courtesy of Djuzel on 28 minutes, as Romanian centre-half Isache nodded a corner just over the bar.

In the 38th minute, Tortora pulled a couple of Daggers centre-backs out of the box before playing a cheeky backheel to his strike partner Potter. It would've been a well-worked opening goal for Dale had Whalley not gathered the ball just before Potter could prod it in. We responded with our first real counter-attack, which ended with Mark Washington charging at the defence and lashing the ball past goalkeeper Petar Kus! We'd not simply weathered the Rochdale storm - we'd actually taken the lead, against the run of play!

Rochdale came out for the second half looking particularly determined to avoid successive defeats. Potter had their first serious equalising attempt after 56 minutes, though he fired it directly into Kieran's hands. We were still looking fine... until Radosavljevic suffered a triple whammy in the 59th minute. Velimir brought down Djuzel in the penalty area, hurt himself in the process, and then watched on from the sidelines as Tortora powered in the spot-kick that he had conceded.

Radosavljevic wasn't too badly hurt, but I didn't think he had the mindset to continue, so I brought Tomo Kurtovic on as a replacement. I'd earlier brought on Greg Killick for Barnes, and goodness knows what Greg was thinking when he was booked for diving in the 71st minute. Killick certainly didn't look switched on two minutes later, when he broke through the Dale defence, only to pull his shot hopelessly wide.

Shortly after that, the inescapable Djuzel made his mark again - this time, on Kurtovic's thigh. A reckless lunge on his fellow Croatian earned Mijo a yellow card. Djuzel's man-of-the-match performance came to an anti-climax - but the match itself certainly didn't.

The final few minutes saw action switch from end to end as both teams wasted chances to clinch all three points. A Dale counter-attack in the first minute of injury time ended with Tortora driving the ball inches wide of the target. A couple of minutes later, Washington's last-ditch bid for glory was blocked by Rochdale defender Alan Jordan and deflected behind for a corner, which we couldn't take advantage from.

The hosts then had one final chance through Tortora, but Kieran kept it out and sent us back to Dagenham with a draw. It was at least an improvement on our first away game of the last Premier League season, which we lost 2-0 against... Rochdale.

Rochdale - 1 (Tortora pen59)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Washington 38)

Premier League, Attendance 9,392 - POSITIONS: Rochdale 15th, Dag & Red 14th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Jaafar, Darvill, Radosavljevic (Kurtovic), Khumalo, Mazzola, Barnes (Killick), Fraser, Stevenson, McLoughlin (Brkic), Washington. BOOKED: Barnes, Fraser, Killick.

Our next match was in Round 2 of the League Cup, as we hosted League One side Exeter City. The Grecians were 7th in their division, but I was confident that we could overwhelm them and register our first victory at Rainham Road.

28 August 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Exeter City

Robbie MacKenzie had our first chance after just over a minute, but his header bounced safely into Exeter goalie Frank McGowan's hands. The Grecians then hit us on the break, almost taking the lead barely half a minute later. Craig Hodgkiss flicked the ball on to strike partner Tim Benham, whose near-post shot was tipped behind by Mariusz Tylak.

Then came a worrying sign of things to come, as a couple of slack passes from our summer signing Oumar Fofana gifted Exeter the chance to attack again on 13 minutes. Hodgkiss found attacking midfielder Gavin Breckin with a dangerous through-ball into our area, and Tylak had to bail us out for a second time.

Another excellent pass by Hodgkiss a minute later was fired inches wide by Benham. We started to test our visitors a bit more from the 26th minute, as MacKenzie's header from Ante Djuzel's cross forced McGowan into another catch. A narrow miss from captain Joel Honeyball three minutes later would prove to be our last scoring opportunity before half-time. Not for the first time, we were looking rather off-colour in the League Cup.

Exeter signed McGowan this summer after his release by Rangers, and the 19-year-old Scotland youth international was showing plenty of potential here. He made a couple of impressive saves in the first 15 minutes of the second half, leaving Dagenham midfielders Martin Thompson and Fofana disappointed.

Later in the first half, I replaced the disappointing Honeyball with Tristan Egueh. Tristan would get his first chance to draw first blood in the 75th minute, when Grecians defender Stephen Skuse miscued his clearance from Martin's long ball. Egueh burst through from behind... and scuffed his volley wide. We had already survived another scare, with Hodgkiss spurning Exeter's latest sitter on 66 minutes.

As full-time neared, Exeter seemed content to sit back and take us into extra-time. We would certainly not be content with having to play for another half-hour, and so we upped the ante in the closing stages. With around two minutes to go, Velimir Radosavljevic nodded Oumar's corner towards the City goal. McGowan could only parry it on to Tomo Kurtovic, but the Croatian defender's shot clipped the post and let the Grecians off big-time.

McGowan made a more convincing save in injury time to keep out another header, this time from Egueh. And so, after 90 goalless minutes, this League Cup tie was destined to run on for a bit longer than we had hoped.

The first half of extra-time looked like being a tale of awful misses. A dreadful free-kick from Fofana drifted wide in the 94th minute, while Egueh's 97th-minute half-volley didn't get much closer to the target. Then came yet another wasted opportunity for Exeter, as substitute Lee O'Donnell prodded wide a shot that should've at least tested Tylak.

I was wondering how long the Grecians could go on blowing their chances. The answer was... not for much longer. Exeter defender Ash Nuttell broke through our defence with a fantastic direct pass to Hodgkiss, who cut the ball across our goalmouth for winger Kyle Dempsey to finish it at the back post. 1-0 to City, and it seemed that we were heading out of the League Cup with a whimper.

The second half was three minutes old when our trio of FIFA U20 World Cup stars linked up to try and save our League Cup hopes. Thompson knocked the ball across the pitch to right-back Ross Pearson, who floated an early cross to their England Under-20s colleague Egueh. Tristan leapt above Nuttell to power the cross home with his nut, and it was 1-1!

Alas, that goal would be to no avail, as Exeter regained their lead about 15 seconds after restarting play. Grecians midfielder Lewis Robinson fed the ball through to O'Donnell, who cut the ball past the rushing Tylak and made it 2-1.

The men from Devon were in heaven... and our League Cup hell continued. Although we won a couple of corners in the closing minutes, Exeter saw them off to close the match out. Another cup campaign came to a premature end for the Daggers, and our fans once again left Rainham Road in a despondent mood.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Egueh 108)

Exeter City - 2 (Dempsey 101, O'Donnell 109)

[after extra time]

League Cup Round 2, Attendance 5,771

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Tylak, Moser (Pearson), Radosavljevic, Kurtovic, Djuzel, Killick, Thompson, Fofana, Brkic, MacKenzie (Sverrisson), Honeyball (Egueh). BOOKED: Djuzel.

This was the fourth season in a row in which we'd been knocked out of the League Cup at the first attempt by a lower-league team. We've got serious motivational problems when it comes to that competition.

As if my week couldn't get any worse, the very next morning, Seb Brennan did his back in. Seb had suffered a lower back stress fracture and was unlikely to see any more gametime before November.

This could well be another season of struggle...

CFuller · August 7, 2017

SEPTEMBER 2035

The transfer window was closed at the end of August without us making much noise. There were no last-minute outgoings or incomings at Dagenham & Redbridge.

With just a few hours to go until the deadline, Championship leaders Stoke City attempted to sign our veteran striker Rob McLoughlin. Though Rob was arguably surplus to requirements at Rainham Road, I refused to let him go. We'd missed out on the loan signing of Chelsea striker Callum Lea earlier on deadline day after the Welshman rejected our offer, and I didn't have enough time to find another potential replacement for McLoughlin.

The following day was likely to be rather more hectic. Our home Premier League match against Reading was already looking like a must-win encounter for both sides. We were still hunting for our first win at Rainham Road, while the newly-promoted Royals were in last place without so much as a goal to their name.

1 September 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Reading

Reading had gone through plenty of suffering already this season, and we would give them more pain in the first half. Brazilian winger Joao picked up a rib injury after just five minutes and had to come off momentarily for some treatment. Four minutes later, our new ball-winning midfielder Oumar Fofana showed some aggression in a different sense, narrowly missing the target from close range.

Reading right-back Zema Hilton also went close, flighting a free-kick just over our bar after 14 minutes. That miss came in between a couple of attempts from Daggers striker Mark Washington, both of which were saved by Royals custodian Kaloyan Tunchev.

Our next attack, in the 24th minute, was a one-man assault led by Billy Stevenson. The playmaker received possession from Greg Killick deep in our half, and he proceeded to weave his way through the Reading defence before firing beyond Tunchev's reach! That was a sublime solo goal from Billy, who had ridden past a sliding tackle from Leigham Wilding in the process.

Wilding did stop another run from Stevenson in the 31st minute, but the Royals midfielder fouled him in doing so and picked up a booking. By the end of that minute, the visitors' plight had worsened. Washington got ahead of their centre-back Jesper Forsstrom to score from Albert Khumalo's right-wing cross and make it 2-0!

Things took a worrying turn late in the first half, as Stevenson and Matthew Fraser both picked up knocks. Billy and Matthew would stay on for the second period, but Oumar wouldn't after getting booked late on. William Barnes would take Fofana's place as we looked to see this victory through.

Washington had already scored four times in his first two-and-a-half matches for Dagenham, and he continued to pursue goals after the restart. The American hotshot had a drive blocked in the 53rd minute by Tunchev, who also kept out a strike from our other scorer Stevenson six minutes later.

Reading continued to look every inch the relegation favourites as Ronnie Potter's piledriver in the 62nd minute went clean over the bar. The Royals did get a shot on target after 81 minutes, when skipper Bobby Preece forced Daggers captain Kieran Whalley into action, but that was as good as it got for them.

Indeed, that was about as good as the second half got in general. This was a very scrappy match, with the referee blowing for 39 fouls (we 'won' 20-19 on that count) and handing out six yellow cards (three apiece). The last of Reading's fouls led to a chance for us to clinch a 3-0 win in the second minute of injury time.

Tunchev diverted a Washington free-kick against his goal frame before somehow keeping out a follow-up half-volley from Robbie MacKenzie. Although we wouldn't add to our two goals from the first half, the Daggers supporters were still delighted with a victory that finally made us feel at home!

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Stevenson 24, Washington 31)

Reading - 0

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 9th, Reading 20th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Mazzola, Killick, Fofana (Barnes), Fraser (Brkic), Stevenson, McLoughlin (MacKenzie), Washington. BOOKED: Stevenson, Fofana, Darvill.

It was just as well that we clinched our first Rainham Road win there and then. Our next home game was scheduled to be played a fortnight later, when we would be taking on the pre-season title favourites - Manchester City.

Before then, we had the usual September international break. Four Daggers - Oumar Fofana, Albert Khumalo, Tomo Kurtovic and Velimir Radosavljevic - added to their hauls of senior caps, and countless others represented their countries at youth level.

At around about the same time, Dagenham's Under-18s team moved into their new training ground. The ground formed part of our £5million training complex, which was still under construction. This project is on course to be completed by early January, and as soon as it is, our senior and reserve teams will move in as well.

Once all that was out of the way, we got straight back down to business on 15 September. Manchester City's players got up bright and early for a 12:45pm kick-off at Rainham Road, and we would need to be particularly alert against their fearsome attacking trident of Peter Jakubicka, Jozef Kral and Martin Klonz.

City had made an indifferent start to their Premier League title challenge. Nevertheless, Rogier Molhoek's side would still be incredibly difficult to beat, especially as we were without Matthew Fraser, who'd pulled his hamstring in our previous game and was still recovering from that.

15 September 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Manchester City

Manchester City's evergreen captain Martin Klonz gave us a real fright after six minutes. Italian magician Domenico Papa whipped in a dangerous corner delivery that the 33-year-old German flicked just over our crossbar.

Papa would go on to open the scoring from another corner in the 13th minute - but it was at the other end of the field! William Barnes floated the set-piece in for Dagenham, and Velimir Radosavljevic knocked it down to Billy Stevenson, whose volley deflected in off Papa's shin at the near post! Much to our fans' delight, we were 1-0 up on City!

A worrying start from the Citizens' perspective continued in the 17th minute, when a tackle from Barnes left Spain midfielder Kike Martínez with a twisted ankle. Martínez was able to play on, but his colleagues wasted a host of chances to draw level later in the first period.

We would often gift possession to our opponents by running straight at their defenders, or even just spraying around poor passes. Our wastefulness should've been punished in the 31st minute. The ball went loose after Stevo's slide tackle on Martínez, but Klonz knocked it into the path of Jozef Kral, who dribbled through our defence and had a powerful shot tipped behind by Kieran Whalley.

Kieran also kept out Harald Burkhard's half-volley from the resulting Papa corner as we took our narrow - and fortuitous - 1-0 lead into the break. However, we would have to go into the second half without our skipper Barnes, who suffered whiplash in a 36th-minute collision with City's Dino Laraia and had to come off. Whalley would take the captaincy in Barnesy's absence.

We'd spent much of the first half camped in our own half, and Manchester City made sure that was still the case after the restart. Our defenders showed tremendous spirit to keep the Citizens at bay early on, and right-winger Diogo Dias drove wide the visitors' first chance after 52 minutes.

Six minutes later, though, Dias finally broke through our watertight backline. The Portuguese superstar drove the ball across our goalmouth before Kral got in front of Daggers centre-half George Darvill to prod it into the bottom corner.

With our lead gone, we lost some of our inhibitions, and began attacking City a bit more. In the 62nd minute, striker Mark Washington fired a free-kick against the Citizens wall and then watched Stevenson volley the rebound high and wide. Washington had another free-kick in a shootable position ten minutes later, but that effort was blocked by the away side as well.

Our hopes of causing a shock took a massive dent in the 81st minute, as substitute forward Rob McLoughlin was injured in a challenge from City defender Willy Danza. Two minutes later, Klonz slotted the ball through to Kral in our penalty area. Whalley rushed out of his goal to parry the Slovakian's shot... but Klonz collected the rebound and tapped it into an empty net! Cries of offside from the Dagenham defenders went unheeded, and we fell 2-1 behind.

To be honest, we deserved what we got, having been far too careless with the ball throughout this match. Kieran did keep the deficit down by producing late saves from Kral and Peter Jakubicka, but losing to City by such a narrow margin left me wondering what could have been. Rogier Molhoek and his men had been there for the taking.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Papa og13)

Manchester City - 2 (Kral 58, Klonz 83)

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Man City 8th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Kurtovic, Djuzel, Killick, Stevenson, Barnes (Fofana), MacKenzie (McLoughlin (Washington)).

Surprisingly, the match that we were meant to play the following week had been rescheduled for October, so we now had another fortnight-long wait for our next game. While we prepared for our trip to Fulham at the end of September, I allowed reserve defender Jefferson Moran to rejoin non-league Swindon Town on loan for three months.

We would arrive at Craven Cottage with a virtually fully-fit squad, with only Seb Brennan unable to take part. Our hosts also had close to a full complement of players, but none of them looked in particularly hot form. This was Fulham's first season since billionaire owner/dictator Dmitrijs Morozs sold the club this summer, and they had started it with just one win from their opening five matches.

29 September 2035: Fulham vs Dagenham & Redbridge

We took six points off Fulham last term, and I fancied us to beat them again here. When right-back Albert Khumalo's drive skimmed their crossbar in the 4th minute, my faith didn't seem misguided. I was even more confident when Cottagers goalie Joe Allen saved efforts from Robbie MacKenzie in the 9th minute and William Barnes in the 11th.

By the 12th minute, we appeared to be in full control of this all-London clash. Mark Washington took the ball into the hosts' penalty area before squaring it to Billy Stevenson. The Yorkshireman's low bullet flew past Allen, securing us a 1-0 lead.

Our American striker had helped to give us the advantage... but another frontman from across the pond took it away eight minutes later. Daniele Gatti raced clear of Daggers centre-back Tomo Kurtovic to collect a chipped through-ball from his Fulham skipper Martyn Thomas. When Whalley charged like a madman from his six-yard box, the Californian was left with a simple finish for 1-1.

Our new dynamic duo of Stevenson and Washington nearly regained the advantage for us in the 22nd minute, but Allen kept out Mark's strike from Billy's through-ball. The third member of our attacking triumvirate - Robbie MacKenzie - nodded fellow Scotsman Matthew Fraser's corner over the bar shortly afterwards.

Those misses would cost us dear after 26 minutes. Daggers defender Velimir Radosavljevic did his best to try and head away Biyoko N'Gabsi's cross, but Fulham midfielder Cristiano Machado nodded it back to the far post, where Gatti finished for a second time. The Cottagers were 2-1 to the good, and they would stay ahead after an initially thrilling first half came to a rather lacklustre conclusion.

The second half was less than a minute old when Fulham's defensive stopper Ray Andrews left Stevenson with just enough room to thread an excellent ball to Washington in the area. Mark dribbled past a crowd of defenders to leave himself with a great opportunity, which he drilled wide.

Both teams then got stuck in with their tackling, and before long, the referee was dishing out yellow cards to Barnes and Machado. We showed just a bit more aggression than our opponents, especially when Washington brought down Andrews after an hour. Mark's tackle wasn't that malicious, to be fair to him, but Andrews tore his hamstring in the impact and was stretchered off.

Fraser then flew in on Machado six minutes later, only to take himself out of the game after injuring his knee! Matthew's exit would prove to be a devastating blow to us. We threatened to implode again in the 70th minute, when left-back Ante Djuzel was booked for barging into N'Gabsi.

It didn't come as much of a surprise when, after 75 minutes, Gatti floored us with a knockout blow. It came about after Hamzah Jaafar conceded a free-kick in a dangerous position, and George Darvill failed to clear the subsequent delivery from Fulham left-back Mathieu Retailleau. Cottagers substitute Faisal Mensah took advantage by flicking the ball forward to Gatti, who clinched his hat-trick from close range.

Much like against Manchester City, we only had ourselves to blame for throwing this match away. This time, it was a lack of discipline that saw us go from 1-0 leaders to 3-1 losers. I would have to address that issue before future matches.

Fulham - 3 (Gatti 20,26,75)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Stevenson 12)

Premier League, Attendance 25,700 - POSITIONS: Fulham 12th, Dag & Red 16th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic (Jaafar), Darvill, Kurtovic, Khumalo, Djuzel, Barnes (Thompson), Fraser (Brkic), Stevenson, MacKenzie, Washington. BOOKED: Barnes, Djuzel.

As you'd expect, I was absolutely livid - how could our defenders have let Daniele Gatti run the show like that?

My mood didn't improve a great deal when I heard that Matthew Fraser had strained his knee ligaments. Our playmaker now faces at least six weeks on the sidelines, and it seems that his old injury demons have resurfaced. Oh joy.

CFuller · August 7, 2017

Premier League Table (End of September 2035)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          West Ham               5     4     1     0     13    1     +12   13
2.          Man City               6     4     1     1     16    6     +10   13
3.          Arsenal                6     4     1     1     11    4     +7    13
4.          Liverpool              6     4     0     2     12    6     +6    12
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.          Burnley                5     4     0     1     10    8     +2    12
6.          Chelsea                6     3     2     1     13    5     +8    11
7.          Man Utd                6     3     2     1     12    7     +5    11
8.          Derby                  6     3     1     2     13    8     +5    10
9.          Wolves                 6     3     1     2     10    10    0     10
10.         Nottm Forest           6     3     1     2     9     11    -2    10
11.         West Brom              6     3     0     3     8     11    -3    9
12.         Fulham                 6     2     2     2     7     9     -2    8
13.         Rochdale               6     2     1     3     6     6     0     7
14.         Southampton            5     2     0     3     5     6     -1    6
15.         Norwich                6     1     2     3     8     16    -8    5
16.         Dag & Red              5     1     1     3     7     9     -2    4
17.         Tottenham              6     1     1     4     4     16    -12   4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.         Aston Villa            6     1     0     5     9     15    -6    3
19.         Sheff Utd              6     1     0     5     3     12    -9    3
20.         Reading                6     0     1     5     0     10    -10   1

CFuller · August 8, 2017

OCTOBER 2035

As we rolled into October, I summoned my team to a meeting to seriously discuss our tactics. I was particularly keen to crack down on our fouling, as we were conceding far too many free-kicks and picking up too many yellow cards for my liking.

"You've got to rein it in, lads," I told them. "You must know by now that Premier League referees don't take too kindly to aggressive play. If you carry on as you are now, you're going to be picking up a load of red cards, and then we'd be in serious trouble."

I also looked directly ahead to our next match, at home to a newly-promoted Aston Villa team who'd made a poor start to life back in the top flight. I'd sensed a potential weakness in Villa's 36-year-old centre-back Chad Gauss, and I felt that 19-year-old Tristan Egueh had the ability to pounce on the legendary Canadian's flaws.

"Chad Gauss has been there, done that, and bought the bloody T-shirt business," I began. "He's won goodness knows how many major trophies with Manchester City, and he's one of the greatest defenders of his generation. These days, however, he's as slow as a snail on the back of a tortoise.

"Tristan, you've got pace to burn and a cool head. You can handle him, can't you?"

Tristan nodded confidently. He would lead the Dagenham frontline alongside Mark Washington when Steven Davis' Villans arrived at Rainham Road. Although Villa had won their most recent game 4-3 against Liverpool, they had conceded at least twice in all of their competitive fixtures so far, so a goalfest looked likely.

6 October 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Aston Villa

Both sides showed plenty of anxiety early on, but we were quicker to settle down than our opponents. Aston Villa left-back Jon Fleming looked a bag of nerves in the 18th minute, when he tried to clear Albert Khumalo's cross out of his area. Billy Stevenson brilliantly closed Fleming's clearance down and chested it to Mark Washington, who drove the ball comfortably past goalkeeper Jonathan Hudson. Washington was well offside, though, and so the Villans were let off the hook.

The visitors had another narrow escape on 19 minutes, as Stevenson's volley from another dangerous Khumalo cross was pushed behind by Hudson. It wouldn't be long, though, before the levee broke. In the 27th minute, Villa once again failed to keep tabs on Albert, who drove the ball across their goalmouth. Up popped Tristan Egueh, who beat his marker Chad Gauss and tapped us into the lead!

My plan was working, and we could've gone two up on 29 minutes, but Hudson did well to save another effort from Stevenson. The tide could've turned when Daggers captain William Barnes came off with a dead leg after 33 minutes, but substitute Martin Thompson managed to keep our momentum going.

In the 37th minute, a fantastic first-time pass from Martin found Billy, who knocked the ball into the area for Tristan to run onto it and tuck away his second goal! The Villans were clearly unable to cope with our pacey teenage frontman! Although Villa did register their first shot on target in the 41st minute through captain Mostafa Youssef, there was no doubt that we were on top after the opening half.

Khumalo had been excellent in the first half, but the South African seemed to lose his way a bit after the restart. On 48 minutes, he was booked following a trip on Aston Villa striker Harvey Jeffs. Four minutes later, Albert was beaten in the air by Villa's other frontman Bruno Vukcevic, but the Bosnian's header from Youssef's corner went inches over the bar.

In the 63rd minute, Daggers midfielder Oumar Fofana hacked down Villa defender Théo Forster right on the edge of our penalty area. Egypt right-winger Youssef took the resulting free-kick... and curled it just wide. That was the Villans' last chance to get back in the game before we effectively killed them off in the 68th minute. Egueh versus Gauss wasn't so much a case of 'boy versus man' as 'boy versus pensioner', and our fresh-faced striker once again got the better of the Canadian codger by driving in Mark's flick-on! That goal secured Tristan's hat-trick, which was the first for Dagenham & Redbridge in the Premier League!

Egueh had just made a legendary centre-half look like a rank amateur, and it wouldn't be long before Villa boss Steve Davis brought Gauss' nightmare to an end. Gauss was subbed in the 74th minute, and Tristan followed him off the pitch a minute later, to a standing ovation at Rainham Road! This 19-year-old lad - originally from Djibouti, but now an England youth international - had come of age.

Rob McLoughlin came on in Egueh's place, and he wasted little time in making his mark on the game. McLoughlin collected the ball from Fofana before finding Washington in space and watching the American drill in our fourth goal of the afternoon!

Aston Villa had been soundly beaten, but they wouldn't give up on at least making the scoreline less embarrassing. Slovenian midfielder Aljaz Mavric hit the bar with a free-kick in the 80th minute, and Czech right-back Petr Jelinek got the chance to score from another dead ball three minutes later. Thompson conceded a penalty to the Villans, and although 'Jelly Legs' saw his penalty parried by Whalley, the follow-up shot found the net.

The visitors would go on to bag another consolation goal in the 88th minute through the lightning-quick Jeffs, who made it 4-2. However, another speed demon had already won the day for Dagenham. Take a bow, Tristan Egueh!

Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Egueh 27,37,68, Washington 77)

Aston Villa - 2 (Jelinek 83, Jeffs 88)

Premier League, Attendance 16,797 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Aston Villa 18th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo (Pearson), Darvill, Jaafar, Mazzola, Killick, Fofana, Barnes (Thompson), Stevenson, Washington, Egueh (McLoughlin). BOOKED: Khumalo, Killick.

An impressive win had put us four points clear of the drop zone, and with a game in hand on most of the teams below us. Although we weren't much better than we had been this time last year, we were still looking very good for survival.

If there was a minor cause of concern, it was at the back. Kieran Whalley had conceded seven goals in his last three games, and that left his deputy Mariusz Tylak hankering for some more first-team action.

Tylak came into my office the following week, just before I went off to manage the Norway team in their final two qualifiers for UEFA Euro 2036. The Pole demand that he either get a run in the first-team or at least a temporary loan to a lower-league club. I refused to give him either option, because I still needed him as backup, lest Whalley pick up an injury.

Mariusz was not a happy bunny. He sulked off and refused to talk to me for the rest of the week.

I've had plenty of rows with second-choice goalkeepers in the past, and I'm not one to bow to their demands. If Tylak wants to be part of this Dagenham & Redbridge squad, he has to accept that he's little more than Whalley's deputy. Like it or lump it, Mariusz.

oche balboa · August 8, 2017

Great stuff have been hoping that Tristan Egueh makes it into your team for a while

CFuller · August 8, 2017

26 minutes ago, oche balboa said:

Great stuff have been hoping that Tristan Egueh makes it into your team for a while

I love it when any of my youth products break through into the first team and become regular starters. Honeyball and Darvill are my personal favourites, but Tristan Egueh is quite special as well.

Egueh is the most exciting striker ever to have come out of my academy (though Elliot Cook from last season's intake might have something to say about that). He's also the first youth player I've had who's been described in-game as a 'wonderkid'. Then there's the fact that he was born in Djibouti, which I find quite neat! He must surely be Djibouti's greatest ever footballer by now!

CFuller · August 9, 2017

OCTOBER 2035 (continued)

The mid-October international break went quite well for me. Norway might have already failed to qualify for UEFA Euro 2036, but a couple of home wins were enough to keep me in an international job. For some of my Daggers players, though, the break brought mixed news.

Mark Washington continued his 'annus mirabilis' by setting up a goal as his beloved United States came from behind to win 3-2 in Austria. South African Albert Khumalo and Malian Oumar Fofana both enjoyed victories in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, and Tomo Kurtovic had a couple of solid performances in Croatia's defence.

Sadly, Tomo's compatriot Ante Djuzel twisted his ankle in the first leg of Croatia Under-21s' European Championship qualifier against Germany, which they would lose on aggregate. George Darvill had better luck for England in the same competition, as victory over Ukraine saw George and his fellow Young Lions advance to next summer's finals in Sweden.

Because of that ankle injury, Ante would miss at least our next three Premier League games, all of which were away from home. Our other left-back Rocco Mazzola would be under pressure to stay fit and put in strong performances, particularly in the first of those matches.

Our league campaign resumed with a trip to the Emirates Stadium, where we famously defeated Arsenal 2-1 in April to end their title ambitions. I had plenty of reason to believe that a repeat performance was possible.

Although Arsenal had won their first four PL games this season, they only took two points from their next three and were low on confidence. Gunners captain Clive Johnson was looking particularly under the weather. Having seen his previous campaign wrecked by injuries, the 33-year-old striker had scored just once in seven league matches this term - a terrible record for someone who's used to hoovering up the goals.

20 October 2035: Arsenal vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Velimir Radosavljevic scored our first goal when we last visited the Emirates Stadium, and lightning almost struck twice here. The Serbian met Robbie MacKenzie's 3rd-minute free-kick with an impressive header that narrowly cleared the crossbar.

Arsenal retaliated with a 7th-minute drive from Shane Hay that Kieran Whalley just about diverted away from goal. Kieran continued to resist the Gunners' shots, keeping out an angled effort from winger Plínio in the 12th minute and then a headed attempt from Hay four minutes later.

Then, in the 19th minute, came an incident that more closely resembled pinball than football. Daggers defender George Darvill intercepted a Plínio corner, and the ball fell to his colleague Velimir, who tried to hoof it upfield! However, the ball struck Gunners midfielder Liam Wood and deflected goalwards prompting William Barnes to nod it off the goal line! Arsenal's Marijan Djulic then attempted to flick the ball across to his centre-back partner Álvaro José at the far post, but the Brazilian slipped and allowed Will to finally hack it away! What on Earth did the home side have to do to score?

We continued to defend deep - and, to a lesser extent, ride our luck - in the latter part of the first half. Hay ran at our defence in the 24th minute, only to be thwarted once again by an inspired Whalley. That was followed by a string of Dagenham counter-attacks, none of which went particularly close to finding the Arsenal net.

Perhaps our best chance before the interval was from leading scorer Mark Washington, whose free-kick rattled the crossbar on 38 minutes. The Gunners attacked again a minute later, but Hay's header from Gordon Hubbuck's cross wasn't quite enough to get beyond Whalley. This was turning into a goalkeeping clinic from the 24-year-old - but the question was, how long could Kieran keep his sheet clean for?

The answer to that question was... longer than I'd expected, to be truthful. Whalley carried on frustrating Hay in the 49th minute, when he tipped the England forward's header over the bar. That was to be Hay's last scoring chance in this match, and Arsenal would have to look elsewhere for a potential breakthrough.

After 56 minutes, Gunners left-back Manu Torbellino knocked the ball past our right-back Albert Khumalo and to the feet of Plínio, who drove it into the side netting. Six minutes after that, Albert looked to attack Torbellino, gliding past the Spaniard before unluckily scooping a shot over.

Our counter-attacking game was now really starting to come into fruition, while Arsenal were becoming more fatigued. Gunners goalkeeper Shaun Murat had seen little in the way of action before he caught a Radosavljevic header in the 73rd minute. The Canadian also kept out a low strike from our Malian midfielder Oumar Fofana after 81 minutes.

By the 85th minute, though, Arsenal were back on the offensive and putting our defence under further strain. A poor slide tackle from Daggers left-back Rocco Mazzola in our penalty area knocked the ball from Wood's feet and to Clive Johnson's. The Arsenal and England skipper quickly knocked the ball through to Thulani Kama, who struck it against the post.

The South African midfielder could've clinched the game there... but just moments later, one of his compatriots did create the winning goal. That man was Khumalo, who was involved in a quick Dagenham counterstrike that resulted in him setting up a lethal finish from Oumar! To misquote the old commentator Peter Drury, "GOAL, FOFANA, FOFANA!"

It looked like we had recorded another memorable smash-and-grab win in North London, but we couldn't count our chickens just yet. Wood tried to drive in an equaliser for Arsenal in the 89th minute, only for Whalley to produce another excellent save that preserved his clean sheet and earned us all three points.

Arsenal - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Fofana 85)

Premier League, Attendance 60,361 - POSITIONS: Arsenal 7th, Dag & Red 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Kurtovic, Khumalo, Mazzola, Fofana, Barnes, Stevenson (Brkic), MacKenzie, Washington (Egueh).

That was a big result. Last season, it took us until December to record our third Premier League win, so to reach that point at a much earlier stage was vital.

We had the following weekend off before returning to action on Halloween against Southampton at St Mary's, where - you may remember - we won 4-0 last term! Surely it was too much to ask for a repeat... or was it?

The Saints marched to 4th place last season, but they'd spent the first part of this campaign marching back down again. Two wins from their first eight games had left Southampton in 16th, and after a 7-0 humiliation at the hands of Manchester United, manager Thomas O'Brien found his job under serious threat.

31 October 2035: Southampton vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Southampton's new Australian right-winger Nick Foster had their first shot after two minutes, when he powered left-back Peter Beardsley's centre wide. In the 10th minute, left-winger Branko Simeunovic floated a cross to frontman Maurice Hockley, whose header was caught by Kieran Whalley. 22-year-old Hockley had won his first England caps earlier this year and was high on confidence, as he showed two minutes later. A poor interception by Daggers captain William Barnes from Beardsley's cross gifted Hockley one of the simplest goals he'll score this season.

After going behind, we had a couple of chances to draw level. Tomo Kurtovic's 14th-minute header was saved by Saints keeper Adaílson, but his fellow centre-half Velimir Radosavljevic would go one better two minutes later. Although Velimir's header from Robbie MacKenzie's free-kick hit the post, he converted the rebound to get us back on terms!

Adaílson then had to prevent Barnes and later Mark Washington from giving us the advantage shortly afterwards. Then, after 27 minutes, things went horribly wrong for our third central defender. George Darvill was concussed in an aerial collision with Hockley, and the man who'd been ever-present for us in our Premier League adventures was forced to come off.

John Moser slotted into our defence and helped us to shut the Saints out for the rest of the first period. Foster had a great opportunity to breach us in the 42nd minute, but Whalley saved to deny him what would've been a great solo goal. At the other end, Adaílson pushed away an injury-time effort from MacKenzie that could've sent us into the break with a narrow lead.

Southampton made the brighter start to the second half, with midfielder Antoni Tanev forcing Whalley into a difficult parry after 49 minutes. In the 62nd minute, Saints substitute Jason Pack chested the ball towards Foster, who half-volleyed it wide.

MacKenzie then pulled a shot wide for the Daggers in the 66th minute before the game took a decisive turn two minutes later. Pack crossed from the right to Tanev in our penalty area, and the Bulgarian went down under a slide tackle from Tomo Kurtovic. The referee had no hesitation in awarding Southampton a spot-kick, which Hockley emphatically fired beyond Kieran's reach.

That made it 2-1 to the Saints, but we were determined to peg them back and put ourselves in a strong position again. We went more direct in an attempt to force an equaliser... but we couldn't fashion a serious chance before Hockley killed us off with five minutes to play. A 25-yard bullet into the far end of the net ensured that Hockley would replicate his hat-trick against us at Victoria Road last season.

Indeed, a FOURTH goal could've followed after 88 minutes. Thanfully, a fine catch from Whalley ensured that a poor scoreline from our viewpoint at least remained respectable.

Southampton - 3 (Hockley 12,pen68,85)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Radosavljevic 16)

Premier League, Attendance 25,501 - POSITIONS: Southampton 14th, Dag & Red 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic (Darvill), Kurtovic, Khumalo (Jaafar), Mazzola, Fofana, Barnes, Stevenson (Brkic), MacKenzie, Washington.

Maurice Hockley was the third player to score a hat-trick against us this season, and we are only just about to enter November. That is somewhat worrying.

Another cause for concern is that George Darvill will miss our next match with concussion. We've become so used to having the dependable 22-year-old in our backline, so how can we cope without him?

CFuller · August 10, 2017

NOVEMBER 2035

November began with the news that our young midfielder Neil McCann had been named the Championship's Player of the Month whilst on loan at Bradford City. Perhaps just as significant was that his fellow Daggers prospect Dave Hutchinson, who's on loan with Leeds United, had come second in the running.

Dave and Neil have now won the Championship Young Player of the Month award once apiece this season - Hutch took it in August, and McCann of course followed in October. I'll tell you what, those lads are going to be seriously good in the future if they keep on developing as quickly as they are.

Martin Thompson is another very exciting midfielder in the Daggers ranks. I gave the 19-year-old his first Premier League start when we took on 9th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Remember, this was our first PL game without the defensive services of the concussed George Darvill.

3 November 2035: Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Wolves took the game to us from the third minute, when winger Garry Steadman got his head to right-back Peter Adam's cross and tested Daggers goalie Kieran Whalley. Five minutes later, our left-back Rocco Mazzola brilliantly intercepted Wolves striker Marcelo Galeano Zarza's attempted through-ball. I was about to commend Rocco for his composure when Galeano Zarza rushed forward to cut out his back-pass to Whalley! Had Kieran not reacted quickly and blocked the Paraguayan's shot, our Italian defender would've had pizza on his face.

Whalley's Wanderers counterpart Marat Lepilov was first called into action in the 14th minute, when he saved a half-volley from Martin Thompson. That was to be an all-too-rare attack from Dagenham. Galeano Zarza had further chances to put Wolves ahead from a tight angle a minute later, but Whalley produced a couple of determined blocks. The Mancunian goalie then saved a drive from young Danish midfielder Morten Larsen in the 19th minute.

At the other end, Lepilov caught a disappointing free-kick from Mark Washington on 28 minutes. The hosts countered a minute late... and they won a penalty after Mazzola hacked down Brazil international Matheus in the Daggers area. Surely this was Galeano Zarza's moment to open the scoring?

It wasn't to be, however, as Kieran bailed Rocco out again by guessing the penalty correctly! Whalley's heroics barely disguised the fact that we were perhaps playing too slowly for our own good. We would have to up the pace in the second period, otherwise a win for Wolves was looking unavoidable.

We approached the second half with more urgency... and I would have a quick decision to make when Thompson was injured by Wolves midfielder Michael Zelenka in the 47th minute. Martin had sustained a dead leg, but I decided to keep him on the pitch for a bit longer before sending William Barnes on as a replacement.

By then, Galeano Zarza had wasted two more scoring chances for Wanderers. The Paraguayan was enduring one of the worst performances I'd ever seen from a centre-forward. Not even manager Ben Turner's decision to move Steadman up front alongside his star striker could make a difference.

Our own attack was not much more potent, mind. The hosts' Russian goalkeeper Lepilov had only a couple of saves to make in this half - and both were from long-distance strikes by Daggers midfielder Oumar Fofana. Meanwhile, Wolves picked up a couple of late yellow cards on their way to conceding an incredible 23 fouls. To be honest, neither side would remember this 0-0 draw with much fondness.

Wolverhampton Wanderers - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 25,618 - POSITIONS: Wolves 9th, Dag & Red 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo (Pearson), Radosavljevic, Moser, Mazzola, Killick, Thompson (Barnes), Fofana, Stevenson, McLoughlin, Washington (Honeyball).

It turned out that we didn't really need George Darvill there. Nevertheless, he returned to the side when we travelled to Nottingham Forest a week later. Left-back Ante Djuzel was also back in the squad after recovering from a twisted ankle, although midfielder Matthew Fraser was not quite ready to return from his knee injury.

While our injury problems had largely subsided, 12th-placed Forest were in the middle of an injury crisis. New manager Malky Mackay (yes, he's still going, at 63 years of age!) was without no fewer than SIX first-team regulars, including captain Bernard Bell, vice-skipper Arjan Krasniqi, and England international midfielder John Woods.

10 November 2035: Nottingham Forest vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Nottingham Forest didn't want to lose any more players to injury, so they were probably fearing the worst when midfielder Anthony Whitton hurt his shin in a 7th-minute tackle from Greg Killick. The former Arsenal man was able to carry on, and Forest were soon pulling up trees aplenty.

After nine minutes, captain Jens Meertens frightened our backline into action with his header from Stefan Thulin's cross. Albert Khumalo saved our skins by nodding it away just in time, but the Daggers right-back was guilty of a critical lapse in concentration two minutes later. He allowed French winger Mathieu Auffret to cut inside and enter the area, and when Albert did finally commit to a tackle, it was too late. Auffret fired Forest into a 1-0 lead... and things would soon get worse for us.

You see, the Tricky Trees had a talented South African right-back of their own in Lefa Khambule. When Khambule's first-time cross was headed home by Terry Swann, we found ourselves 2-0 behind after 19 minutes.

Khambule could've helped make it 3-0 barely a minute later by setting up Manuel Chacón, whose drive was tipped behind by Kieran Whalley. Chacón was playing with a rib injury that he'd sustained earlier on, but the hosts' wounded warriors would be dishing out the pain after 26 minutes. After Killick fouled Chacón on the edge of our 'D', Thulin fired a free-kick that deflected in off George Darvill's head. We were 3-0 down to a Nottingham Forest team devoid of around half their regular starting XI!

Swann and Chacón pushed for a fourth home goal later on before we finally pulled ourselves together in the 43rd minute. Mark Washington lobbed the ball over a hesitant Forest defence and to Robbie MacKenzie, who got past goalie Alex Albert and sidefooted in his first goal of the season. Was that to be a false dawn or the start of a sensational comeback?

By the 51st minute, the latter was looking surprisingly likely. Nottingham Forest's defenders dozed off again, allowing Robbie to nod in a deep cross from William Barnes and reduce our arrears to 3-2! The game had almost been turned on its head - and now we were looking the more determined team!

A long ball from Rocco Mazzola cut through Forest in the 58th minute and teed up Washington, but Mark's low drive was wide of the mark. Another sign that we were close to equalising came in the 64th minute, when Velimir Radosavljevic's header was tipped behind by Alex Albert.

The ball would end up in the net for a sixth time on 69 minutes... but that net belonged to us. Whitton flicked Forest right-back Theodor Nedyalkov's cross towards goal, and Swann outjumped Whalley to finish it off. However, Swann had impeded our keeper in the process, and the score remained at 3-2... for another three minutes.

Forest came crashing down again when Robbie ran onto Stipo Brkic's incisive pass and rubber-stamped a perfect hat-trick! Goal number 1 had been scored with his right foot, number 2 with his head, and number 3 with his left foot!

The comeback was complete, but Robbie was soon looking to head in a fourth goal! Alas, his connection with Washington's cross in the 76th minute flew just too high, and the game remained level. Alex Albert kept it that way by saving an 86th-minute free-kick from Killick. To be truthful, I was rather disappointed at full-time, having seen us come so close to winning the game from 3-0 behind. MacKenzie had spearheaded a late comeback, but questions once again had to be asked about our defence.

Nottingham Forest - 3 (Auffret 11, Swann 19, Thulin 26)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (MacKenzie 43,51,72)

Premier League, Attendance 17,914 - POSITIONS: Nottm Forest 11th, Dag & Red 15th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Kurtovic (Brennan), Khumalo (Pearson), Mazzola, Barnes, Killick, Brkic, MacKenzie, Washington (Egueh). BOOKED: Killick.

We would now have around a fortnight to prepare for our next two games, both at home. We were still four points above the drop, but I felt that we had to beat either Derby County or Sheffield United to keep us clear.

CFuller · August 11, 2017

NOVEMBER 2035 (continued)

I fear that Matthew Fraser's old injury problems have returned with a vengeance. Just days after returning to full training following a knee ligament injury, Fraser picked up a groin strain during a reserve match. His first-team comeback would therefore have to be pushed further back, to December at the earliest.

Five Daggers represented their countries at senior level during the November international break, with Velimir Radosavljevic doing particularly well to help Serbia draw 0-0 against France (ranked 2nd in the world). It's also worth noting that Dave Hutchinson won his first cap for England Under-21s in an away friendly against Russia. Incidentally, George Darvill now had 25 caps at that level.

We would later resume our Premier League campaign at home to Derby County. John Sullivan's Rams had defied pre-season predictions of a relegation battle to climb into the top five, but I had faith that we could knock them back down a peg or two.

24 November 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Derby County

A fortnight on from his match-saving hat-trick against Nottingham Forest, Robbie MacKenzie looked to take the fight to another East Midlands team. The big Scot was booked after seven minutes for pushing Derby defender Larry Coburn. Five minutes later, we survived a low drive from Rams midfielder Andreas Ilia that drifted miles off target.

Our first attempt at goal, after 18 minutes, was rather more impressive. George Darvill nodded Seb Brennan's corner on to Hamzah Jaafar at the far post, and the Austrian centre-half got above Derby midfielder Matt Hopkins to head in his first competitive goal for us!

That opener gave us the confidence to push our opponents even further back. Although Stipo Brkic hit an awful shot in the 21st minute, MacKenzie went rather closer to doubling our advantage in the 27th minute. Robbie couldn't quite get his header from an Albert Khumalo centre beyond the hands of Derby goalkeeper Marko Stipic. The young Croat would also keep out a low drive from MacKenzie in the 33rd minute and a close-range effort from Tristan Egueh in the 36th.

Tristan went for goal again three minutes before half-time. The 20-year-old striker took on a lovely direct ball from Stipo and then delighted the home fans by driving it past Stipic! Leading 2-0 at Rainham Road against Derby, it seemed that nothing could go wrong for the Daggers.

Then, in the final minute of first-half stoppage time, our captain William Barnes lost his marbles. Barnesy scuffed a shocking back-pass into the path of Danish striker Nikolaj Gyldenohr, who took advantage by driving in Derby's first goal of the afternoon! I desperately hoped it would be the last.

Will's late assist for County prompted me to make some half-time changes in a bid to prevent our opponents from taking control. A couple of subs were brought on, including Mark Washington, whose awful half-volley in the 54th minute was a sign of horrible Dagenham finishing to come.

Washington would make an even worse mistake three minutes after that big miss. Derby right-back Pedro Henriquez curled a cross into our penalty area, and Mark's scuffed clearance bounced off Henriquez' left-sided colleague Jon Falt Ohr before deflecting to Steve Heaton. Former Leeds United goal machine Heaton notched up his eighth goal since moving to Pride Park in the summer, and it was now 2-2.

The Rams then butted us on the counter-attack two minutes later, as Heaton found Marcus Pitman in acres of space and then watched the left-winger turn a 2-0 Derby deficit into a 3-2 lead! I was absolutely beside myself with rage. Things could've been oh-so-different had our captain not lost his concentration upon smelling the half-time oranges!

The final half-hour showed exactly how low we were on self-belief. Washington's excellent start to the season looked a distant memory when our record signing headed over the Derby bar in the 64th minute. Egueh was our in-form frontman, but the youngster's 68th-minute drive from distance didn't cause Stipic too much bother.

More misses would follow from Darvill, Washington, and Barnes, who wasted an opportunity to redeem himself after 76 minutes. Our most agonising moment would come four minutes after that. Mark hoisted a free-kick into the Rams' penalty box, and Oumar Fofana's header came back off the crossbar before Brennan half-volleyed it inches wide. Seb had never scored for Dagenham, and that statistic remained unchanged, though he did test Stipic with our final shot on target in the last minute of normal time.

By full-time, we'd managed 26 shots at goal to Derby's four, but - crucially - our visitors had scored from 75% of their chances and won the game. As much as one could argue that we'd thrown it away, there also had to be admiration for the Rams' fighting spirit and clinical finishing.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Jaafar 18, Egueh 42)

Derby County - 3 (Gyldenohr 45, Heaton 57, Pitman 59)

Premier League, Attendance 16,662 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 16th, Derby 3rd

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Jaafar, Darvill, Mazzola, Brennan, Barnes, Killick (Fofana), Brkic (Stevenson), MacKenzie (Washington), Egueh. BOOKED: MacKenzie, Killick.

I struggled to keep my anger in check at the post-match press conference. "A lot of players have let me down massively today," I told the journalists. "There will be repercussions."

William Barnes' back-pass from hell had been the catalyst for our collapse. Will would not be in the squad for our midweek home game against Sheffield United, and I warned him that he would lose the captaincy if he didn't up his game quickly.

All in all, there would be seven changes to the starting line-up for United's visit to Rainham Road. Only Kieran Whalley, George Darvill, Seb Brennan and Robbie MacKenzie kept their places. Kieran was especially under pressure to produce a better performance, as I had plans to put Mariusz Tylak back in goal if he didn't.

Sheffield United were third-from-bottom and had won just twice in the Premier League thus far this season. Those victories had come at home against fellow promotees Reading and Aston Villa, who were alongside them in the relegation zone. To lose against them on our own turf would be devastating.

There were a couple more reasons why this game was a must-win encounter for us. The first was that this was our game in hand on most teams, and defeat would leave us just a single point above the bottom three.

The second reason was that our next four matches after this would be against West Ham United, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. We didn't want to be facing four of last season's top seven in consecutive games while in the middle of a bad run.

28 November 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Sheffield United

Robbie MacKenzie was our greatest attacking threat in the opening stages. A sixth-minute half-volley from the Scot forced Sheffield United keeper Ross Archer into a difficult parry. MacKenzie did beat Archer with a deft header at the near post four minutes later... but the goal was ruled out after he was ruled to have pushed Blades defender Lloyd Watts.

United then launched a couple of counter-attacks, the first of which ended with Ido Haliva volleying the ball inches over our crossbar on 12 minutes. Six minutes after that, the Israeli striker intercepted a back-pass from Martin Thompson to Tomo Kurtovic. Haliva glided past Tomo to leave himself clean through, and the end result was a 1-0 lead to Sheffield United. I sarcastically muttered to myself, "Well, it just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

Things would actually get better for us, though, starting from the 32nd minute. We quickly and fluently passed the ball around the visiting players before Thompson found John Moser in the penalty area. Blades left-winger Jon Tolley's slide tackle on Moser could only knock the ball on to Washington, who ended a five-game goal drought with a poacher's finish!

The American hotshot had drawn us level, and he would go one better for us in the 36th minute. After United midfielder Jakub Pacak held back Billy Stevenson just outside the penalty area, Washington curled the resulting free-kick exquisitely into the top corner! That four-minute double salvo from Mark sent us into the break with a 2-1 lead.

Archer prevented us from stretching our lead early in the second period by saving promising efforts from Moser and MacKenzie. His counterpart in the Daggers goal, Kieran Whalley, would make his first save of the match after 61 minutes. It was a straightforward one from a long-distance header by Aaron Byrne.

Sheffield United then had a questionable claim for a penalty waved away before one of their own Blades stabbed them in the foot in the 67th minute. Dutch defender Rene van der Laan flew in on Washington with a late tackle in the centre circle, prompting referee Steve Norman to quickly reach for his red card!

With our opponents down a man, we looked to close the match out by keeping hold of possession as much as we could. Every now and then, though, we lost focus and let United back into the game. Haliva looked set to equalise when he ran onto Perry Cousins' cross into our area in the 75th minute, but Kieran was in just the right place to deflect the ball away!

We had another close call on 83 minutes, as the Blades' substitute midfielder Bjorn Melander swerved a shot narrowly over. Our biggest let-off would come in injury time. Cousins was left in too much space when he received a cross from Bojan Dumitraskovic, but his attempt to beat Whalley bypassed the far post. And so, after a much tougher struggle than I had anticipated, we held on and claimed three valuable points in our quest for Premier League consolidation.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Washington 32,36)

Sheffield United - 1 (Haliva 18)

Premier League, Attendance 17,699 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 14th, Sheff Utd 18th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Kurtovic, Darvill, Djuzel, Brennan, Thompson, Fofana (Killick), Stevenson (Brkic), MacKenzie, Washington (Honeyball).

Thank frig for that.

We're now seven points ahead of the bottom three, who look increasingly like being cut adrift. That's given us a bit more breathing space ahead of a potentially nightmarish December that'll see us play most of the big boys. Frankly, we'll need all the leeway we can get.

CFuller · August 11, 2017

Premier League Table (End of November 2035)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Man Utd                13    9     2     2     41    11    +30   29
2.          Arsenal                12    7     3     2     19    7     +12   24
3.          Fulham                 13    7     3     3     23    17    +6    24
4.          Man City               12    7     2     3     29    12    +17   23
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.          West Ham               13    6     5     2     19    9     +10   23
6.          Derby                  12    7     2     3     25    17    +8    23
7.          Burnley                13    7     2     4     21    16    +5    23
8.          Chelsea                13    6     3     4     24    14    +10   21
9.          Liverpool              12    6     2     4     19    14    +5    20
10.         Southampton            13    6     1     6     17    19    -2    19
11.         Wolves                 13    4     6     3     17    19    -2    18
12.         Nottm Forest           13    5     2     6     22    23    -1    17
13.         West Brom              12    5     2     5     16    17    -1    17
14.         Dag & Red              12    4     3     5     20    21    -1    15
15.         Rochdale               13    3     6     4     11    13    -2    15
16.         Tottenham              13    3     4     6     10    29    -19   13
17.         Norwich                13    2     5     6     15    32    -17   11
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.         Sheff Utd              13    2     2     9     12    23    -11   8
19.         Aston Villa            14    1     2     11    15    41    -26   5
20.         Reading                12    1     1     10    4     25    -21   4

CFuller · August 14, 2017

DECEMBER 2035

Another award headed Dave Hutchinson's way when our 20-year-old midfielder was named as the Championship Player of the Month for November. Hutch had been superb for Leeds United during his loan spell this season, although the Whites were seriously floundering in the relegation zone.

Back in the Premier League, we were a fair way clear of that dreaded relegation zone. However, with four extremely difficult matches to come in the next fortnight or so, our survival credentials were about to be put through a major stress test.

Our toughest run of the season so far began at the glorified white elephant otherwise known as the Olympic Stadium. We grabbed a famous away win against local rivals West Ham United back in January, but the Hammers had since bounced back with a vengeance. A strong start to Paul Clement's first full season as manager had put West Ham right in the mix for a surprise title tilt.

1 December 2035: West Ham United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

West Ham's widemen were at the heart of their early attacks at the Olympic Stadium. Fortunately for us, neither Jérémy Jossic nor Patrik Petrus could get near the target with their opening shots in the first five minutes. Our first shot on target came in the 18th minute, when Mark Washington fired a strong free-kick that couldn't quite beat Carlton John-Lewis in the Hammers' goal.

John-Lewis would only have to make one more save before half-time. That was after 29 minutes, when Daggers defender George Darvill outjumped Irons midfielder Yannick Atangana and flicked a Billy Stevenson corner into the keeper's hands. West Ham would win a string of corners later in the first half, but we defended doggedly to see them off and head into our dressing room with the scoreline still goalless.

Having ground our way through the first half without conceding, we showed a bit more attacking intent in the second. Frontmen Washington and Tristan Egueh put the Hammers defence under a bit more pressure, as did attacking midfielder Stevenson, whose long-range drive sailed wide in the 55th minute.

Mark also tried his luck from distance after 59 minutes, and he also missed by some distance. Tristan then made it a trio of hopeless punts in the 69th minute, after which he made way for Rob McLoughlin. The ex-Hammer would get a chance to nail his old colleagues in the 76th minute, but he could only half-volley Billy's pinpoint lob deep into the stand.

Our unsuccessful attacking endeavours had left us a bit more open at the back. With nine minutes to go, West Ham took advantage of that and showed just why they were among the division's best teams.

Dagenham right-back Albert Khumalo headed away a cross from his opposite number Bill Middleton, but Atangana quickly retook the ball and fed it through to Shaun Greaves in space. The young midfielder then cut inside before unleashing a shot that was too powerful for Kieran Whalley to keep out. That was the Hammers' only shot on target, but they sure made the most of it.

A brave display from the Daggers proved to be for nothing, as John-Lewis' fingertip save from Washington on 84 minutes ensured that there would be no repeat of our Olympic glory from earlier in the year. Instead, the east London bragging rights went to those in claret and blue.

West Ham United - 1 (Greaves 81)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 34,563 - POSITIONS: West Ham 3rd, Dag & Red 15th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Djuzel, Killick, Barnes, Fofana (Thompson), Stevenson (Brkic), Washington, Egueh (McLoughlin).

The gap between us and the relegation zone was cut from seven points to four after Sheffield United recorded just their third win of the season against Nottingham Forest. These were nervy times for the Daggers, and things weren't going to get any easier.

Our next match was away to leaders Manchester United - at Manchester City's stadium! Old Trafford was closed for major expansion work, so the Red Devils were playing their home games at the Yaya Touré Arena this season.

Some United fans felt more inclined to nickname their temporary home after either Moses Penfold or Sean Jordan, and with good reason. The Anglo-American strike pairing already had 25 Premier League goals between them this season, and the team's goal difference of +30 after 14 matches was frighteningly impressive.

8 December 2035: Manchester United vs Dagenham & Redbridge

There were no prizes for guessing which team made the stronger start to this match. It was of course Manchester United, whose midfield maestro Sebastián Núnez almost beat Kieran Whalley with a cunning banana shot after just over seven minutes. Whalley somehow got his hands to that shot, and he then heroically kept out a point-blank effort from winger Dudu Ashkenazi in the 12th minute.

There were also a number of poorer shots from United's players before they finally made the breakthrough on 17 minutes. Arturo Samario's cross from the left to Moses Penfold was headed against the bar by the England striker before his colleague Sean Jordan clinically converted the rebound.

The home fans went wild, and they could've been celebrating again by the 24th minute. Fortunately, Mexico winger Samario followed an excellent dribble with a tame shot that Kieran caught comfortably.

The Red Devils would remain only 1-0 up by half-time, thanks in no small part to a host of excellent interceptions by Dagenham defender George Darvill. I should add that United weren't completely dominating this game - Tristan Egueh did make a couple of promising attacking runs for us - though it sure felt like they were.

Manchester United boss Alexander Mejía brought on the experienced left-back Steffen Stampe early in the second half. Stampe would have United's first scoring chance of the period, but another fine catch from Whalley in the 53rd minute kept us just about in the running. Three minutes later, Stampe's Danish compatriot Stipo Brkic ran at the home defence before snatching at a fine opportunity to draw us level.

United goalie Dave Pierce faced a sterner test in the 59th minute. Tristan lobbed the ball to Robbie MacKenzie in the penalty area, and Robbie's initial shot was blocked by Red Devils captain José Luis before his follow-up was tipped away by Welshman Pierce. Our best spell of the match ended there as the leaders quickly regained control. Penfold's 63rd-minute header was tipped behind by Whalley, while Ashkenazi hit the bar from a cross six minutes later.

Manchester United would keep the ball incredibly well throughout the final half-hour or so, and they would clinch victory in the dying moments. After 86 minutes, Penfold was tripped in the area by Daggers midfielder Hamzah Jaafar - a late replacement for captain William Barnes. A rather long delay followed before Penfold's penalty was powered into the top corner, thus condemning us to a 2-0 defeat. When it came to challenging the Manchester giants, we were still a long way off that.

Manchester United - 2 (Jordan 17, Penfold pen88)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 81,268 - POSITIONS: Man Utd 1st, Dag & Red 16th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Kurtovic, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Khumalo, Mazzola, Barnes (Jaafar), Fofana (Fraser), Brkic (Stevenson), MacKenzie, Egueh. BOOKED: Egueh.

Some of Manchester United's winning scorelines this season have made for nightmarish reading: 4-0 vs Norwich City, 5-0 at Reading, 7-0 vs Southampton, 6-1 vs Fulham, and 5-0 at Aston Villa. Compared to those, a 'mere' 2-0 defeat to the mighty Red Devils was quite an impressive result for us.

The FA Cup Round 3 draw took place the following afternoon. Just like 12 months ago, we were the very first name out of the pot... but we didn't get United this time. Instead, we were drawn at home to Chelsea. (OH, FOR GOD'S SAKE!)

Our meeting with Chelsea the following weekend would therefore serve partly as a dress rehearsal for the cup game on 5 January. Before that, we had a midweek encounter with mid-table Liverpool at Rainham Road.

12 December 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Liverpool

It'd be fair to say that this match got off to a slow start. It was actually the right-backs who had their teams' first shots at goal, but neither Dagenham's Albert Khumalo nor Liverpool's Billy Short came close to scoring.

The first real scoring opportunity would come in the 14th minute... and we were on the attacking end. After an excellent string of Daggers backpasses, Mark Washington cheekily backheeled the ball past Reds defender Christian Keller and towards Oumar Fofana. Oumar's initial shot was parried by Gavin Stopforth, but the England goalkeeper couldn't stop Mark's follow-up, and we were leading 1-0!

Liverpool would struggle to get ahold of Washington throughout the first half, and their midfielder René Wijmer was booked in the 17th minute after barging our American frontman in the back. The Reds showed some different aggression ten minutes later, when Pavle Oljaca's long-distance strike limped well wide.

Dave Weaver wasted another chance for the visitors on 29 minutes. He and Oljaca then had close-range efforts saved by Kieran Whalley either side of the 45-minute mark, before Stopforth narrowly prevented Washington from doubling our lead following a defensive error by Keller. This was looking like being a close contest.

Oljaca almost kicked off the second half with a superb solo goal for Liverpool. Though the Serbian right-winger was denied his big moment by a sublime fingertip save from Whalley, Liverpool would push forward again about a minute later. When Short's flick-on was deflected towards Weaver, our defenders all hassled the Reds captain and left his strike partner Liam Baldwin open. A selfless square ball from Weaver teed up a simple but powerful finish from Baldwin, and our lead evaporated.

Robbie MacKenzie could've put us back in front within a couple of minutes, but his free-kick was saved by Stopforth. A potential Liverpool comeback gained further traction on 56 minutes, when Baldwin headed substitute Nermin Salihovic's cross over. The visitors then had a couple of unsuccessful penalty claims just before the hour mark. After the second claim was waved away, Salihovic took his complaints about the referee's decisions too far and copped a booking for his troubles.

Liverpool wouldn't attack us again until the 70th minute, when Baldwin blasted a 35-yard banana shot into Whalley's hands. A minute after that, Daggers defender Tomo Kurtovic collided heavily with Weaver, who had to come off with whiplash afterwards. The visitors couldn't bounce back after losing their skipper, and we saw through the final 20 minutes without giving them any further chances. In the end, I was quite happy to see us grind out a 1-1 draw against what was a very strong Liverpool team.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Washington 14)

Liverpool - 1 (Baldwin 47)

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 15th, Liverpool 9th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Kurtovic, Khumalo (Moser), Mazzola, Barnes (Brennan), Fofana, Brkic (Stevenson), MacKenzie, Washington. BOOKED: Barnes.

We would have a short turnaround before Rainham Road hosted its next match, against Chelsea. The 2033/2034 Premier League champions finished a disappointing 6th last season, and their form thus far this term did not suggest that they would be strongly contending for the title again.

CFuller · August 15, 2017

DECEMBER 2035 (continued)

15 December 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Chelsea

Chelsea's Welsh striker Alun Harding blazed over their first shot at goal after almost exactly six minutes. About a minute after that, midfielder Guillermo Mas sustained a rib injury in a tackle from Daggers hardman Oumar Fofana. Mas recovered, but we would soon give Chelsea's crossbar a bruising via Tristan Egueh's audacious chip from out wide in the 10th minute.

Tristan was accompanied in the Dagenham frontline by Mark Washington, who in the 24th minute floated a free-kick just over the bar. Shortly after our near-miss, it was the Blues' turn to go close via winger Tomas Jazvin. Chelsea went closer to breaking the deadlock in the 29th minute, when middleman Almir Murtic's interception from Matthew Fraser gave them the impetus to launch a counter-attack. In the end, it took a superb low save from Kieran Whalley to deny Gianni Improta what would've been the opening goal for the visitors.

Kieran thwarted Improta again after 42 minutes, tipping the Italian's half-volley wide. Although Chelsea looked by some margin the more attacking side in the first half, we had more possession and were making better use of the ball.

Whalley completed a hat-trick of fantastic saves from Improta in the 49th minute. Kieran somehow pushed away the Chelsea frontman's point-blank header before George Darvill booted it clear. Three minutes later, Whalley palmed a right-wing cross from Jazvin against his crossbar just before either Improta or Maximiliano Fernández could run onto it. Fernández would get a clear shot at goal in the 55th minute, but it was a poor one from the Uruguayan wideman.

The introduction of former Manchester United striker Sam Hohn shortly after that miss gave the Blues even more attacking impetus. On 65 minutes, Hohn picked out Improta with a clever through-ball. Improta managed to get past Italian compatriot and Daggers left-back Rocco Mazzola before slicing a shot agonisingly against the post. Darvill then knocked the ball away from the rushing Hohn and attempted to hoof it upfield. Mas intercepted the ball for Chelsea, but he volleyed it wide.

That was followed four minutes later by a rare Dagenham attack. Blues captain Christopher Khan's attempted clearance from Daggers right-back John Moser's delivery into the area only went as far as our attacking midfielder Stipo Brkic. Stipo chested the ball and unleashed a half-volley that Humberto Cano made difficult work of.

Chelsea keeper Cano then saved an 80th-minute free-kick from Washington before he confronted our leading scorer again five minutes later. A Daggers breakaway against the run of play ended with Blues defender Sébastien Etoundi bringing Moser down in the area and conceding a penalty. Washington simply had to beat Cano from 12 yards to put us on the brink of an unlikely win... and a powerful strike did precisely that!

The Blues' best chance to cancel Mark's goal out came almost immediately after the restart, but Whalley once again denied Improta from close range! Kieran would come out of this match with plenty of credit, though the 'man of the match' award actually went to Oumar, whose regular crunching tackles brilliantly disrupted the visitors' midfielders. Despite a couple of scares late in injury time, we held onto another fantastic home win over Chelsea.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Washington pen85)

Chelsea - 0

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 12th, Chelsea 8th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Darvill, Kurtovic, Djuzel (Mazzola), Killick, Fofana, Fraser (Brennan), Brkic (Sverrisson), Washington, Egueh. BOOKED: Brennan.

I felt we had to win at least one of our first four fixtures in December to put us in a strong position to survive. That late victory over the former champions left us eight points clear of the drop zone.

One of the teams we overtook after beating Chelsea was West Bromwich Albion, whom we would face at The Hawthorns a week later. Before then, the Baggies had a midweek trip to Manchester City, where they were soundly beaten 4-0.

That defeat was West Brom's fifth in a row in all competitions, and manager Filip Skvorc paid for it with his job. Albion therefore went into this fixture with Michael Owen in caretaker charge (they had my sympathies), and at their lowest ebb for quite some time. Another loss would leave the Baggies in even choppier waters.

22 December 2035: West Bromwich Albion vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Oumar Fofana had been named 'man of the match' in each of our previous two fixtures. The Malian midfielder's impressive form would continue just eight minutes after kick-off at The Hawthorns. Oumar made a run past West Brom midfielder Dino Lord to collect Mark Washington's weighted pass into the area and drive home just his second Daggers goal!

We were 1-0 ahead, and Tristan Egueh could have doubled that lead five minutes later, but his attempted piledriver drifted well off target. Albion then gave us a scare in the 15th minute, as Richard Boucher's close-range free-kick forced Kieran Whalley into a difficult catch. The Baggies' next attack nine minutes later also ended in failure, as striker Ionut Anca was unable to direct his header from right-back Badouin Mabwete's centre into the net.

Our hosts then started to feel the effects of playing two high-intensity matches in the space of four days. Lord looked particularly knackered, and he would have to come off in the 42nd minute after breaking his ankle in a tackle from Daggers skipper William Barnes. The Canadian veteran would be a big loss for the Baggies.

West Brom tried to push forward without Lord early in the second half. After 47 minutes, midfielder Boucher attempted to find Anca in our penalty area. Tomo Kurtovic intercepted the pass but could only knock the ball back to Boucher, whose swerving shot clipped the post and went behind.

West Brom's woodwork would soon take a beating, as in the 56th minute, the hosts' aging goalkeeper Eudald Teijo tipped a vicious strike from Seb Brennan against his crossbar. The Baggies would find themselves in further trouble over the next 10 minutes, as right-flankers Mabwete and Brahian Báez each received yellow cards for clumsy fouls. The latter would help to create Albion's best scoring chance yet in the 70th minute, as Báez floated a cross to Anca at the back post. The Romanian's header beat Whalley, but the crossbar came to our goalie's rescue.

West Brom had several more chances to draw level over the next 20 minutes, most notably when Kieran kept out another Boucher free-kick in the 85th minute. Our defence held firm, though, with Tomo looking especially resilient. A host of excellent interceptions from the Croatian centre-back helped us on our way to a second successive 1-0 victory against strong opposition.

West Bromwich Albion - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Fofana 8)

Premier League, Attendance 25,941 - POSITIONS: West Brom 15th, Dag & Red 11th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Kurtovic, Darvill, Mazzola, Brennan, Fofana (Thompson), Barnes, Brkic (Sverrisson), Washington (McLoughlin), Egueh. BOOKED: Fofana.

The bottom three all struggled again, and so the gap between us and the drop zone now stood at a canyon-esque 11 points. If we could keep this good form up, any thoughts of relegation would soon disappear completely.

West Brom were now very much in a battle to avoid the drop. Their chairman Steven Hills obviously subscribed to the old proverb, "if you can't beat them, sign them," because he made an approach for my services just two days later!

You won't be surprised to read that I turned the offer down almost as soon as Mr Hills put it forward to me. Dagenham & Redbridge is a club that's still very much on the up, and I would never walk out on them to take what would arguably be a step down!

CFuller · August 16, 2017

DECEMBER 2035 (continued)

Reserve defender Jefferson Moran returned from his three-month loan at Conference Premier side Swindon Town on Christmas Day. The 20-year-old hadn't played well at all for the Robins, and so I told him that I would look to sell him in the January transfer window. I was sorry to have ruined the poor lad's Christmas, but sometimes you need to be ruthless.

I also had no intention of showing Tottenham Hotspur any 'ruth' when they arrived at Rainham Road on Boxing Day. The days of Spurs challenging for the Premier League title were long gone, and some shocking defensive displays had left them in 17th place. It said a lot about how far Tottenham had fallen that the bookies rated us as favourites to beat them!

26 December 2035: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Tottenham Hotspur

Dagenham's attacking midfielder Billy Stevenson set the tone for the match after just five minutes. Striker Mark Washington had a hopeful shot blocked by young Tottenham centre-back Darren Howarth and then squared the rebound to Billy, who ran into space before drilling in the opening goal! This was a welcome return to form for Stevenson, who had blown somewhat cold in recent months.

It quickly became clear that running at a sluggish Spurs defence was the way to go for us. We had two particularly quick frontmen in Tristan Egueh and Washington, each of whom went close to doubling our lead later in the half. Tristan had a powerful shot saved by Tottenham goalkeeper Stephen Palacios in the 13th minute, while Mark flighted a free-kick inches over the bar seven minutes later.

After 23 minutes, Palacios tried to palm behind a right-wing cross from Dagenham wing-back Albert Khumalo. Our other wing-back Rocco Mazzola kept the ball in play with a flick-on to Stevo, who volleyed in his and our second goal of the evening! The Rainham Road faithful were in dreamland!

Billy continued to torment Tottenham in the 26th minute, as he went within inches of clinching a hat-trick! His next attempt at goal number 3 came on 41 minutes, when Palacios pushed his low drive wide. While Spurs' defensive players were working overtime, our own backline was relatively untested. Tottenham's star winger Daniel Poulsen had picked up a knock very early in the first half, and with his creativity stifled, manager Steven Davis had little choice but to take him off during the break.

I'd already outclassed Davis once before this season - back in October, when Egueh made mincemeat of his Aston Villa team. Although Tristan wouldn't get on the scoresheet here, a dominant Daggers performance perhaps left Davis questioning his decision to leave Villa for Spurs at the start of this month.

The first flicker of hope from a Tottenham perspective didn't come until the 54th minute, when captain Rob King had a header saved by Dagenham keeper Kieran Whalley. The visitors looked slightly more threatening after that, although Washington did waste a couple of chances to kill them off midway through the half.

At least Stevenson was 'on the ball', so to speak, from start to finish. Billy had another hat-trick opportunity pushed away in the 81st minute by 36-year-old Palacios - one of the better Tottenham players on show here. Striker Gerald Parsons also performed reasonably well for Spurs, driving a shot just off target in the 86th minute.

England Under-21s international Howarth was another player who came out with some credit after blocking a strike from in-form Dagenham midfielder Oumar Fofana in the 88th minute. Howarth's heroics would be for nothing, however, as the ball was deflected to Daggers sub Robbie MacKenzie, who smashed it home. Robbie had clinched a convincing 3-0 win that moved us 14 points ahead of the drop zone.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Stevenson 5,23, MacKenzie 88)

Tottenham Hotspur - 0

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 13th, Tottenham 17th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Kurtovic, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Khumalo, Mazzola (Djuzel), Fofana, Fraser, Stevenson, Washington (MacKenzie), Egueh (Honeyball). BOOKED: Mazzola, Khumalo.

There was a time when beating a team like Tottenham Hotspur so convincingly would've sent us flying in hyperactive ecstasy. That wasn't the case anymore. As far as I was concerned, this result was never really in doubt, and the players simply deserved credit for what was a very professional performance.

That was our third clean sheet win in a row. Our next match was away to Norwich City, who had won just three league matches all season and were in 16th place. That wasn't to say they would be pushovers. The Canaries were still unbeaten at Carrow Road, although to be fair, they'd drawn EIGHT times at home and won just once.

29 December 2035: Norwich City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

The first seven minutes would be a difficult experience for our target man Robbie MacKenzie. In the third minute, he ran through the centre of the Norwich defence to connect with a lobbed through-ball from Billy Stevenson, which he horrifically blazed over from just outside the penalty area.

MacKenzie got an opportunity to score from much closer to goal four minutes later, after Canaries midfielder Antony Joli felled Rocco Mazzola just inside the box. Robbie stepped up confidently to take the penalty... but Stuart Burns correctly guessed that he would fire to his right and pushed it wide!

Having seen Norwich's goalkeeper brilliantly keep the deadlock intact, Kieran Whalley set out to do likewise for the Daggers. Kieran kept out a couple of drives in the 11th and 13th minute from City's former England midfielder Ray Scott.

Then, in the 19th minute, disaster nearly struck for Dagenham! George Darvill almost headed the ball into his net whilst trying to clear a Miguel Rodas cross out of our area! Velimir Radosavljevic spared his colleague's blushes by nodding it off the line, but Joe Shepherd flicked the ball back goalwards and set up a chance for his Norwich strike partner Dino Kelava. The ex-Fulham forward could only head it into Whalley's hands. There would be more anxious moments to come for us later in the half.

The Canaries upped the ante in the 38th minute, when Scotland striker Shepherd had a header saved by Whalley. Shepherd would fare better three minutes later, converting a centre from Mustafa Mulaosmanovic to leave us trailing at the interval. To make things worse, Daggers midfielder Greg Killick had to leave the game just before the break, having hurt himself in a slide tackle on Shepherd.

Whilst Norwich's Scots frontman was firing, ours was flopping. Before the second half, I replaced the disappointing MacKenzie with another goal-getter from north of the border. Throwing in 19-year-old Christophe Smith at the deep end was a gamble that sadly wouldn't pay off, as Smith hardly got a sniff at goal. The Canaries defended so resolutely that they restricted us to a couple of hopeless long-rangers from William Barnes and Hamzah Jaafar prior to the hour mark.

City's midfield was also running ours into the ground, with the evergreen Scott looking particularly hot. 34-year-old Scott had a point-blank header parried by Kieran in the 64th minute before drawing another save out of our keeper four minutes later. The old geezer's moment would eventually come in the 71st minute. Shepherd did most of the damage, running at our defence before playing a deft backheel to Scott, whose low drive left Whalley helpless.

Norwich were effectively over the line now, and they made sure of victory on 75 minutes. Star man Mulaosmanovic crossed to midfielder Mick Roberts, who cushioned a pass ahead of Kelava and then watched the Croatian flick it past a flailing Whalley. 3-0 and three points to Norwich. That was perhaps the Canaries' best performance of the season, and one could argue that it was also our worst.

Norwich City - 3 (Shepherd 41, Scott 71, Kelava 75)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 22,067 - POSITIONS: Norwich 15th, Dag & Red 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic, Darvill, Kurtovic, Brennan, Mazzola, Killick (Barnes), Jaafar (Thompson), Stevenson, MacKenzie (Smith), Washington. BOOKED: Brennan.

Although our mini-surge was now over, that defeat didn't do too much damage to our hopes of staying clear of relegation. The bottom three all lost yet again, and so we remained 14 points clear.

That said, a question has been asked about whether we can hold our nerve and remain in a stable mid-table position. I hope we can provide the right answer early in the New Year.

CFuller · August 16, 2017

Premier League Table (End of December 2035)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Man Utd                19    12    5     2     53    15    +38   41
2.          Man City               19    12    3     4     43    16    +27   39
3.          Arsenal                19    11    5     3     30    11    +19   38
4.          Liverpool              19    11    3     5     33    22    +11   36
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.          Fulham                 19    10    5     4     32    22    +10   35
6.          West Ham               19    9     6     4     26    15    +11   33
7.          Chelsea                19    9     5     5     32    18    +14   32
8.          Burnley                19    9     3     7     28    27    +1    30
9.          Southampton            19    9     3     7     26    25    +1    30
10.         Derby                  19    9     2     8     31    30    +1    29
11.         Nottm Forest           19    7     4     8     33    32    +1    25
12.         Rochdale               19    6     7     6     19    18    +1    25
13.         Dag & Red              19    7     4     8     26    28    -2    25
14.         Wolves                 19    5     7     7     21    28    -7    22
15.         Norwich                19    4     8     7     25    37    -12   20
16.         West Brom              19    6     2     11    19    31    -12   20
17.         Tottenham              19    5     5     9     16    40    -24   20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.         Sheff Utd              19    3     2     14    17    35    -18   11
19.         Aston Villa            19    2     3     14    20    51    -31   9
20.         Reading                19    2     2     15    10    39    -29   8

JayR2003 · August 16, 2017

Chris,

Since we are at the midway point, would you be willing to give a quick rundown on how the core players are performing? Don't need a big table with all the stats, but just curious how guys like Washington, Darvill, Barnes, and Mazzola are fairing and if there are any surprises or disappointments.

CFuller · August 16, 2017

5 hours ago, JayR2003 said:

Chris,

Since we are at the midway point, would you be willing to give a quick rundown on how the core players are performing? Don't need a big table with all the stats, but just curious how guys like Washington, Darvill, Barnes, and Mazzola are fairing and if there are any surprises or disappointments.

I play several real-life months (and at least 3 in-game years) in advance of updating the story, and I do not have a mid-season save file, so my assessment of the 'core' players' performances at this point might be hazy. Nevertheless, here goes:

Washington - He's doing about as well as I was expecting. He's certainly got us plenty of goals and is more than justifying the £5million price tag, though he's not yet the unstoppable force his namesake Mark West was in the lower leagues. Once he's settled in at Dagenham, I expect him to ignite.

Darvill - I love him*. He's not the quickest of covering defenders, but he's very well-rounded for the Premier League and consistently posts high match ratings, even in a defence that's not the most watertight. He'll surely get an England call-up soon.

Barnes - He may have served us well over the years, but our captain might be coming towards the end of his time with Dagenham. Injuries have taken a toll on his physical attributes, and he's made some costly errors, most significantly the one that precipitated our collapse vs Derby.

Mazzola - I wouldn't call him a 'core' player just yet, but he's arguably enjoying a breakthrough season. He seems more solid and dependable than our other left-back Djuzel, who has greater potential than him but is far less consistent.

As for some of those players you haven't mentioned...

Whalley's had a solid half-season in goal with few poor performances. Radosavljevic and Kurtovic have also done very well in the centre of our defence, while right-back Khumalo is surely destined to become a world-beater.

Fraser has settled into the PL but isn't providing as many assists as I'd expect from a deep-lying playmaker. Killick has struggled to find an established role in the team. Fofana's done alright for a free ball-winning midfielder, but my coaches rate him as a Championship player at best.

Stevenson has been a revelation in attacking midfield, overshadowing erstwhile fans' favourite Brkic. Up front, MacKenzie has again played much better than his star ratings suggest. He's a powerhouse of a target man with ridiculous strength and aerial ability. Egueh has had two very good games but done precious little else, though he's only 20, so I'll cut him some slack.

Honeyball hardly plays nowadays. He's only rated as Conference Premier standard and is basically limited to the odd substitute appearance. I'll still keep him until he retires (and hopefully beyond), as he's a local lad who's been with us from the first season.

* about as much as any man could love a computer-generated character

CFuller · August 17, 2017

JANUARY 2036

It was now 2036 - the year that football would come home once again. This summer would see England host the UEFA European Championship after a 40-year wait, and hopefully lift a major trophy on home soil for the first time in 70 years.

On New Year's Day, though, the Euros were very much at the back of my mind. I was focussed on kicking off the year by guiding Dagenham & Redbridge to a home victory over Rochdale. The big-spending Mancunians had failed to build on last season's 8th-place finish and were now sitting in the rather more modest position of 12th.

1 January 2036: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Rochdale

The first half-hour or so was a real slog for both sides at Rainham Road. The referee drew out his yellow card as early as the fifth minute after Dagenham right-back Albert Khumalo tripped Rochdale striker Mario Tortora. That said, most of the early attacks went our way. We won a couple of corners off Dale's defenders before captain William Barnes had a half-volley saved by Petar Kus in the 14th minute.

When another Daggers corner went awry after 26 minutes, the visitors sensed a chance to counter. Midfielder Geng Haoran cleared to striker Thomas Potter, who took the ball forward and then found Tortora in space. I feared that Super Mario would score against us for a third time, but Kieran Whalley came off his line to push the ball from Tortora's feet before our left-back Ante Djuzel cleared it into touch.

About a minute later, Ante's cousin Mijo Djuzel floated a shot wide for Rochdale. The game then took a potentially decisive turn in the 31st minute, when Dagenham's Oumar Fofana tackled the ball off Geng and inadvertently twisted the China international's ankle. Play continued until another Dale midfielder - Mate Sivric - fouled Ante deep in the away half. After Geng was helped off the field, Mark Washington chipped our free-kick into the Rochdale penalty area, where Tomo Kurtovic powered it home! We went into the break 1-0 ahead, though not before Fofana and Tristan Egueh joined Khumalo in receiving yellow cards.

There was another game-ending injury six minutes into the second half, when Djuzel was forced out with a knock. It wasn't Ante who came off, though - it was Mijo, who'd hurt himself in a tackle on Daggers playmaker Stipo Brkic and was unable to play on.

Losing a second midfielder to injury rocked Rochdale to the core. As the game wore on, their frustrations grew alongside their foul count, and scoring chances were becoming fewer. Serbia international Sivric - now Dale's only starting midfielder who was still on the field - sent a poor effort well off target in the 71st minute.

Rochdale's one bright hope attacking-wise was Tortora, who curled a dangerous byline cross into our area five minutes later. Albert's attempted clearance was a poor one, and Dale centre-back Colin Allen took possession before firing wide. The away team had one last chance on 83 minutes, but Potter's strike was palmed clear by Whalley, who went on to keep his fourth clean sheet in five games. After our dismal display against Norwich City, this was a very welcome return to winning ways.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Kurtovic 32)

Rochdale - 0

Premier League, Attendance 17,848 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Rochdale 13th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Radosavljevic (Brennan), Darvill, Kurtovic, Khumalo, Djuzel, Barnes, Fofana (Fraser), Brkic, Washington, Egueh (Honeyball). BOOKED: Khumalo, Fofana, Egueh.

A couple of our loanees returned to Dagenham very early in the New Year. Goalkeeper Courtney Gallagher had done alright for League Two Southend United, but centre-back Adrian Bailey found the going rather tougher with Crystal Palace in League One. Adrian struggled for consistency at Selhurst Park and ended his loan spell with a torn hamstring, which would put him on the sidelines until March at the earliest.

Next on the agenda for our first-teamers was an FA Cup Round 3 tie at home to Chelsea. We had already beaten the Blues at Rainham Road in the league this season, but we would have to defy the odds again to avoid another early cup exit.

5 January 2036: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Chelsea

Chelsea winger Glyn Mitter scared us as early as the third minute, when his header from Guillermo Mas' free-kick looped inches over the bar. The Blues would put our defenders under further pressure before we launched our first counter-attack in the 8th minute. Billy Stevenson dribbled through Chelsea's defence before curling a shot into the hands of Humberto Cano.

Two minutes later, Billy set up an opportunity for Tristan Egueh, whose banana shot was pushed behind by Cano. The resulting corner was a bit of a waste, as George Darvill nodded Matthew Fraser's delivery well wide.

The game then went into a lull until Chelsea next went close on 21 minutes. Wales striker Callum Lea - who rejected a loan move to Rainham Road in August - drove the ball towards Mitter, who pulled a sitter wide. Our goalie Kieran Whalley faced a much sterner test a minute later from ex-Barcelona frontman Javier Montenegro, whose vicious effort was parried behind. Kieran also made light work of Manuel Paiva's hanging corner and started a Daggers breakaway that ended with his opposite number Cano saving from Tristan.

Things would remain tight for the latter stages of the first half, though major scoring chances were fewer and further between. The best of them unsurprisingly came from Chelsea in the 35th minute, but Whalley comfortably caught a 20-yard drive from Spanish midfielder Mas to keep the scoreline at 0-0.

I brought on Mark Washington in place of Robbie MacKenzie as we looked to take an early second-half lead. Mark had the chance to do that after a scrappy Dagenham counter-attack in the 50th minute, but the American miscued his shot horribly. Four minutes later, Chelsea punished us with an incisive breakaway of their own. Blues boss Lee Nicholls had sent his star striker Gianni Improta on for the second period, and the move paid off when the Italian's left-wing cross was volleyed in by Portugal wideman Paiva.

Chelsea had edged in front, and with our passing game looking more slack than slick, I urged the Daggers to go more direct. Washington fired wide our first chance to level after 56 minutes, and fellow sub Stipo Brkic fared little better six minutes later.

Then, in the 65th minute, Oumar Fofana aggressively took the ball from Blues forward Alun Harding and knocked it forward to Washington. Mark took his time on the ball before sliding it through to Tristan, who powered a shot beyond Cano to level!

Egueh tried to return the favour to Washington in the 68th minute, but an impressive save from Cano stopped us from turning the game completely on its head. That would be our last attack for a while, as Chelsea upped the ante and looked even more determined to avenge their league defeat to us. Daggers captain Whalley continued to keep them at bay with some crucial saves, and Tomo Kurtovic looked solid in the centre of our defence... for the most part.

With barely nine minutes to go, Tomo needlessly lost the ball to Chelsea's teenage midfielder James Treadwell, who knocked it into our penalty area. The recipient of Treadwell's pass was Improta, who drove home his 20th goal of the season and eliminated us from the FA Cup... or so it seemed.

In the penultimate minute of normal time, Kurtovic made a swift transformation from zero to hero by flicking a Fraser corner into the Chelsea net! That was redemption for the Croatian, who had earned us a dramatic 2-2 draw, and an FA Cup replay at Stamford Bridge!

Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Egueh 65, Kurtovic 89)

Chelsea - 2 (Paiva 54, Improta 81)

FA Cup Round 3, Attendance 17,848

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Darvill, Kurtovic, Mazzola, Brennan, Fofana (Killick), Fraser, Stevenson (Brkic), MacKenzie (Washington), Egueh. BOOKED: MacKenzie.

We would get to play Chelsea again later in the month, with a place in Round 4 on the line at Stamford Bridge. If we could knock the Blues out at the second time, our reward would be a home tie against the Premier League's bottom club - Reading.

Before then, we had to get through an away game against Burnley in the league. We received some fantastic news in the build-up to that match, as our new £5million transfer complex had been completed. The Daggers' senior and reserve teams could now begin training at facilities that were truly fit for a Premier League club.

Another exciting development came later in the week. I'd been very interested in Braga's 18-year-old attacking midfielder Orlando Salvador for some time. That's the same guy I tried to sign a couple of summers ago, when he was still 17 and we were just beginning our PL adventure. Braga rejected a couple of offers from us, but I said back then that I was going to get him eventually, one way or another.

About 18 months on, I did indeed get my man. When I heard that Salvador's contract at Estádio Axa was due to expire in the summer, I sent our club negotiator off to Portugal, in an attempt to persuade the youngster to sign a pre-contract agreement. He came back a week later with good news - Orlando had accepted our offer and would be joining us in July!

In my view, Salvador has the potential to go very far in professional football. He's very creative, his first touch is sublime, and he's already playing regularly for Braga's B team in the Portuguese third tier. To sign such an exciting young talent from overseas - for free - is such a massive coup for us. I cannot wait to work with him.

Meanwhile, I sent three more Daggers out on loan until the end of the season. Striker Christophe Smith joined Scottish Premier League side Motherwell shortly after signing a new long-term contract with us. Also leaving us for the time being were defender Jameel Bailey and second-choice goalkeeper Mariusz Tylak, who dropped into the Championship with Charlton Athletic and Ipswich Town respectively.

Tylak's departure came as I brought in a new goalkeeper. 19-year-old Denzel Gallen arrived on a six-month loan from local rivals West Ham United with a burgeoning reputation. The west Londoner is a current England Under-21s international who has been tipped to become one of the country's leading goalies in the future.

Gallen arrived at just the right time for us, as Kieran Whalley damaged his heel in training later that week and thus was unable to play against Burnley. That meant Denzel would be thrown into our starting line-up straight away when we visited the 9th-placed Clarets at Turf Moor.

12 January 2036: Burnley vs Dagenham & Redbridge

You'll surely remember that Burnley's Ivor Boyce scored a hat-trick against us on the opening day of the season. Just five minutes after kick-off, the on-loan Manchester United striker continued from where he had left off. Boyce got behind our right-back Albert Khumalo to tap in Tomislav Gusic's centre for his 10th goal of the season - and his FOURTH against us.

It was the worst possible start to his Daggers career for Denzel Gallen. Fortunately, he was not troubled by Burnley's next couple of efforts, which were both sent wayward by midfielder Li Jingdao. We then missed a couple of chances to level before Robbie MacKenzie had a 15th-minute drive pushed behind by Clarets keeper Souza.

MacKenzie made a less encouraging contribution after 22 minutes, when he squandered the ball to Burnley defender Danijel Dedic. The Clarets then countered, with Darko Baturina having a shot blocked by Daggers centre-back Tomo Kurtovic before Boyce fired the rebound against our post.

Both sides had several half-chances later on, but the defences were prevailing in a close contest. The Dagenham player who looked most likely to draw us level was wonderkid Tristan Egueh, who narrowly missed the target twice before forcing Souza into a tricky save on the stroke of half-time. Would Tristan hold the key to a second-half fightback?

Not if Burnley's backline continued to hold firm. It didn't help us that homegrown hero and England international Karl Marsh was marshaling the Clarets' defence superbly for his manager Lee Clark. A rare chink in the hosts' armour was exposed when winger Kenneth Yende fouled Khumalo just outside the area on 59 minutes. Unfortunately, Oumar Fofana sent the free-kick narrowly wide for Dagenham.

Burnley attacked again two minutes later, with Li's half-volley leading to Gallen's first save in a Daggers jersey. Denzel wouldn't need to make another until he caught substitute Perry Darlington's header in the 89th minute. By then, we'd wasted several more equalising opportunities through the likes of MacKenzie and Stipo Brkic.

The worst of the misses came from sub Rob McLoughlin after 87 minutes. Boyce quickly lost possession for Burnley shortly after his colleagues defended against a MacKenzie free-kick, allowing us to move the ball back towards their penalty area. The ball was passed on from Martin Thompson to Brkic to MacKenzie, and finally to McLoughlin, who pulled his shot just wide! Rob's season-long goal drought continued, as did our poor recent record against Clark's Clarets.

Burnley - 1 (Boyce 5)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 21,607 - POSITIONS: Burnley 8th, Dag & Red 11th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Gallen, Kurtovic, Darvill, Radosavljevic, Khumalo (Pearson), Mazzola, Barnes, Fofana (Thompson), Brkic, MacKenzie, Egueh (McLoughlin). BOOKED: Egueh.

The world and his wife knows that I don't particularly like Lee Clark, so that defeat hurt me quite a bit. I hoped it wouldn't mark the beginning of a descent from mid-table safety to a full-blown battle against relegation.

CFuller · August 18, 2017

JANUARY 2036 (continued)

Mid-January saw the return of three more young Daggers who'd spent the first half of this season out on loan. Argentine right-back Vicente Gridelli struggled somewhat at Blackburn Rovers in the Championship, but two other loanees had done rather better in League One. Paul Habu was a solid presence at the back for Colchester United, while 17-year-old Jonas Kjaerulff scored four league goals for Leighton Town and picked up some invaluable pointers.

As those three settled back in, we steeled ourselves for an FA Cup Round 3 Replay at Chelsea. Whoever prevailed at Stamford Bridge could look forward to hosting Reading in Round 4.

As Denzel Gallen was cup-tied and Kieran Whalley hadn't yet fully recovered from a heel injury, I put 17-year-old Kayo Rowe in goal for his first senior start. Also starting a competitive match for the first time this season was Joel Honeyball, who took the captain's armband and led our frontline alongside Mark Washington.

16 January 2036: Chelsea vs Dagenham & Redbridge

The match had barely started when Greg Killick tried to find Ante Djuzel in Chelsea's penalty area. Greg's ball caused some concern amongst the Blues, as defender Libor Mach headed it away from Djuzel before his keeper Mark Thomas kicked it behind for a corner. Joel Honeyball chipped the corner over Chelsea's defence and found Billy Stevenson, who volleyed us into a surprise early lead!

Our delight didn't last long, mind, as the hosts levelled after six minutes. Ante was caught out by a cunning first-time pass from Blues winger Manuel Paiva to striker Sam Hohn, who beat our rookie keeper Kayo Rowe at his near post.

Chelsea grew from strength to strength afterwards, and they were particularly dangerous in the air. Captain Christopher Khan nodded Maximiliano Fernández's corner just over our bar in the 14th minute, while Rowe had to catch another header - from Hohn - a minute later.

Young midfielder Martin Thompson fired wide our next scoring chance on 23 minutes. Then, just before the half-hour mark, Martin ran into Chelsea midfielder Almir Murtic and lost the ball. The Blues countered to great effect, and they went 2-1 up when Hohn's shot deflected off Daggers defender Velimir Radosavljevic and trundled comically over the goal line.

Kayo may have been left flat-footed by that own goal, but the teenager showed greater composure in the 34th minute to catch a header from Hohn. That save just about kept us in the game, as we only trailed 2-1 at the break.

Chelsea looked to kill us off early in the second half, with Hohn having three opportunities to double their lead. He wasted all of them, but another Blues striker was in more clinical form after 62 minutes.

Just like in the original tie, Lee Nicholls' decision to throw on his leading scorer Gianni Improta would pay off handsomely. The Italian hotshot coolly dispatched a right-wing cross from Paiva to make it 3-1 Chelsea and leave us with an almost impossible task. Had Paiva converted a free-kick in the 69th minute instead of sending it wide, there would've been no 'almost' about it.

After 80 minutes, we almost clawed the Blues back to within a single goal with a direct free-kick of our own. Sadly, Matthew Fraser's effort swerved wide, and a brave Daggers display would be for nothing. Although Fernández struggled with a knock late on, the Blues coasted into the next phase of the FA Cup and left us behind.

Chelsea - 3 (Hohn 6, Radosavljevic og31, Improta 62)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Stevenson 1)

FA Cup Round 3 Replay, Attendance 39,139

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Rowe, Moser (Pearson), Radosavljevic, Kurtovic, Djuzel, Killick, Thompson, Fraser, Stevenson, Washington (Egueh), Honeyball (Sverrisson).

I wasn't too critical of my players after that defeat - they'd given close to their all. Also, while it had been a difficult competitive debut for Kayo Rowe, I was sure that he would be all the better for the experience.

Chelsea may have booked a Round 4 date with Reading, but we would still get to play the Royals anyway. Three days after exiting the FA Cup, we travelled to the Madejski Stadium for a Premier League match against a side who'd only picked up eight points from 21 games.

We would go into this match without left-back Ante Djuzel, who had strained his thigh in training. The young Croat would be out for around a fortnight.

19 January 2036: Reading vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Having seen us beat Reading 2-0 at Rainham Road in September, I felt confident that we would complete the double over our opponents. However, the Royals were determined to make life as difficult for us as possible.

Daggers striker Mark Washington was temporarily forced off in the 16th minute when he collided with Reading midfielder Dean Oliver, who was on loan with us once upon a time. Three minutes later, another Royals midfielder - Ricky Hales - took out our skipper William Barnes with a sliding tackle. Unlike Mark, Will was left in too much agony to continue, and so Matthew Fraser had to replace him from the bench.

Disappointingly, it took us until the 32nd minute to register our first scoring chance against the league's bottom team. Playmaker Billy Stevenson was brought down in a dangerous position by home defender Jesper Forsstrom, and Robbie MacKenzie struck the crossbar from our subsequent free-kick.

The last few minutes also saw a couple of attempts from midfielder Oumar Fofana, who tested Reading goalkeeper Kim André Gasland with one of them. By half-time, I was quite annoyed that we hadn't yet taken the lead. I would've been even more perturbed had goalkeeper Denzel Gallen not caught an injury-time header from Royals centre-back Keith McDonagh that could've put the hosts ahead out of the blue.

Denzel would have to save our bacon again three minutes into the second half. A headed clearance from Daggers defender George Darvill dipped towards Oliver, who unleashed a volley that Gallen just about managed to push away. A minute after that, Washington drove wide a free-kick that could've eased some of the pressure on us.

Both goalkeepers would face their next tests just after the hour mark. Gallen made comfortable work of a free-kick from Royals stalwart Hales, before Gasland - who plays under me for the Norway national team - beat away MacKenzie's close half-volley. Neither Robbie nor Mark were having the best of games, but I persisted with them as our front two.

Any lingering thoughts I had of subbing either of my misfiring strikers perished in the 68th minute, when centre-back Tomo Kurtovic had to come off with a rib injury. John Moser was brought on as my final sub, and a bitterly disappointing goalless draw was looking increasingly likely.

Then Fraser found MacKenzie with an incisive long ball into the Reading half. Robbie took the ball towards the penalty area, where he unleashed a vicious effort that Gasland could only push towards Mark. Washington drilled the follow-up strike into an unguarded net, and we were finally in front with just over 10 minutes to go! That goal would prove to be the decisive one, although Gallen needed to withstand an injury-time corner from the plucky Royals before we could secure all three points.

Reading - 0

Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Washington 79)

Premier League, Attendance 16,350 - POSITIONS: Reading 20th, Dag & Red 11th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Gallen, Khumalo, Darvill, Kurtovic (Moser), Mazzola, Brennan (Radosavljevic), Fofana, Barnes (Fraser), Stevenson, Washington, MacKenzie.

Thankfully, neither William Barnes nor Tomo Kurtovic was seriously hurt in what had been a surprisingly fierce encounter. Will and Tomo both escaped with minor bruising, and they had plenty of time to recover, as our next match wasn't for another 11 days.

Before then, I loaned out another player to Championship promotion contenders Ipswich Town. Teenage right-back Ross Pearson continued his development at Portman Road, where he would play alongside fellow Daggers loanee Mariusz Tylak for the rest of this season.

After a lengthy break brought about by our elimination from the FA Cup, we concluded the month with a home game against Southampton. Victory here would see us leap above the Saints and into the top half.

30 January 2036: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Southampton

Midfielders Jason Pack and Niall Goodison each sent shots wide for Southampton within the first two minutes. Goodison's effort came from a free-kick, won after he was fouled by Daggers captain William Barnes, who received a very early booking as a result. Southampton would put us under more pressure when Maurice Hockley had a couple of chances saved by Kieran Whalley either side of the 10-minute mark.

Shortly after that, Mark Washington sent wide our first two opportunities to take the lead. The match would continue to swing one way and then the other, but neither side was quite clinical enough to open the scoring. The Saints' best chance arguably came in the 22nd minute, when Sam Morley flicked a Pack free-kick goalwards, only to send it into Whalley's hands.

Keeping goal at the other end was 33-year-old Josip Prtenjaca, who was making his first league appearance of the season, as both of the Saints' preferred keepers were injured. Prtenjaca may have been third-choice, but he wasn't third-rate, as he demonstrated by saving a couple of powerful efforts from Washington in the 29th and 36th minutes. This was turning into a frustrating evening for us, and for Mark especially.

Southampton's defenders kept our target man Robbie MacKenzie quiet until the 54th minute, when he struck a free-kick inches wide of their goal. Three minutes later, an excellent clearance from Daggers defender George Darvill found Washington just inside the Saints' half. Mark cut inside as he advanced towards the penalty area, but his piledriver went nowhere near the target.

Our American frontman would get one final opportunity to open the scoring after 68 minutes. MacKenzie flicked Whalley's long free-kick towards Washington, who got beyond Southampton defender Viktor Berglund and now only had to beat Prtenjaca. Alas, the Croatian prevailed, and Mark would soon exit stage left without getting on the scoresheet.

It was a similarly fruitless night's work for the visitors' main man, as Hockley's threat to us in the second half was almost non-existent. Darvill deserved plenty of praise for silencing Hockley and helping us to grind out a clean sheet. Had we been a bit more productive at the other end, we could've taken all three points instead of one, but I still saw a goalless draw with Southampton as a decent enough result.

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Southampton - 0

Premier League, Attendance 16,685 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 11th, Southampton 10th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Khumalo, Darvill, Jaafar, Mazzola, Killick, Barnes (Fofana), Fraser, Brkic (Stevenson), MacKenzie, Washington (Egueh). BOOKED: Barnes.

The following day was transfer deadline day, and it was a rather quiet one for us... at first.

A couple more of our upcoming talents went out on loan. Goalkeeper Courtney Gallagher moved to League One Dartford for three months, while 16-year-old striker Elliot Cook received loan offers from several Championship clubs before opting to join Plymouth Argyle.

Rob McLoughlin also left Rainham Road after his contract was terminated five months early. The 33-year-old former England striker hadn't scored in eight Premier League appearances for us this season, so I felt that it was time to let him go and focus on developing our younger forwards.

Rob wouldn't be the only permanent departure from Dagenham & Redbridge on deadline day, though. I was just about to pack up for the day and go home when managing director Chris Langley interrupted me with some big news. As far as I was concerned, it was the worst possible news.

CFuller · August 18, 2017

Premier League Table (End of January 2036)

                                   P     W     D     L     F     A     GD    PTS
1.          Man Utd                23    15    6     2     64    18    +46   51
2.          Arsenal                23    15    5     3     40    14    +26   50
3.          Man City               23    13    5     5     50    21    +29   44
4.          Liverpool              23    13    5     5     43    26    +17   44
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
5.          West Ham               23    10    9     4     31    18    +13   39
6.          Fulham                 23    11    6     6     40    31    +9    39
7.          Chelsea                23    10    7     6     37    23    +14   37
8.          Derby                  23    11    3     9     39    33    +6    36
9.          Burnley                23    10    6     7     31    29    +2    36
10.         Southampton            23    10    5     8     28    28    0     35
11.         Dag & Red              23    9     5     9     28    29    -1    32
12.         Rochdale               23    8     7     8     24    22    +2    31
13.         Nottm Forest           23    8     5     10    40    42    -2    29
14.         Wolves                 23    7     8     8     28    35    -7    29
15.         Norwich                23    5     9     9     31    45    -14   24
16.         Tottenham              23    6     6     11    20    49    -29   24
17.         West Brom              23    6     4     13    23    38    -15   22
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18.         Sheff Utd              23    4     3     16    21    40    -19   15
19.         Aston Villa            23    2     4     17    24    63    -39   10
20.         Reading                23    2     2     19    13    51    -38   8

oche balboa · August 18, 2017

Tenderhooks now

CFuller · August 18, 2017

12 minutes ago, oche balboa said:

Tenderhooks now

The word you're looking for is 'tenterhooks', but I get what you mean. I'll leave you to stew over that cliffhanger until Monday.

(In the meantime, readers, feel free to speculate over what happens next.)

CFuller · August 21, 2017

FEBRUARY 2036

I don't hate minimum-fee release clauses; I absolutely LOATHE them. There have been plenty of times in the past where we'd lost a player for a lower price than we'd hoped for because of them. About four hours before the transfer window shut on 31 January 2036, our old foe came back to haunt us.

Right-back Albert Khumalo signed a new contract with us back in the summer as we looked to stave off strong interest from Southampton. Negotiations went on for quite a while, but in the end, we'd managed to get his minimum fee release clause up from a pitiful £8million to a slightly more palatable £10.5million. Despite that, I spent the next two transfer windows desperately hoping that nobody would stump up the cash to invoke Khumalo's clause.

So, when managing director Chris Langley told me that filthy-rich Rochdale had offered £10.5million to sign Albert, I was left feeling utterly crestfallen.

Khumalo was already a leading Premier League right-back in my eyes. As far as I was concerned, the 22-year-old South African would be almost irreplaceable.

I had prepared a great deal for this eventuality, but a four-hour deadline to sign a new right-back sent me into panic mode. Mr Langley and I phoned up several top European clubs, and we would soon enter negotiations for a couple of transfer-listed right-backs based in Serie A.

The first name on my shortlist was Napoli's DR Congo international M'peti Akuku, but his contract demands were just too excessive for us to meet. Instead, we focussed our attentions on Patrick Scheepens - a 26-year-old Dutchman who'd been put up for sale by Pescara for a mere £1.6million.

Talks with Scheepens' representative broke down about two hours before midnight. However, just a few minutes later, the player contacted me to say that he still wanted to join Dagenham & Redbridge. He'd fired his agent and was willing to discuss terms himself.

Albert Khumalo's £10.5million transfer from Dagenham to Rochdale was completed at 10:45pm. About half an hour after that, with just 45 minutes to spare, we finally agreed a deal for his replacement. Patrick Scheepens had officially joined the Daggers from Pescara for £1.6million, signing a three-and-a-half-year deal at Rainham Road.

Although Scheepens was not quite on the same level as Khumalo in terms of ability, he still looked like an excellent bargain signing. I like defenders who are aggressive, intelligent and hard-working, and Patrick had all those qualities. The former Holland Under-21s international would surely be a fine addition to our squad.

It had been a very long night for me, so it was perhaps just as well that our match at Manchester City two days later wasn't played until the evening. This would be our second visit to the Yaya Touré Arena in a little under two months. We bravely went down 2-0 to leaders Manchester United in December, but could we get a better result against their landlords and bitter rivals?

Our starting right-back for this match was not new signing Scheepens, but John Moser. Patrick was severely lacking in match fitness, so John got an opportunity to show that he could challenge for a regular first-team place.

2 February 2036: Manchester City vs Dagenham & Redbridge

Manchester City were 3rd in the league and had won all of our previous three meetings, so you can probably guess how this match started. City's wing wizards almost cracked us open as early as the fourth minute, but Domenico Papa's corner delivery to Marco Batalla was headed against the bar by the Argentine.

Three minutes later, home midfielder Mohammed Ali - a fully-fledged England international at just 20 years of age - was booked for a rash tackle on Daggers playmaker Stipo Brkic. That briefly gave us some respite, but the Citizens would soon be back on the attack. Slovakian strikers Peter Jakubicka and Jozef Kral each spurned massive chances to open the scoring, with Jakubicka hitting the post from a dangerous cross by Batalla after nine minutes.

We tried to launch our first real attack in the 17th minute, but City defender Vinicius broke up the move by tripping Daggers target man Robbie MacKenzie and taking the yellow card. Brkic was also booked on 20 minutes, shortly after Mark Washington's free-kick had been headed out of the Citizens' penalty area by Mike Martin. That cleared set-piece was our last opportunity to stun the Sky Blues before half-time.

We spent the rest of the first half defending for our lives, though we only allowed our opponents one more shot on target. That moment came two minutes before the interval, when Horacio Ricci - the third of City's strikers - had a header comfortably saved by Whalley.

Although we'd done incredibly well to keep the half-time score at 0-0, I was all too aware that Manchester City would come out for the second half in an even more determined mood. Papa and Batalla continued to cause problems with their crosses from the wings - indeed, Papa hit the bar with one such delivery shortly after kick-off! Whalley had to palm behind a particularly worrisome right-wing cross from Batalla in the 52nd minute, and he then saved a 20-yard drive from Citizens defender Harald Burkhard a minute later.

When an effort from Jakubicka almost bent into the top corner on 56 minutes, I could sense that a breakthrough was imminent. The Citizens just would not let up, and their persistence finally produced a reward in the 65th minute. One poor header from Dagenham midfielder Matthew Fraser was all City needed, as Kral intercepted the ball and thundered it past Whalley!

Matthew almost gifted the hosts another goal soon after the restart, and although Kike Martínez let him off the hook with a narrow miss, I'd seen enough. Fraser was substituted, but before his replacement Engilbert Sverrisson could do anything, the Citizens scored again. Papa demonstrated the talents that had won him two FIFA Ballon d'Or awards by cutting past our right-back John Moser and drilling in an incisive finish. 2-0 to the hosts, and the game was surely up.

Our five-man defence had done pretty much all they could to keep the scoreline respectable against a tirade of City attacks. Tomo Kurtovic had worked particularly hard, and with the match seemingly lost, I decided to take the tiring Croatian centre-half off. Moser was shifted further towards the centre, and Patrick Scheepens came on for his Daggers debut at right-back.

The new boy almost saw us concede a third goal within moments of coming on, but Kieran showed great tenacity to block a low drive from Citizens defender Willy Danza. Whalley would face yet another major test in the 84th minute. Scheepens' first major contribution in the red-and-blue was to foul Sky Blues winger Taariq Khan - a late replacement for Papa - and concede a penalty.

South Africa international Khan took the penalty himself... but Kieran spared Patrick's blushes by making a tremendous save! Manchester City gradually built up another attack from there, and Jakubicka hit the bar with a header from yet another troublesome cross by Batalla.

By the time the final whistle blew, I was honestly gobsmacked that we'd only lost 2-0. I kid you not, were it not for multiple slices of luck or some spirited defending from the likes of George Darvill, we would surely have suffered one of our heaviest defeats!

The statistics told you everything you needed to know about Manchester City's sheer dominance. They had 71% of possession, and 21 shots at goal (nine on target), compared to zero shots from the Daggers! We also conceded twice as many fouls as our opponents, with left-back Rocco Mazzola and midfielder Greg Killick joining Brkic in the referee's notebook late on. Yes, you could say City deserved the win...

Manchester City - 2 (Kral 65, Papa 69)

Dagenham & Redbridge - 0

Premier League, Attendance 81,354 - POSITIONS: Man City 3rd, Dag & Red 12th

DAG & RED LINE-UP: Whalley, Moser, Kurtovic (Scheepens), Darvill, Radosavljevic, Mazzola, Barnes, Brkic (Killick), Fraser (Sverrisson), MacKenzie, Washington. BOOKED: Brkic, Mazzola, Killick.

It was still very early days in Patrick Scheepens' Dagenham & Redbridge career, but conceding a penalty on his debut wasn't the greatest of introductions. The Dutchman was hankering to prove the critics wrong and deliver the goods in his second game... but then he picked up a hernia in training. Patrick's next appearance in a Daggers jersey would have to wait until March.

And what became of the man Scheepens replaced at Rainham Road? Well, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that Albert Khumalo had a blinder on his Rochdale debut; his new club won 2-0 at home to West Ham United and overtook us in the standings.

What's more, Albert is now earning £70,000 per week at Spotland. Nope, I'm not jealous of Rochdale's riches. I'm not jealous at all...

Sign In

House of Flying Daggers

Recommended Posts

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post

Share on other sites

Link to post