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DAGGERS DICTIONARY "Marie Celeste" An area of the ground with either sparse attendance or no visible attendance at all, i.e. the Barking College Family Stand.

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Daggers on the up Are the Daggers overachieving? by Hardy on 09/06/2010 Do we inevitably have to expect the Daggers fairy tale to end and for the club to start to slip back to it's "natural level"? Are the Daggers overachieving? So the Daggers will start their nineteenth season in the NPower Football League One, the third tier of English football. It is a magnificent achievement for the club who have come from the Ryman Isthmian League, then tier 6, in just eleven seasons under Garry Hill and John Still. But are the club overachieving, do we inevitably have to expect the fairy tale to end and for the club to start to slip back to it's "natural level"? And what is that level anyway? "Natural Level" - Average attendances as a measure The only realistic measure of how big a club is, has to be dictated by the average attendance it gets week in week out throughout the season. Even this is a bit flawed as a measure but taking this as raw data it does give a good indication. It is of course possible for this number to fluctuate wildly based on the league a team finds itself in either above or below where in ought to find itself, whether it has a lot of local derbies in a particular season due to the make up of its league, whether it has a good or bad season on the field of play. Particularly for the top clubs this can be skewed by what the capacity of their ground is. There is little doubt that clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs etc could have bigger average attendance if they had the capacity for instance. However if you use it as a statistic, it holds true when you look at clubs obviously playing below their "natural level" like Leeds United for instance. What I have done below is take the average attendance of the 115 clubs that played in the top five tiers of English football, the Premiership through to the Conference, then rank the clubs based on average attendance. By comparing this ranking to the actual position achieved in the ladder against that you get a measure of how a club is faring on the field against how it should be based on its size. What can we glean out of the statistics? The raw stats for the season just completed show Dagenham & Redbridge as having the 96th highest average attendance in the top five divisions in England with 2,098. Against that, the club actually had a league finish of 75th, an overachievement of 21 places.  Only four teams out of the 115 in the top five divisions did better than this last season. these being Blackpool (25), Walsall (24), Hartlepool (22) and Morecambe (22). Other clubs featuring high on the list are Scunthorpe, Wigan, Doncaster and Bolton Wanderers, which would suggest that the measure is broadly correct as all these are clubs I would have said were doing better than might be expected. The clubs doing worst last season are Luton Town, Bradford City, Oxford United, Leeds United, and Norwich City, which also suggests the measure is correct. Three of those won promotion last season and will close the gap to where they "ought" to be as a result. Other clubs stuck below where they should be based on this measure are Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday, Charlton Athletic and, interestingly, Notts County, all of which will be the Daggers opponents next season. Where should the Daggers be? This argument has been had a few times, what is the potential of Dagenham & Redbridge FC. Where does it deserve to be on the footballing ladder? For the vast majority of its existence as Dagenham & Redbridge the club has plied its trade in the Conference, eleven seasons in all out of eighteen. The founding clubs all played the majority of their football in the Isthmian League so this in itself is a step up resulting from the merger, and I think it is safe to say that none of the original four clubs that are now Dagenham & Redbridge realistically harboured serious hopes of being a Football League club. In this, the various mergers, however they came about, have proved a huge success. While the Daggers sit in a crowded piece of football turf, surrounded as they are by much more established football clubs, they have managed to grow the average attendance from around 1200 in the first season to around 2100 last season through a low close to 600 during the Isthmian League years. Since the club won promotion the average attendances have risen slowly but steadily. Several new posters at the Daggers forum have said that they have moved from established Premier League clubs to follow the Daggers in recent years, often due to cost, but also as a result of the success that has been achieved. While often derided as "glory hunters" these people are key to the Daggers sustaining their rise up the leagues and should be welcomed. The clubs catchment area, broadly defined as the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Havering have a combined population of around 650,000. Of course many of these will either not be interested in football, or will already have allegiances elsewhere, but this is a huge potential for the small club from Essex to pull from. Maybe, the sky really is the limit? Raw Statistics (proceed with caution) Rank- Position Position Att Rank Team Avg attendance 5 1 6 Chelsea 41423 -1 2 1 Manchester United 74864 -1 3 2 Arsenal 59927 6 4 10 Tottenham Hotspur 35794 -2 5 3 Manchester City 45342 2 6 8 Aston Villa 38573 -2 7 5 Liverpool 42864 1 8 9 Everton 36725 7 9 16 Birmingham City 25246 5 10 15 Blackburn Rovers 25428 3 11 14 Stoke City 27162 10 12 22 Fulham 23909 -6 13 7 Sunderland 40355 12 14 26 Bolton Wanderers 21881 -2 15 13 Wolverhampton Wndrs 28366 17 16 33 Wigan Athletic 18006 -6 17 11 West Ham United 33683 12 18 30 Burnley 20654 1 19 20 Hull City 24390 12 20 32 Portsmouth 18249 -17 21 4 Newcastle United 43388 3 22 25 West Bromwich Albion 22199 0 23 23 Nottingham Forest 23831 5 24 29 Cardiff City 20717 -4 25 21 Leicester City 23943 25 26 51 Blackpool 8611 10 27 37 Swansea City 15407 -11 28 17 Sheffield United 25120 6 29 35 Reading 17408 9 30 39 Bristol City 14592 0 31 31 Middlesbrough 19948 14 32 46 Doncaster Rovers 10992 9 33 42 Queens Park Rangers 13349 -22 34 12 Derby County 29207 -7 35 28 Ipswich Town 20841 5 36 41 Watford 14345 7 37 44 Preston North End 12874 5 38 43 Barnsley 12964 -3 39 36 Coventry City 17295 18 40 58 Scunthorpe United 6464 -3 41 38 Crystal Palace 14945 -18 42 24 Sheffield Wednesday 23179 5 43 48 Plymouth Argyle 10316 6 44 50 Peterborough United 8913 -26 45 19 Norwich City 24758 -28 46 18 Leeds United 24818 0 47 47 Millwall 10835 -14 48 34 Charlton Athletic 17606 3 49 52 Swindon Town 8389 -10 50 40 Huddersfield Town 14381 -24 51 27 Southampton 20982 14 52 66 Colchester United 5530 7 53 60 Brentford 6018 24 54 78 Walsall 4029 1 55 56 Bristol Rovers 6891 -7 56 49 Milton Keynes Dons 10290 0 57 57 Brighton & Hove Albion 6467 10 58 68 Carlisle United 5210 12 59 71 Yeovil Town 4664 22 60 82 Hartlepool United 3444 11 61 72 Oldham Athletic 4630 8 62 70 Leyton Orient 4937 -1 63 62 Exeter City 5832 0 64 64 Tranmere Rovers 5671 -6 65 59 Gillingham 6335 -1 66 65 Wycombe Wanderers 5544 -14 67 53 Southend United 7718 7 68 75 Stockport County 4420 -15 69 54 Notts County 7353 -7 70 63 AFC Bournemouth 5720 12 71 83 Rochdale 3346 22 72 94 Morecambe 2262 7 73 80 Rotherham United 3817 13 74 87 Aldershot Town 3086 21 75 96 Dagenham & Redbridge 2098 3 76 79 Chesterfield 3849 12 77 89 Bury 3027 -9 78 69 Port Vale 5080 -5 79 74 Northampton Town 4427 -13 80 67 Shrewsbury Town 5482 5 81 86 Burton Albion 3191 -37 82 45 Bradford City 11423 15 83 98 Accrington Stanley 1980 11 84 95 Hereford United 2139 6 85 91 Torquay United 2859 -9 86 77 Crewe Alexandra 4075 13 87 100 Macclesfield Town 1934 -7 88 81 Lincoln City 3670 8 89 97 Barnet 2059 -6 90 84 Cheltenham Town 3243 -18 91 73 Grimsby Town 4428 7 92 99 Darlington 1943 0 93 93 Stevenage Borough 2589 -39 94 55 Luton Town 6976 -34 95 61 Oxford United 6004 5 96 101 Rushden & Diamonds 1678 -5 97 92 York City 2665 5 98 103 Kettering Town 1387 12 99 111 Crawley Town 1003 -24 100 76 AFC Wimbledon 4316 -16 101 85 Mansfield Town 3206 -14 102 88 Cambridge United 3077 -13 103 90 Wrexham 2860 5 104 109 Salisbury 1040 -3 105 102 Kidderminster Harriers 1548 2 106 108 Altrincham 1066 -3 107 104 Barrow 1254 -2 108 106 Tamworth 1091 6 109 115 Hayes & Yeading 604 2 110 112 Histon 849 -6 111 105 Eastbourne Borough 1217 1 112 113 Gateshead FC 674 -3 113 110 Forest Green Rovers 1012 -7 114 107 Ebbsfleet Utd 1068 -1 115 114 Grays Athletic 658 Top ten over achievers Rank- Position Position Att Rank Team Avg attendance 25 26 51 Blackpool 8611 24 54 78 Walsall 4029 22 60 82 Hartlepool United 3444 22 72 94 Morecambe 2262 21 75 96 Dagenham & Redbridge 2098 18 40 58 Scunthorpe United 6464 17 16 33 Wigan Athletic 18006 15 83 98 Accrington Stanley 1980 14 32 46 Doncaster Rovers 10992 14 52 66 Colchester United 5530 Bottom ten under achievers Rank- Position Position Att Rank Team Avg attendance -18 42 24 Sheffield Wednesday 23179 -18 91 73 Grimsby Town 4428 -22 34 12 Derby County 29207 -24 51 27 Southampton 20982 -24 100 76 AFC Wimbledon 4316 -26 45 19 Norwich City 24758 -28 46 18 Leeds United 24818 -34 95 61 Oxford United 6004 -37 82 45 Bradford City 11423 -39 94 55 Luton Town 6976