Buoyed by their recent takeover announcement, everything seemed to be heading in the right direction for Peter Taylor’s side after wins in the early part of September against Braintree and Barrow. But two successive defeats have followed, firstly, a 1-0 away defeat to Eastleigh last weekend, which was followed up by a 2-0 defeat away at Solihull Moors on Tuesday evening.
Luke Pennell made the mistake that gifted Moors’ Daniel Wright the opening goal in the match and he is determined to put the error behind him.
“Tuesday was a difficult game. A costly mistake from me gave them the first goal and then we were just caught up the field for their second.
“It was those two moments that decided the game. Two silly errors, one from myself and one from Liam Gordon. We have both watched the footage back and dwelled on it for the last couple of days, but we’ve just got to forget about it and just move on,” he said.
Deadlock
The Daggers struggled to create any meaningful chances in the match, with Elliot Romain looking most likely to break the deadlock as he went close with an effort midway through the first half. The second half saw more opportunities for the away side, as Noel Leighton almost connected with a low cross delivered by Chike Kandi.
Wolves youngster and former Boreham Wood defender Ben Goodliffe is on loan at The Chigwell Construction Stadium this season, and has formed a solid partnership with Pennell, and the former MK Dons youngster has enjoyed playing with the 19-year-old.
“I think that myself and Ben have worked well so far this campaign. I’m trying to teach him the ropes in this league, and we’re both quite similar in the way that we play, we both want the ball and are always looking to play it forward.
“I think we’ve established a good partnership together. We kept three clean sheets in a row, and we built up some massive confidence with playing together.”
Daggers’ no.6 was also complimentary of goalkeeper, Elliot Justham and former Arsenal full back Gavin Hoyte, who are two of the more experienced defenders in the young side that Peter Taylor assembled during the summer.
‘Competitive’
“We’re a young and somewhat inexperienced backline, so to have Gavin Hoyte and Elliot Justham with their experience is massive. I’m young but I’ve got a good amount of experience at this level. It’s a tough league to play your football in, you don’t get a lot of time to learn and there isn’t any room for error because the football is so competitive,” he said.
Dagenham face Ebbsfleet United on Saturday, who feature two former Daggers in their squad. Corey Whitely departed Victoria Road in February of this year having joined the Club in August 2016. Michael Cheek joined The Fleet two days before Daggers’ opening game against Boreham Wood, and Pennell is certainly aware that both players could cause problems for the East London outfit.
“I’m looking forward to going up against Cheeky. It will be a good battle, we used to have a laugh in training and we know how each other plays so it will be interesting. He knows my strengths as a central defender and I know what he is good at as a forward, so it will be a tough afternoon for us both I’m sure.
“Corey was a handful when he was here, he managed to score a lot of goals for us and was an important member of the squad. So the aim for us will be to use the knowledge that we have on them both and stop them from causing us problems on Saturday,” said the 22-year-old.
Dagenham and Redbridge take on Ebbsfleet United at The Chigwell Construction Stadium on Saturday 29th September, 3pm KO.