2023/24 OPPOSITION IN FOCUS – News

We begin to turn our attentions to the 2023/24 season by taking a first look at some of the clubs we’ll be facing in the Vanarama National League in the new term.

The next club we’re profiling is Dagenham & Redbridge.

Table of Contents

Overview

Like Aldershot and Bromley who we’ve already looked at in this series, Dagenham have been in the National League for a number of years now, heading into their eighth consecutive season at this level.

They spent around a decade in the EFL not too long ago, including one campaign in League One, but following relegation in 2015/16, the Daggers have only managed to finish in the top seven once.

That was all the way back in 2016/17 when there were only four teams in the play-offs. They earned a draw with Forest Green Rovers in the first leg but were beaten 2-0 on the road as the Gloucestershire club went on to earn a maiden promotion to League Two.

Dagenham finished in the bottom half in consecutive seasons in 2019/20 and 2020/21, but enjoyed a resurgence when the crowds came back after the pandemic. In 2021/22, they scored a whopping 80 National League goals and missed out on the play-offs by a solitary point.

Last season showed similar promise at times but eventually fizzled out to a 10^th-place finish.

Who’s in the squad?

The Daggers have suffered something of a mass exodus over the last six months. Strikers Junior Morias and Josh Walker both departed midway through 2022/23 and they were then joined by Paul McCallum, who spent the second half of last season away on loan.

With all three having proved their goalscoring abilities in east London, that was bad enough before Matt Robinson and Mo Sagaf were released. Angelo Balanta and Omar Mussa have both been made available for transfer and George Saunders has recently left to join Hornchurch despite being offered a new deal at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.

Sam Ling has been offered a new deal, while of those set to remain at Dagenham, Inih Effiong, David Longe-King and Josh Hare appear to be the key men.

Goalkeeper Elliot Justham is also under contract, as is experienced winger Myles Weston.

As for incomings, two midfielders have signed deals. Former Boreham Wood man Josh Rees and Ryan Hill, recently of Eastleigh.

The manager

Ben Strevens is in the middle of his first close-season as Dagenham & Redbridge manager after he took over from previous incumbent Daryl McMahon in March.

The former striker, who played over 100 games for the Daggers between 2006 and 2009, helped them up to League Two and was their top scorer in their first ever Football League season.

After a career that also saw him score goals for the likes of Barnet and Wycombe Wanderers, Strevens signed for Eastleigh at the age of 33. He went on to play 141 games across two spells for the Spitfires, scoring 22 goals.

He worked as player/assistant manager during the latter stages of the 2015/16 season and was caretaker manager for one National League match at Wrexham in August 2016 following Todd’s departure.

He was finally appointed as the Spitfires’ permanent manager in November 2018 and took charge of 154 games in all at the south-coast club, winning 61. He left the club in mutual consent in January last year with Eastleigh 14th in the Vanarama National League. After more than a year out of the game, Strevens is back in the hotseat at the Daggers.

Stadium

Chigwell Construction Stadium | Capacity 6,078

There are two sides of seating and two sides of standing at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, with away fans housed in the largest stand, the SD Samuels Stand, which was built in 2009 and holds 1,240 supporters.

The main stand, where the dugouts are situated, is on the south side of the ground. Hospitality boxes are also situated here. On the same side, there is a smaller seated stand which is the designated family area.

The north side of the ground has a large terrace that runs the length of the pitch, while behind the home goal, there is an uncovered standing area.

Have we met before?

Dagenham had been something of a bogey side for Blues before our 2-0 win at Roots Hall in April, as the Daggers had won three of the previous four meetings.

Looking further back into the history books, Blues actually have the overall advantage. The clubs were drawn together in cup competitions a lot when Dagenham were in the EFL, a Dean Morgan brace helping us to a 5-2 win in the third round of the FA Cup in 2008.

Remarkably, the clubs met four times in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, Dagenham winning one, Southend winning two, and the other one being decided by a penalty shoot-out.

The overall record reads eight Blues victories, six Daggers victories and five draws.