Dagenham

[Tim Allman 1]

Another pre-season friendly and another £14 poorer for the pleasure.  

Unlike the Stevenage game we started with a very much second string side with only Ruddy, Ward, Smith, Martin and Jackson realistic contenders for a start against Watford. It showed in the first half as Dagenham passed it round us, and more alarmingly played straight through the middle of our defence on more than one occasion.

Elliott Ward made his City debut and had a few good moments but unsurprisingly was more than a little ring-rusty and Tomlin, the Dagenham number 10, gave him and Tudur Jones the other centre back plenty of problems. George Francomb had a steady game at right back but Remy Gordon really struggled on the other side of the defence. He made three mistakes in the minute leading up to the goal and when Green ran at him he backed off the cross and Tomlin deflected it in. The midfield tried hard but couldn’t really get anything going at all, and I can’t really remember a concerted period of possession in Dagenham’s half.

City livened up in the second half after the cavalry came on, and had more of the possession but didn’t really test the Dagenham keeper. Wes tried hard, Fox looked a useful player again and Oli nearly broke through a couple of times. Dagenham however had their moments as well and could well have added to their lead.

Not the best game I’ve been to, but looking at the positives, Ward got 45 minutes, Ruddy looks to be a good keeper, and Jackson will give us some much needed pace up front. Francombe looks an improving player as well.