Still claims Daggers are making their mark

9:59am Monday 29th September 2008

DAGENHAM AND REDBRIDGE will soon rise above their 'second class citizen' status and be on a level playing field with League Two’s top clubs, claims John Still.

The Daggers boss believes the east Londoners good form this season is a marked contrast to some of the beatings they endured by the same opponents last term, and is evidence of their improvement.

Rotherham United did the double over Dagenham last season beating them 2-0 at Victoria Road and 2-1 at Millmoor.

But the Daggers came within seven minutes of beating the south Yorkshire side after Paul Benson’s fantastic strike gave the east Londoners’ the lead.

Mark Burchill’s scrappy effort levelled matters and shows that, while Daggers have a few things still to learn, they are not as prone to defeat as they once were.

Still said: "Listen, I always say this. I never lose touch with who we are. We’re trying to catch teams like Rotherham up.

"It’s going to take us quite a while to do that but every day, week, month and year we’re going to get a little bit closer to these teams.

"Last year these teams were beating us. They aren’t going to beat us now."

He added: "We’ve worked very hard on the training ground. In a short period of time we won’t be looking at games like this feeling they are bigger and better clubs than us.

"We will be working on a mentality that tells us we’re not second class citizens."

He revealed that watching the blossoming partnership between Ben Strevens and Benson last season gave him a brain wave to adopt a more patient passing style this year in comparison to the attritional aerial approach of last term.

"Both of our front players can receive the ball so I have no problems with players playing balls into their feet.

"I decided to adopt this new style a little way into last season when Benson came back from injury.

"It was evident we could go to both of those people and keep possession of the ball. Once we’re able to do that I was able to tinker with the people behind to support them and get runners running on getting down the sides of people,” he added.

Goalkeeper Tony Roberts agreed with his boss’ assessment of how Daggers are progressing.

"We’ve had a great start. We’ve learnt a lot individually and as a team and we’ve started off on a good footing," said Roberts.

"The most eye-opening thing for me last season was the way the boys stuck together in certain situations.

"There were games where we played really well and then we’d have a mad ten minutes where we let in goals but that’s what they’ve learnt from last year.

"This game last year we could have let three in the first half and got done by five."

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