The Daggers were knocked out of the Essex Senior Cup on penalties by Heybridge Swifts on Tuesday night in a match that will not live long in the memory.
Game Time Opportunities
However, for certain members of the squad it represented an invaluable opportunity to stake a claim for regular minutes in Peter Taylor’s team.
“Today was a good game for me to get my fitness up and prove to the gaffer why I should be in the team, but I’m young, so I’ve got a lot of learning to do,” Liam Gordon said of the opportunity afforded to him against Heybridge.
Lamar Reynolds shared these sentiments. “This was a chance today for all the boys to show the gaffer what they can do and try to get back into the first 11, and everyone tried to put in 100% effort, so we can just learn from what happened.”
Learning Curve
Learning seems to be a continuous theme during the early part of the season.
Reynolds described the season so far as a “learning curve” while the 19-year old Gordon touched on his learning process: “The gaffer spoke to me, gave me constructive criticism, which is what I needed, he said to me I need to have a bit more confidence in my play.”
Optimistic Viewpoint
Despite the heartbreak of defeat on penalties in front of a 207 crowd, the general consensus around the club is positive. Perhaps that is due to a considerable amount of hindsight after some darker days at the start of the season, which saw The Daggers lose six of their first seven National League matches followed by a run of five consecutive defeats in early October.
Two successive victories against Harrogate and Dover as well as huge squad turnover since the start of the season has restored some confidence and hope.
In Gordon’s eyes the mood has ‘definitely’ lifted. “The boys have done well, won two games on the spin, and it was a small margin loss against Sutton (the Daggers’ most recent league match). We had chances, they had chances, but everything’s been good so far.”
This optimism is shared by Reynolds who believes that “the team looks a lot stronger. We play a lot better football, a lot stronger going forward and defensively, so we’re starting to correct a few errors that we used to make and I think we’re building on strong. So I’m quite happy with everything so far.”
The Daggers will now have 10 days to utilize that optimism and prepare to welcome sixth place AFC Fylde to the Chigwell Construction Stadium.
