Daggers v Rotherham Match Report

Daggers 3-2 Rotherham

From a personal perspective, this was the best weekend in 2012 for me so far. The Daggers win being the stand out highlight of course. After waking up hungover from celebrating one good friend's 18th, I decided to get back on the beer with my full English in the local cafe at around 11 o'clock or as I like to call it "Beer O'clock". We met up with a few Southend fans who had come down for the day with their own team not in action due to Swindon's FA Cup run. We soon made it into the clubhouse for more drinking and to watch the early game of Liverpool v Man Utd. I have to say that the clubhouse had a real good spirit about it pre match as I spoke to many other Daggers fans and two first team players Jake Reed and Eion Wearen about the season's expectations. While, myself and the players were upbeat about our chances of staying up, many fans were fairly negative and fearing the worst.

I went into the ground around 2:50pm as in the spirit of "Football Day", I'd much rather be enjoying a drink with other fans then watching the players warm up. The Daggers made one change to their side as we welcomed back 2nd top goalscorer Brian Woodall as Adam Cunnington dropped to the bench. The Daggers were also boosted by the return of Josh Scott to the bench who made a telling impact later on. Andy Scott made 4 changes to the side that were defeated by Port Vale a week ago with ex Walsall man Mark Bradley coming in for Dale Tonge, Richard Naylor coming in for Johnny Mullins, on loan Palace winger coming in for Marcus Marshall and ex Huddersfield midfielder Danny Schofield being replaced by Danny Harrison.

Here comes the sides..

The teams shake hands before kick off..

The Daggers looked a bit flat in the opening stages which therefore brought a lot of negativity among the terraces which seems to be the norm these days. The first chance fell to the South Yorkshire side as the lethal Lewis Grabaan wasted a free chance after 6 minutes. Two more chances soon fell to the Millers as Lewy was back to his best staying equal to a one on one from Grabaan and comfortably saving a tame effort from midfielder Jason Taylor. Daggers first effort on the on loan Chelsea keeper Rhys Taylor's goal was from young Billy Bingham whose long ranged effort did nothing to trouble Taylor. However, Rotherham soon took a deserved lead in a goal where I have to self confess that I missed but have now watched the highlights many times to report on it. After two failed attempts to clear it from Abu Ogogo and holding midfielder Ahmed Abdulla, midfielder Danny Harrison who seems to have a habit of scoring against the Daggers put the ball past Lewy's reach. The Daggers had their young promising keeper to thank as he managed to keep out the highly rated Alex Revell just before the break as the Daggers went in only one down thankfully.

Abu Ogogo and Sam Wood tussle for possession.

After another unacceptable lacklustre half from the Daggers, something needed to change and credit where credit's due, Still got this one right. He introduced Josh Scott in place of the ineffective Ahmed Abdulla to go 4-4-2, with an attacking line up of Nurse and Montano on either wing with Woodall and Scott up front with the influential Abu Ogogo going into the midfield alongside Billy Bingham.The Daggers suddenly looked much more lively and 5 minutes into the second half, an inviting free kick from ex Brentford man Mickey Spillane found the persistent Jon Nurse who headed home. The Daggers quickly then nearly took the lead as Josh Scott couldn't find the connection to trouble Welsh under 18 international Rhys Taylor in the Rotherham goal. The Daggers did then soon take the lead due to fortunate circumstances as Abu Ogogo's shot took a decisive deflection of Mark Bradley to wrong foot Taylor and give the Daggers the lead. Cue massive celebrations from everyone in the terraces including myself...

However, just like Wembley I should have known not to get too excited when taking the lead against Rotherham as history repeated itself as Andy Scott's men equalised a minute later as the Daggers defence switched off allowing ex Dagger Scott Griffiths too much space to find Alex Revell who headed past Chris Lewington. Rotherham had a half chance before our winner as Grabban's effort was deflected away. However, after some good work from the impressive Mickey Spillane, Daggers forced a corner as Scott Doe flicked his header into the Rotherham goal after a cross from Cristian Montano a lot like Doe's equaliser at the Don Valley Stadium in the reverse fixture. Unlike the 2nd goal, I hardly celebrated our winner in a cool Villas-Boas style as even I was unsure whether we would hold on with just over 10 minutes left. Lewington did manage to keep the Millers out for the remaining 10 minutes with late efforts from Revell and Jason Taylor failing to find the net. The only other notable event was the sending off of ex Stockport man Michael Raynes as he received a second yellow card after a minor scuffle with Spillane. The final whistle was a massive relief for myself as just like Wembley it finished Dagenham 3, Rotherham 2.

The scuffle that resulted in the sending off of Michael Raynes.

This was far from Daggers best performance and I am sure we have played better than this and lost this season but I am willing to accept we rode our luck in this one and got a vital 3 points which took us out of the bottom 2 once again. John Still hopefully proved his doubters wrong as the introduction of Josh Scott up front and Abu Ogogo into the centre of midfield was the difference. We have a long way to go in this season but I have always believed we have the ability and potential to get out of this. Abu Ogogo was awarded man of the match of the match however I believe Mickey Spillane or Chris Lewington could have easily been awarded this prize as well. The team that played second half have more than enough ability to win games in this league whilst we wait for the return of the likes of Gain, Maher, Howell and Green. Commiserations to the decent Rotherham away following who will feel hard done by on Saturday where they should have took at least a point. Apologies for the report being a day late but I was a little worse for ware yesterday as I celebrated another good friend's 18th and the Daggers victory on Saturday night. We go to Morecambe next week where I shall address you all later in the week.