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Report from Victoria Road
This report on last night's match comes from the Official Dagenham and Redbridge Website.
In what was probably their best performance of the season thus far, Dagenham and Redbridge came from a goal behind to overcome Hereford United at the Glyn Hopkin Stadium. All the goals came in the second half and a brace from Craig Mackail-Smith plus one from Chris Moore was enough to secure a well deserved three points for John Still's team.
The Daggers' boss made two changes to the side that were held at Northwich Victoria. Ashley Vickers and Mark Janney returned to the starting line-up while Danny Foster kept his place, Lee Goodwin suffering from a virus, and the youngster put in another assured performance at right-back. It was a quiet first half with neither side really testing the opposition's goalkeeper. The home side came very close to scoring on the half hour. A superb run and cross from Mark Janney looked to have found Moore at the far post, only for a superb intervention by Andrew Tretton to deny what would have been a certain goal. At the other end, David Brown missed his side's best chance as he volleyed wide of Tony Roberts' goal after being set up in the area by Danny Williams.
The second half certainly made up for the lack of goalmouth action in the first. Within minutes of the restart, the Bulls had opened the scoring. The visitors caught their hosts with a quick counter-attack that saw Mark Robinson's low cross from the right turned home by veteran striker Lee Mills. The goal was perhaps all the more frustrating for Still, as literally seconds before Moore had a superb opportunity to score only to be denied by Jonathan Gould.
However, the Daggers responded well to the setback and Mackail-Smith had two great opportunities to equalise before he eventually did on 57 minutes. The winger blazed over with just the keeper to beat while a deflected shot rolled wide of Gould's goal. However, Mackail-Smith did get on the scoresheet with his third attempt. A Paul Bruce corner caused mayhem in the Hereford defence. Eventually it was Anwar Uddin who volleyed the loose ball in the direction of Gould's goal, leaving Mackail-Smith with the easiest of tasks to bundle the ball home from a couple of yards out.
Mills looked to be in ideal position to restore Hereford's advantage minutes after the equaliser. With only Roberts to beat, the striker looked to shoot, only to be denied by a fantastic last ditch tackle from Dagenham skipper Tim Cole. That was Hereford's last meaningful effort on goal and from that moment there looked to be only one winner. Moore gave Dagenham the lead on 64 minutes. There was a touch of fortune to the goal as the striker's attempted cross-shot from the left edge of the area took a deflection of Tretton that completely deceived Gould at his near post.
Cole was close to heading his side's third; his effort from another Bruce corner (Dagenham had 18 corners during the ninety minutes) flew inches wide. Mackail-Smith perhaps should have got the third with ten minutes left on the clock, only to lose his composure and slice his shot horribly wide with only the keeper to beat. However, the summer signing from Arlesey did get his second, and Dagenham's third, late on with a superb individual effort. The Hereford defence had struggled to live with his pace all evening and it was Mackail-Smith's speed that again took him past a couple of defenders before an excellent right footed finish found the bottom corner of the net.