Dagenham & Redbridge boss John Still was full of praise for his players after they battled back to beat relegation threatened Chester, 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.
Two goals from forward Fejiri Okenabirhie and an unfortunate own goal from Chester defender Andy Halls in the final moments of the match was enough for Dagenham to pick up their first win at the Chigwell Construction Stadium in four home matches.
“To be honest I thought first half we were terrific,” said Still.
“I thought we were unfortunate to be at 1-1 at half time. In the second half we had the wind and it was difficult, just as it was for Chester in the first half.”
Significant Change
Daggers were pegged back midway through the second half, when Billy Waters gave the away side the lead against the run of play. Still reacted by bringing on striker Mason Bloomfield to play alongside Michael Cheek and the former Luton boss believes that this was key in changing the game.
“We were fluid, but I thought once we made the change, moving two people wide and bringing on the extra forward I thought we got on top, and it was a matter of if we could score.
“They started defending from very deep and that made it difficult, But once we scored the second, I thought we’d win, I just had this feeling about it. And the way we’ve played recently, we’ve never stopped, it’s been terrific.”
Forced Mistake
Okenabirhie continued his prolific goal-scoring form by grabbing the equaliser five minutes from time, before an own goal from Halls gave Dagenham a much needed win.
“The energy of the team wore Chester down and I think that’s shown in the own goal, someone’s under pressure to get the ball away and it’s one of them things, if you put enough pressure on someone you can force them into a mistake and I think that’s what we did today.
“With the problems that we’ve had, they’ve responded unbelievably and I’m being honest, I think we deserved to win and coming back from 2-1 down to win is a great result for the players and the football club.
“We scored three goals away at Torquay, we played really well against Dover and we’ve gone out today and scored three goals again, so even though we’ve lost some games, we’ve got some good attacking players and we’re still scoring goals so I’m very pleased with that.”
The Daggers are now only four points outside the play-off places and with a trip to bottom of the league Guiseley up next for the East London side, Still believes that it will be a tough match.
Tough Guiseley Test
“At this stage of the season, people are normally playing for something. This is where the games get really tough. It’s going to be tough because Guiseley are desperate to stay up so I don’t think they’ll be any easy games for any teams.”
Three points will definitely lift everyone at the club after a turbulent couple of weeks at the club after Glyn Hopkin removed his financial backing. This has seen many key players leave to keep the club afloat, but Still revealed that the news may have actually helped his side
“It’s been hanging over us for quite a few weeks, the players are aware of what’s going on but because nothings been done officially you can’t say too much.
“I just think once it came out I think that’s actually given us all a lift, we know where we are, we know what we’ve got in front of us, we know the club are battling hard so that people get paid, and so far that’s what’s been happening.
“So I think that everyone’s got a clear insight onto the current situation and I think that’s given everyone a lift to be honest.”
Daggers announced this week that West Ham United will be paying a friendly at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Wednesday, 21st March to support Dagenham in their efforts to fundraise to keep the club afloat.
The club will be hopeful this match will bring in some much needed cash and help Dagenham survive in the short term at least.