How we’ve changed!

As 2008 draws to a close and Daggers fans all around dream of securing that prestiguous play off spot, it’s key to look back and realise just how far John Still has brought the team. What started as a stabilising job back in April 2004 after the Daggers plunged into financial difficulties has four and a half years later become a fairytale story. Who would have dreamed that merely three years later, a club transformed with young hungry players from the lower leagues would beat Oxford United to the Conference title of 06/07. However, the fans were brought back to earth last season after flirting with relegation. Several supporters believed the manager had taken us as far as he could and that league football was just a step too far for a little club like Dagenham. Nevertheless, after scraping survival the Daggers have gone on a new adventure this season beating clubs such as Gillingham, Rochdale, Chesterfield and Peterborough which has remarkably seen the side rise to 4th place in League 2 with a game in hand on several promotion rivals.

I thought it would be interesting to look at how our starting XI has changed from when we won the Conference title to see if we’ve had to change personal to succeed or if the players have grown to become accustomed to League 2.

THE LINE UPS

I have bolded the players in 06/07 that are no longer with the club or are now fringe players. I have also bolded the players in 08/09 that are new arrivals and weren’t with the club in 06/07.

06/07 – Conference winning season

————————-Roberts———————————
Foster————Uddin———–Boardman/Arber———Griffiths
Saunders——–Southam———–Rainford—————Sloma
—————Benson———-CMS/Strevens——————-

08/09 – Team that has led us to 4th in League 2

————————-Roberts————————-
Foster———-Okuanghae——-Arber———–Griffiths
Saunders——–Gain———Taiwo————-Ritchie
—————-Benson——-Strevens—————–

The two line ups show that only 4/11 of the players in the 06/07 line up have been replaced in the current Daggers line up. Ben Strevens and Mark Arber were both brought in half way through the 06/07 campaign to replace outgoing/injured players. Arber is a slightly different case as he left after the 06/07 campaign but returned at the start of the 08/09 campaign.

What this does show is how several of the players have grown from the Conference days to become established league players. The strike force of Benson and Strevens has become one of, if not, the most feared partnerships in League 2. The full backs of Scott Griffiths and Danny Foster never seem to look out of place. Griffiths is the more naturally talented of the two and undoubtedly can play at a higher level. However, Foster has worked very hard at his game and has transformed from a centre back at youth football to a very competent right back. Goalkeeper Tony Roberts is seemingly ageless and at 39 still has the agility of a 25 year old. His experience and personality has a tremendous effect on the team and is a major reason behind the success of the team in the last three years.

THE MIDFIELD

From comparing the two fielded XIs, it’s clear that the midfield has been the area where Dagenham have had to change personnel the most. The only other area to be altered is where former club captain Anwar Uddin has made way recently for the up and coming Magnus Okuanghae after forming an impressive partnership with new captain Mark Arber.

As for the midfield, three changes have been made. Sam Sloma and Dave Rainford both departed the club in the summer to drop back into non league football. Many Daggers fans were of the opinion that both players were not quite up to the level of league football. Although both players had their moments, they were clearly not performing up to the level needed on a consistent basis. It’s worth pointing out however that Rainford voluntarily left in the summer after deciding he didn’t want to put his teaching career on the back burner. The other absentee from the midfield this season has been Glen Southam. Glen put a transfer request in at the start of the season to see whether or not any bigger clubs were interested in him. Nevertheless, this meant Glen started the season on the bench as the transfer window was still open and a move possible. No clubs came in for Glen and even though he removed himself from the transfer list, he is now behind Solomon Taiwo and Peter Gain who have struck up a solid partnership in the middle of the field.

The only area of the midfield to remain untouched from 06/07 is Sam Saunders on the right wing. Originally Sam was one of the Daggers players to receive a fair amount of stick from supporters as he produced several inconsistent performances when it was clear he had an outstanding right foot. An injury hit first football league season did little to suggest that he was going to be a stand out player for the Daggers in this campaign. However, a more free role and a new level of consistency has seen Saunders storm up the goal chart and deliver a number of brilliant assists from wide positions that has made him one of the first names on the team sheet.

At the beginning of the season, Daggers fans had a new star to worship. His name was Dominic Green. A young, tricky winger with genuine pace is something the Daggers fans haven’t seen much since the days of Mark Janney. Green caught the Daggers minds with several cameo appearances during the relegation battle of 07/08. However, it was at the beginning of this campaign where the departure of Sam Sloma saw Green promoted as the number one left winger. A superb free kick in the opening game against Chester and a mature performance against Championship challengers Reading in the Carling Cup got Daggers fans extremely excited. However, the Daggers just couldn’t refuse a six figure sum offered by Peterborough and the youngster with a bright future left after just four first team appearances. Many fans wondered how this would affect the balance of the team. Clearly there was a void on that left side that Richard Graham or John Nurse weren’t going to be able to fill. Once again, John Still waved his magic wand and brought in young Portsmouth winger Matt Ritchie on loan. After several impressive performances, Ritchie has quickly become a fans favourite and is surely now one of the first names on the team sheet after an impressive five goals in fifteen games. Thankfully the Daggers have secured the young star on a season long loan.

One thing that has been clear is that the midfield battle has become a lot more important in league football than it was in the Conference. In 06/07, Dagenham adopted an extremely direct approach quite often bypassing the midfield completely. This saw the likes of Glen Southam supporting the strikers and looking for lay backs rather than playing the ball through to the strikers themselves. Quite clearly this approach worked well in the Conference as Daggers had two outstanding strikers, good standard Conference wingers and a good solid defence to build from. On the occasions that the Daggers were on the back foot they had the no nonsense approach of Dave Rainford to clean up any mess that occurred.

However, this approach wasn’t nearly as successful in the transition to league football. It must be said that the first reason for this was the injury jinx that struck the Daggers last season. A lack of rhythm and new personnel every game saw the effect of this tactic easily dealt with by opposition defences. However, another reason was that the quality of the Daggers players was matched, if not, bettered by the opposition. The delivery from the wide areas was quite often found lacking meaning goals were sparse. A midfield combination of Glen Southam and Dave Rainford was quite overrun at times. Southam is one of the best players Dagenham have when he is on the ball. His eye for a killer pass is second to none. However, off the ball is where he becomes exposed. He has no real physical strength to outmuscle players and possesses no aerial ability to win the regular aerial second ball in the midfield. Rainford on the other hand was never in any fear to get stuck in. Where the tough tackler suffered was quite often in his positioning and mobility. Too often players were able to get on the wrong side of him as he just wasn’t quick enough to cover. On the whole, this midfield combination was found to be too lightweight and too easy to bypass if you were on an opposing team. This season, the Daggers have introduced a more compact midfield general in Peter Gain and a strong box to box player in Solomon Taiwo. Ultimately, this has resulted in the Daggers midfield containing more steel and providing a better link between the defence and the attack. Not to mention that the Daggers have slightly adapted their way of playing this season but that is for another article!

FATE

The Daggers rise to new heights can be put down to a lot of different factors. The superb management, the supportive chairman, the great bond between the players. However, it’s hard to overlook the fact that fate quite often plays a big part if football.

Here are a couple of examples of things that could have turned out so differently.

1) Glen Southam

Before the start of the current season, Glen Southam decided to place himself on the transfer list. After being one of the more impressive players during the Daggers relegation struggle, the midfielder decided to see if any bigger clubs were willing to take a gamble on him. After being ever present last season, undoubtedly Southam would have started the season in the midfield probably alongside Peter Gain. Nevertheless with his future up in the air, the inexperienced Solomon Taiwo was given what may have been his final chance to impress after numerous red cards hindered his chances the previous season. Instead, Taiwo went from strength to strength picking up the August League 2 player of the month award along the way whilst Southam did not move clubs and is ultimately on the bench every week now. What would have happened had Glen not put in a transfer request?

2) Injured right backs

The Daggers injury crisis from 07/08 carried over into this campaign with number 1 right back Danny Foster and deputy Shane Huke were both injured at the start of the season. John Still at first opted to go with Michael Alaille who had little league experience. When it was evident that league football was beyond Alaille at this stage, Still turned to young centre back Magnus Okuanghae who had suffered an indifferent spell on loan at Weymouth last season. Many fans were sceptics of this decision as Magnus often looked clumsy at right back and kept the Daggers fans hearts in their mouths. Nevertheless, he soon won them over with a series of impressive displays prompting fans to call for him to replace Danny Foster at right back full time. John Still had other ideas and decided Okuanghae was undroppable following his recent performances. Instead, he dropped captain Anwar Uddin to the bench to allow Okuanghae to move to his favoured centre back position. After one or two slightly shaky performances, Okuanghae has made the position his own and along with Mark Arber are a big reason the Daggers are currently 4th in league 2. It begs the question, would Magnus have even got a sniff had Danny Foster been fit at the start of the season?

3) Dominic Green

When Dominic Green left, many fans were disillusioned that the Daggers were no more than a selling club. However, these remarks have now firmly been shunted to one side as Matt Ritchie has made Green nothing more than a distant memory. It seems as if receiving a six figure fee for a player who had only started 4 league games was a good piece of business. Once again the question remains, how well would Green have done had he still been with us now. There is no doubting the lad had talent but would he have had the same level of consistency as Ritchie and been able to make up for Ritchie’s important goals?

4) Ben Strevens

Arguably without Ben Strevens last season, the Daggers would be back playing non league football this campaign. The striker’s goals just about saved the Daggers. Without the sale of Craig Mackail Smith, it’s fair to say Strevens wouldn’t even be a Daggers player. To be fair though, Mackail Smith has gone on to prove that he is capable of playing at least at League 1 level so he may well have saved the Daggers himself last season. When CMS left though, fans were wondering how he could possibly be replaced. The purchase of non league journeyman Ben Strevens was debatable at first but he has quickly transformed into a key component of the Daggers XI and has formed a lethal partnership with Paul Benson.

These are only a few examples of where events have leaned one way when they could very well have edged towards another outcome. The answer to all of the above questions is quite simply that no one knows what would have happened if the opposite had occurred. Nevertheless it’s fascinating to think what may have been had Glen Southam not gone on the transfer list or if Dominic Green was still at the club.

It’s fairly likely that there will be more changes and decisions that impact on the success of the Daggers for years to come. What Daggers fans will be delighted with is the man making these decisions is John Still and he doesn’t make many wrong ones.

Whatever happens in the future, it’s sure not going to be dull from a Daggers fans perspective!