Dagenham & Redbridge scraped through to the 4th Round of the FA Trophy for the
first time in three season, beating Eastbourne Borough 1-0 at Victoria Road
courtesy of a deflected Danny Shipp goal.
Following the heroics against Ipswich the week before, it was a disappointing
crowd of only 1,354 that saw a dour encounter played out today under overcast
grey skies.
With Eastbourne having brought six coachloads of supporters to the match, the
Dagenham & Redbridge officials must wonder what they need to do to attract
the floating supporters back to Victoria Road.
Garry
Hill chose to start Jason Broom in place of Ashley Vickers and to play Mark
Brennan (left) in midfield. Steve McGavin was preferred to Danny Hayzelden
on the left. It came as a welcome relief to hear Tim Cole's return as a
substitute although he didn't actually appear during the match..
The early encounters saw chances for both sides with the Daggers seemingly
unable to settle into their normal rhythm. Neither side created many
chances and the play was fairly even. With Sports' number 3, John
Scarborough particularly impressive, Eastbourne defended exceptionally well and
prevented any real threat from the Daggers' attack.
After around twenty minutes of the match, the home side appeared to settle
more and shut out the main threat from the Eastbourne forward line.
However, it was Daggers' custodian, Tony Roberts who needed to be alert to save
a fierce shot low and to his left.
Neither side though was able to break the deadlock and the first half ended
level.
At the break, Garry Hill replaced Steve Heffer with Paul Terry.
With Eastbourne defending well, the home side were unable to make much
headway into the Sports' area and most of the attacking play was easily dealt
with by the impressive Paul Stark in the Eastbourne goal. Eastbourne,
however, were finding it increasingly difficult to have any attacking play and
seemed more than happy to soak up the pressure and play for a replay.
Tony
Roberts was pretty much a spectator for the whole of the second half as
Eastbourne were restricted in the midfield and were unable to create any
chances.
As a rather dull half wore on, neither side looked much like breaking the
deadlock. However, at one point, Junior McDougald (right) appeared to be
felled in the area but the somewhat inconsistent referee waved play-on.
Towards
the end of the half, the home fans thought the breakthrough had been made when a
diving header from Steve McGavin (left) beat Stark but crashed against the post.
The
goal did come eventually though, in the 89th minute when Danny Shipp (right)
fired in a shot from the left which deflected past Stark and into the corner of
the goal to send the Daggers into the 4th Round Draw on Monday Lunchtime.
Considering the excellent display put on by the Eastbourne team, it was very
surprising that they didn't show much acknowledgement to their large travelling
support.
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