rmoore

Apologies for lack of updates; internet connection problems and that. Hopefully sorted now.

Dagenham Recorder, 19/10/03

Daggers fight back to earn fortunate point.

Rotherham United 2 Dagenham & Redbridge 2

The Reds put up a spirited display on the road yesterday, but were indebted to rookie keeper Paul Rachubka for the point. A well organised and dangerous looking Rotherham side pushed the visitors all the way, and only stoic defending prevented the Reds suffering a second defeat in a row.
Rotherham began the game impressively, evergreen midfielder Neil Redfearn bossing the midfield and opening the scoring with an excellent free kick. The home side went further ahead on 29 minutes when youngster Dean Buckley headed his first for the club. As has happened often this season, however, the Daggers came out after the break with renewed vigour, and two goals in three minutes from Junior McDougald & Richard Naylorput them on level terms within six minutes of the restart. However they rarely thretened from then on, and Rachubka had to make an excellent double save late on to deny fellow ex Red Devils Danny Webber and Mark Robins.
Rich Wellard admitted that he was satisfied with the draw. 'We've come up against a good side today, and in the circumstances a point is a good return. Obviously we need to get back to winning ways soon if we're going to maintain our promotion push, but overall i'm quite happy with how we did out there today.'

Recorder Ratings (4-3-3) Rachubka 8; Croft 7, Carslake 8, Marshall 8, Simpkins 7; Nicholson 7, Clarke 7, Toure 7; McDougald 8, Naylor 8, Salenko 7. Subs Vaughan 7, Janney 7, McMennamin 6.

Goals Redfearn 8, Buckley 29. McDougald 48, Naylor 51.

MOM Rachubka


Dagenham Recorder, 22/10/03

Solid Daggers get back on the winning trail.

Dagenham & Redbridge 3 Lincoln City 0

A professional performance from the Reds saw them brush aside struggling Lincoln and maintain the pressure on league leaders Kidderminster. Solid performances across the board included a good showing from keeper Willy Gueret on his return from injury, and a promising debut from Andrew Mainwaring.
The Daggers looked confident throughout, their recent dip in form clearly not a major concern as they comfortably took the visitors apart in the first half. A volley from Juan Antonio Garai and a Junior McDougald header saw them in at the break with a 2 goal cushion, though in truth better finishing could easily have doubled that. An early second half penalty from Matthew Carslake after Lee Holsgrove had brought down Naylor settled the game as a contest, and the Reds closed out the match with some ease, Lincoln failing to create a single chance in the second half.

Recorder Ratings (4-1-2-3) Gueret 8; Croft 5, Marshall 7, Carslake 8, Maley 7; Garai 8; Keeble 7, Toure 6; Mainwaring 7, McDougald 9, Naylor 9. Subs Salenko 7, Janney 6, Vaughan 7.

Goals : Garai 25, McDougald 39, Carslake 53(pen)

MOM Naylor


Dagenham Recorder, 26/10/03

Reds March on with good win at Bournemouth

Bournemouth 0 Dagenham & Redbridge 2

Dagenham rejoined Kidderminster at the top of Division 3 with a straightforward victory over Bournemouth, courtesy of goals from Junior McDougald and another clinical penalty from defensive goal machine Matthew Carslake. However, in a game devoid of much in the way of inspiration or excitement, the visitors looked a little jaded, and will need to perform better if they are to maintain their run of good form.

Recorder Ratings (4-1-2-3) Gueret 8; Croft 8, Marshall 7, Carslake 8, Maley 7; Farley 6; Keeble 7, Henderson 6; Salenko 7, McDougald 8, Naylor 8. Subs McLean 7, Mainwaring 7, Toure 7.

Goals : McDougald 23, Carslake 84(pen)

MOM Carslake


RICH'S WEEK

We've bounced back reasonably well from our first defeat of the season, although we've been quite lucky in our last two games. Our form isn't too great at the moment to be honest, but as long as we keep winning i'll be happy...
The FA Cup starts in a shade under three weeks, and this year it'd be nice if we can get somewhere, a local derby against a big club in the third round or something. We start at home to Kings Lynn, so i'm expecting us to progress (although nothing's ever certain). We could do with the cash bonus of a good cup run, although financially things are pretty solid at thhe club for now.
You might have noticed that i signed three more forwards this week... i know we don't need them but i couldn't resist. you've already seen Andy Mainwaring play, he's here as a direct replacement for Junior or Richard in case of injury, as we haven't got any big target men in reserve... Johan (Pater) and Martin (Taylor) are both youngsters with potential; i couldn't resist Johan thanks to hiis pedigree...anyone who's been a first team squad member at PSV is worth a try on principle, whereas Martin is a player i've watched several times and seen ability in...at 17, he's got plenty of time to prove himself.

rmoore

Dagenham Recorder, 26/10/03

Daggers poor in home reverse

Dagenham & Redbridge 1 Darlington 3

The Red's suffered a second defeat at of the season at the hands of Tommy Taylor's Darlington, looking decidedly jaded in what was undoubtedly their worst performance of the campagn so far.
A lively performance from the visitors saw them 2-0 up within 17 minutes, skipper Graham Fenton scoring the first and setting up another for Coleano. Although Oleg Salenko replied with a powerful drive on the stroke of half time, the Reds chances of a draw evaporated with the sending off of captain Matthew Carslake for a second yellow card. Fenton settled the game with his second 13 minutes from the end, giving Darlington a deserved win and leaving the Reds 3 points behind pacesetters Kidderminster.

Recorder Ratings (4-1-2-3) Gueret 6; Croft 6, Marshall 6, Carslake 6, Maley 7; Garai 7; Mainwaring 6, Clarke 5; Mcdougald 6, Salenko 8, Naylor 6. Subs McLean 7, Toure 6, McMennamin 6.

Goals : Salenko 45. Fenton 10, 77, Coleano 17

MOM Fenton


Dagenham Recorder, 2/11/03

Lacklustre Daggers lose ground at the top

Cardiff City 2 Dagenham & Redbridge 1

Dagenham fell to their second defeat of the weak in a hard fought contest in South Wales, and their misery was compounded by a knee injury to talismanic striker Oleg Salenko; although not as bad as first feared, the veteran Russian will miss at least two games. Cardiff always seemed to have the measure of a Daggers side still smarting from last Saturday's home defeat by Darlington, and took a 2-0 lead with goals either side of half time from Joe Osei-Kuffour and Tony Thorpe. The Reds promised much but delivered little, their only goal a scrappy 90th minute consolation from late substitute Richard Naylor. With Kidderminster winning yet again, and third place Blackpool closing in, the Daggers need a quick return to form if their excellent start to the season is to result in a promotion push.

Recorder Ratings (4-1-2-3) Gueret 8; Eaton 6, Marshall 7, Carslake 6, Maley 6; Garai 8; Keeble 7, Toure 7; McLean 6, McDougald 6, Salenko 6. Subs Naylor 7, Senda 7.

Goals : Osei-Kuffour 31, Thorpe 55. Naylor 90.

MOM Giles

rmoore

First update in a month. ooops. Stupid real life.

Dagenham Recorder, 15/11/03

Daggers score healthy victory over minnows

Dagenham & Redbridge 5 Knigs Lynn 1 (FA Cup 1st Round)

The Reds bounced resoundingly back to winning ways yesterday with a comfortable win over admittedly inferior opposition. With Rich Wellard playing it safe and sending out a near full strength side, the Daggers set about their Ryman League opposition quickly and efficiently, going two up inside of 17 minutes through McLean & Naylor. The Norfolk outfit struggled manfully for the rest of the half, getting on the scoresheet through winger Andy Reed on 23 minutes, but were fortunate to go in 2-1 down as the home side peppered their goal for the remainder of the half. The second half brought more of the same, and the Reds finished Lynn off with a second from Richard Naylor and a pair from substitute David Henderson,who showed a lot of promise in a thirty minute cameo. The victorious Reds face a tricky home tie against Second Division leaders Plymouth in round 2.

Recorder Ratings (4-1-2-3) Gueret 8; Croft 8, Marshall 7, Parry 6, Simpkins 6; Garai 8; Toure 9, Keeble 8; McLean 8, Naylor 9, McDougald 7. Subs Henderson 9, Senda 8, Vaughan 7.

Goals : McLean 8, Naylor 17, 55, HHenderson 67, 88. Reed 23.

MOM : Toure


Dagenham Recorder, 22/11/03

Scunthorpe hold Reds to damaging draw.

Scunthorpe United 1 Dagenham & Redbridge 1

The daggers lost more ground on promotion rivals Kidderminster after failing to break down a stubborn Scunthorpe defence. Although the away side dominated much of the game, a breakaway goal from Scunthorpe striker Mo Harkin after 10 minutes gave them an undeserved advantage, which they held until the stroke of half time, when Richard Naylor headed home a close range equalizer. The second half was a lot more open, influential winger Andy Burgess at the hub of much of Scunthorpe's play, but it was the Daggers who should have claimed the points as both Naylor & David Henderson hit the post inside a minute, and Colin McMennamin had a late winner ruled out for offside.

Recorder Ratings (4-1-2-1-2) Gueret 8; Croft 6, Carslake 8, Parry 7, Maley 6; Garai 7; Keeble 6, Toure 7; Henderson 7; McLean 7, Naylor 7. Subs Vaughan 7, McMennamin 7, McDougald 6.

Goals : Harkin 10, Naylor 45.

MOM Harkin

rmoore

At this point i've decided the current format of the story is too long winded & samey, i just don't have the free time to keep churning out the newspaper reports & they're boring me a bit (and the rest of you no doubt)

Therefore from the neew year of this season, which is only a few games away, i'm going to change the style of the story a bit to make it easier & quicker to a) type and b) read. I've got at least 11 more seasons to hand so there's plenty to come, though...

retired_confal2

Brilliant!!! :thup:

Funniest player descriptions I've read anywhere so far

Looking forward to the new format, though 'boring' is hardly how I'd decribe the former one... :cool:

rmoore

OMDave - Glad you're enjoying it, always nice to get some feedback . There is more to come, but as i said, real life keeps getting in the way. Hopefully will be able to get more up this week though so keep watching...

rmoore

www.daggersonline.net. 28/11/03

Important Announcement

In the interest of maintaining the best possible service to our fans, we here at Daggers Online have always endeavoured to provide the best possible service and the newest innovations available. However, we feel that we have excelled ourselves this time, as we have persuaded the Reds manager Rich Wellard to make his column a daily diary. This is the first time to our knowledge that a league manager has offered his fans such an insight into the day to day goings on at the club, and we are priveleged to offer this service. Over to Mr Wellard


Thanks a lot. i've decided to do this because i felt the current weekly format was too impersonal and didn't allow me to express myself in the way i intended. hopefully you'll appreciate the new format; i know it's better for me...

rmoore

Rich's Diary, 29/11/03

Last night's game against Bristol City at Victoria Road ended in a satisfying 3-1 victory for the Reds, which we're all fairly pleased about, although we feel we should have had a couple more after the way we played. Oleg Salenko grabbed our first with a trademark volley early on, but after that the game belonged to young David Henderson, who is really starting to impress us in training and managed to trandfer his form to the real thing, netting a couple of superb individual goals and tormenting the City defence throughout. Richard Naylor had another excellent match & deserved a goal, but sadly none was forthcoming, and we conceded an annoying (but irrelevant) late strike from Graham Stuart on 82 minutes.
the win leaves us in second; the title looks to be heading off into the distance with Kidderminster, who are playing outrageously well at the moment, but we've got a bit of a cushion now in the second automatic promotion place. It's the FA Cup next week, home to Second Division pace setters Plymouth; we'll have to be at our best to get thruogh it but we all fancy a biit of a cup run so we'll be well up for it.

7/12/03- Daggers 2 Plmouth 1

It's a nice way to celebrate my birthday... a place in the Third round of the cup and a decent scalp (my first giant killing!). Plymouth are a seriously good side, we needed to be on top of our game to get through this one, and credit to our two match winners; Matt Carslake & Oleg Salenko. Matt was a giant throughout, i'm not regretting making him captain as he continues to belie his tender years. Oleg was his usual mercurial self...not a lot of impact for much of the game, two stunning goals ( the second of which was a 35 yard goal of the season candidate). On form he's indispensible to us, but the lads all chipped in well yesterday. We're hoping for a big name in the next round, the money and kudos would be invaluable.

Team - Gueret 8; Nicholson 7, Parry 8, Carslake 9, Simpkins 7; Garai 8; Clarke 6, Toure 7; Naylor 8, Salenko 9, Henderson 7. Subs Mainwairing 7, McMennamin 6, McLean 7.

MOM - Oleg.


10/12/03

Well, the draw couldn't have been much better; Spurs away! Obviously as a local rival and a premiership side there's an atmosphere of high excitement around Victoria Road after that; just a shame we've got to wait till this time next month.

I could hardly begin a new month without a new face - this month i'm pleased to announce the arrival of Tamas Byrne, a 22 year old keeper from Barnet. He's cost us 16k and will provide solid competition for Rachubka & Gueret. Slgihtly more surprisingly, i've received bids for two of our lads from quite different sources - Halifax want Leon Mike and want to give us 60k for the privelege (sounds good to me; we accepted straight away), while cup rivals Spurs have offered us 85k for Michael Croft. This was a shock; Michael's not been bad but he's hardly shown Premiership quality in the short time he's been with us. Personally i think they're running scared & trying to unsettle us before the cup tie, which is why i've asked for 100k .

Oh yes, and there was a Vans Trophy tie yesterday, but who cares? We certainly didn't; Bournemouth beat our youth team 4-1...

rmoore

30/12/03

Well, no one can say this month has been boring! A hectic period of 4 games in fifteen days saw a total of 27 goals go in...sadly we only managed to get 2 points from the four. first up was York at home, a game we really should have won, and in which we led three times, through McDougald, Parry & Garai- frustratingly though, a Paul Bowen header in the 93rd minute cost us the points. Unfortunately, worse was to come, as we turned in an abject midweek performance to lose 5-3 at home to Colchester. Michael Croft was unimpressive in his farewell game, but the whole defence had a bit of a mare in truth. Garai again, McLean & Keeblescored our goals, but we had both Jamie Parry & Paul Rachubka sent off to finish with 9 men.

To Exeter at the weekend, and again we shared the points in a 3-3 encounter. It was another disappointing result if i'm honest, we were 3-0 up 7 cruising but the back line let us down again. McDougald, Keeble & Salenko scored for us. Finally for the month we entertained Doncaster, and suffered another shocking home defeat, 3-4 this time. Paul Rachubka had a nightmare and Willy Gueret can't recover from his broken finger quick enough...although again the defence offered the yung keeper little support. McDougald, McLean & Marshallscored for us in a game where we were always on the back foot.

Overall its been a poor month. We're still second but our cushion has been wiped out and Kidderminster have sailed off cheerfully into the distance. Shipping 15 in four games is disastrous, especially when three of those games were at hhome, and although Willy Gueret is back next week, i'll have to look into defensive reinforcements, especially on the flanks where we're very light.
up front things look better - we're still scoring freely and the goals are being shared around quite nicely. We're still probably missing a thirty goal striker but we can get by ok for now. There needs to be a quick improvement next month though if we want to consolidate our promotion push.


MATCHES


Daggers 3 (McDougald 8, Parry 34, Garai 52) York City 3(Warren 25, Fox 37, Bowen 90)

Gueret 6; Croft 7, Carslake 7, Parry 6, Simpkins 8; Garai7; Keeble 8, Toure 7; McLean 7, McDougald 8, Henderson 6. Subs Salenko 7, Mainwaring 7, McMennamin 7.


Daggers 3 (Garai 4, McLean 7, Keeble 45) Colchester United 5 (Whelan 8, 90 (2pens), Sheron 22, Neil 44, 81)

Rachubka 6 (So90); Croft 6, Parry 5 (so8), Carslake 7, Simpkins 5; Garai 8; Keeble 9, Toure 6; McLean 7, McDougald 6, Henderson 6. Subs Janney 7, McLean 7, Pater 6.


Exeter City 3 (Brayson 27, Tomlinson 51, 58) Daggers 3 (McDougald 5, Keeble 10, Salenko 16)

Rachubka 6; Nicholson 8, Carslake 6, Parry 7, Simpkins 8; Garai 7; Keeble 8, Toure 8; McLean 7, Salenko 8, McDougald 8. Subs Dalglish 6, Marshall 6, Naylor 7.


Daggers 3 (McDougald 11, McLean 44, Marshall 80) Doncaster Rovers 4 (Miglioranzi 12, Gill 19, Moncur 37, Jackson 70)

Rachubka 4; Woodman 6, Carslake 7, Marshall 7, Simpkins 7; Jackson 5; Keeble 7, Janney 6; McLean 8, McDougald 9, Naylor 8. Subs Toure 7, Dalglish 6, Salenko 6.

rmoore

3/1/04

The last few games have hardly been ideal preperation for the biggest game in our history - an FA Cup 3rd Round tie at White Hart Lane. It showed, as well, the lads seeming to be slightly overawed by the occasion as Thorstein Helstad and Mark Kerr put the Lilywhites 2-0 up inside 11 minutes. after that, however, we gave the premiership high flyers a real run for their money. Junior mcdougald volleyed home from a Keeble centre and Salenko was unlucky to see a goal ruled out for offside. Sadly for us, Kerr grabbed his second just before half time, and a splendid solo effort from Paul Ifill 20 minnutes into the second half finally killed us off. Mcdougald grabbed a consolation towards the end but our brief cup run was over. It was a decent effort all round but we came up short against an exceptional side.

Even more important to us was the crunch home tie with runaway leaders Kidderminster on the 7th. A win would see us back in the title hunt, defeat and they might as well give the trophy to Jan Molby's side now. I put out the strongest side available but our recent malaise failed to lift, the champions elect winning 3-1 and going ten points clear. Junior McDougald's sixth in six games was scant consolation as we looked second best throughout, and truthfully we have to start looking at the runner up spot now.

Tottenham Hotspur 4 (Helstad 4, Kerr 11, 43, Ifill 65) Daggers 2(McDougald 37, 83)

Gueret 8; Eaton 6, Carslake 7, Marshall 6, Simpkins 6; Garai 7; Keeble 7, Toure 6; Naylor 7, Salenko 6, McDougald 8. Subs Pater 7, McLean 7.


Kidderminster Harriers 3 (Alun Armstrong 9, Pounder 32, Wright 62) Daggers 1 (MCdougald 51)

Gueret 6; Eaton 5, Carslake 7, Marshall 7, Simpkins 7; Garai 7; Keeble 7, Toure 7; Naylor 7, Salenko 6, McDougald 8. Sub McLean 7.