Despite a disappointing loss to Guiseley FC on Saturday, Dagenham & Redbridge manager, John Still, believes that his club have a long way to go yet in an eventful season. And with fixtures beginning to pile up, he feels his side is very much in with a chance to win the Vanarama National League.
Speaking to Rising East after the fixture at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, the boss said there’s ample time ahead to finish the season strong:
“It’s a long way to go, we’re going to lose games – everyone’s going to lose games. So I don’t really have a problem with what’s coming, we can only focus on what we’ve just done and today [against Guiseley] we weren’t good enough.”
Disappointed
The Daggers dropped points to relegation battling Guiseley in a 2-1 loss after going down to 10 men with Corey Whitely seeing red. Regrettably, it was a fixture that would have seen the club become joint top if they had taken all three points. Disappointed with the result, Still believes his side could’ve done more on the day:
“We never did enough to win the game, we missed a penalty, we had probably three or four good goal-scoring opportunities that we didn’t take. And at the end of the day we got beat because we never played well enough – that’s football, so we have to accept it. You look back at that and we never took those chances and never played with enough quality or energy after that – it’s easy for people to say we played with 10 men but we could’ve done better than that.”
Bounce back
Sparing the unfortunate defeat, the Daggers had been in fine form with five straight wins prior to Saturday’s loss. And with fixtures becoming to arrive thick and fast, Still will be looking ahead to a couple of home matches to bounce-back, with Bromley and Maidstone on the horizon. The manager is confident ahead of the flurry of fixtures:
“I’m very confident, always confident, we’re never in doubt about that. But we have to make sure that, sometimes you’re not going to play well and we know that – it’s football – but we’ve got to find a way of winning points when you don’t play well.”
Currently the east London outfit sit third in the National League table after Tranmere Rovers leapfrogged Still’s side with a win at the weekend. However, the Daggers have a lot to play for with just three points separating them from league leaders Lincoln City. And with the business end of the season quickly approaching, Still will hope his side can learn from the various tough home defeats this season and fight for automatic promotion into the Football League once again.
