The Daggers tonight swept aside the challenge of near-neighbours Ford United in the 4th Round of this season's Essex Senior Cup.
Both the Holders and the visitors scored 7 in the last round with the Daggers beating Harwich & Parkeston 7-2 and Ford beating Tiptree United 7-1.
In the last round, Junior McDougald (left) scored four of the Daggers' goals and
tonight he again was the hero, scoring a superb hattrick. He could easily have had four again early but failed to convert an early penalty.
Ford fielded three former-Daggers in Jay Devereux, Danny Benstock and Simon
Livett and Garry Hill surprisingly chose to field a very strong side with Tim Cole making a very welcome return from injury.
Tim looked comfortable throughout the game and lasted until the 78th minute before being substituted with the game already well won.
Both teams started slowly and the game didn't really spring to life until the 18th minute. A spell of concerted pressure from the Daggers ended when Junior McDougald's shot beat Chapman but was deliberately handled on the line by the Motormen's Greg Heighway. The referee dismissed Heighway and awarded the Daggers the penalty.
Junior McDougald took the penalty himself, but it was poorly hit to the goalkeepers left at a saveable hieght and easily saved by Chapman in the Motormen's goal.
The repreive was short lived though and four minutes later Mark Janney's impressive run was ended when he was upended just outside the area. Mark Brennan (right) stepped up and hit the resulting free kick straight through a poor defensive wall to put the Daggers 1-0 up.
The bad news was that Mark Janney (left, receiving attention) continued to limp on for a couple of minutes but was forced to make way for Mike Dean. Dean made the most of his chance and had a reasonable game on the right of midfield for the remaining 66 minutes.
Ford got back on level terms with 31 minutes on the clock. A poor pass from Mark Rooney was cut out by Bejada who fed Benstock to force Paul Gothard into a fine save. From the resulting corner though Bradley Woodards made it 1-1 with a simple far post header.
Three minutes into first half injury time the Daggers retook the lead when Junior McDougald found some space in a packed penalty area following a Jason Broom corner and scored with a fizzing low shot to make the half-time score 2-1.
Within 10 minutes of the restart the Daggers had extended their lead when Junior McDougald scored his second of the match with a left footed curler from inside the area after Ken Charlery had chested down a long ball to him, in a goal very similar to the one that Jim Magilton scored for Ipswich Town.
In the 60th minute, the home side replaced Ken Charlery with Danny Shipp and the Motormen replaced Chris Rose with Andy Aransibia.
Shipp (left) had an immediate impact when his strong run into the area was ended by Devereux who brought him down and Junior McDougald stepped-up to slot home the penalty this time and to secure his hattrick.
Within a minute, the Daggers put the ball in the net again when Ashley Vickers headed home a Mark Brennan cross but the goal was disallowed due to Vickers holding down the defender.
In the 75th minute, Ford replaced Poole with Hoddy and two minutes later, the Daggers replaced Tim Cole with Steve Vaughan. Tim went off to a rousing ovation from the 543 present and looks to be back, if not yet to his best, at least in contention for bigger games to come.
With the game well won, it was party trick time, even Ashley Vickers getting in on the act with an attempted back heel pass in the Ford United area. There was one more twist though when just as the game appeared to be over, in the 85th minute, the Daggers completed the rout when Steve Vaughan was put clean through by Junior McDougald, only to be pulled down from behind by Danny Benstock on the edge of the area.
Benstock became the second Ford player to be sent-off as a result and Mark Brennan scored from the resulting free-kick with an exquisite shot into the top right hand corner of the net.
The Daggers will now face the Billericay Town at New Lodge in the 5th Round. Billericay overcame Witham Town tonight 4-2. One of their goals was from another former Dagger, Jeff Woolsey.
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