Dagenham And Redbridge V Chester FC MATCH THREAD

If you don't toss us 6-0 you ain't good enough to go up

We didn't seem to know how to manage the game when we went in front. I guess that comes from losing so often. 
Had chances to go 3-1 up and really should have been able to pick them off as they threw men forwards. After it got to 2-2 we went into panic mode and the Halls own goal was almost comical. Totally lost his bearings in the box and headed it in to his own net when he should have cleared easily. Generally we kept the ball well...Vose and Roberts are definite improvements on James and Turnbull. Maybe should have taken Vose off with ten to go and shored up midfield but easy to say that now. I thought Waters had a so-so game but followed up well for the goal and kept plugging away. I'm not sure about Archer - he looks like Bambi on ice sometimes but the volley was a beauty. Hannah ran the channels as usual but wasted two or three half chances. Hobson looks a good prospect. I guess we will start from search next season but hope the likes of Jones and Crawford stay and maybe Roberts can be offered some sort of coaching role. I've been impressed with him. Real shame we didn't get anything today - decent turn out and fans got behind the team. 

I won't dwell on Hannah's falilings but he hasn't got that half yard of pace to take him clear when he's through.

Yeah, feel sorry for the likes of Danny and Rio having to endure this. Saw Rio getting in the car after the game. Hope they will stick with it.
Character building I suppose

Oh it’s just a preview for the decades to come for younger fans like us. Bring it on... quick note for Vose who was class again, Waters who looked more like a football player since his loan, Archer and Hannah worked well together just wish they put a few of their huge chances away as if they did we’d be celebrating a 4-1 win right now.

Ha, yes, know what you mean. With ten minutes to go we were sitting there predicting the minutes in which the Daggers' equaliser and winner would be scored.
I went for 85 and 90 plus 1, so not bad.

Typical bbc don't care about anything below the premiershite

Got back home around 10’ish due to that M6 traffic. I was too tired to write my own summary of the game so I may as well do so now. I was absolutely gutted to see us fall apart in the last 5 minutes. We were brilliant for nearly all of the game but just switched off at the end. Today’s game felt like the exact mirror image of Dagenham away last year, ironically on a similar date. I really enjoyed today’s match and the atmosphere was great. There really was a feel-good factor around the away end (especially when we were winning).
We started off a little bit slowly, but grew into it once Dagenham scored. To be fair, it was a good strike by Okenabirhie and Hornby couldn’t do too much. That goal sparked us into life. We passed the ball around well and created some decent half-chances. I thought that Matty Waters had a good game today and hit the bar soon after. It’s too late to even think that we will stay up now, but if we had discovered this starting line-up a few months ago then we may be in mid-table right now. In our 3 games this week, this team has looked really encouraging and shown good signs.
Jordan Archer’s finish was superb. From looking back on it, it was a difficult goal to score but he found the net well. Jordan needed that goal today in my opinion. He works his socks off every week, but I think that he needed a goal to give him a little bit of a boost. In the second half, we were brilliant again. Our players showed a lot of passion and desire. Even when we were 2-1 up, surprisingly we were still attacking Dagenham and not dropping deep. I was made up for Matty Waters when he scored today. It wouldn’t have been easy for him as he was thrown straight into the starting XI but he played well as he hit the bar and scored too. I was overjoyed when we went 2-1 up as well as our other supporters, but it’s so frustrating to have lost.
We just lost our heads a bit which made Dagenham come at us. The end result was just typical Chester really... can’t hold onto a lead. I have no doubts about effort, but the feelings of utter disappointment and frustration comes to mind after that.

I was devastated at full time, plonked myself back on the tube train back from Dagenham East to Central London and stared out of the window for 45 minutes in total silence. Even had Dagenham fans come up and compliment us but I was just almost in a trance. You do have to witness it to believe it really, after last year as well where we somehow managed to lose in remarkably similar fashion. It really just felt like Chester luck if there is such a thing, certainly feels like there is.

For the first time in ages this week I’ve felt like I’ve been supporting a team that I had a bit of confidence in rather than backing in blind hope, one that would put in a show and fight for me, they did today for 85 minutes. We played out from the back, passed the ball around well and created chances. We certainly deserved to win but didn’t kill the game off, I just thought too many times Hannah and Archer’s final ball & decision was lacking when in good positions. Archer even went to the corner flag in the 83rd minute instead of playing Aki through on goal.

Plenty of good performances for me, the likes of Vose, Crawford & Waters in particular. Mind you the two full backs had tough games, Halls wasn’t having his best game even before the own goal and Anderson was similarly stretched. Roberts was streetwise and Hannah and Archer although a bit wasteful upfront were a handful and constantly caused problems.

Can’t help but feel we lacked a defensive option on the bench to help kill the game off, Dawson was the nearest but he doesn’t inspire much confidence.

There was so much to like and rue about us at the same time, on one hand we now look a side more than capable of taking anyone on at this level for the most part, but on the other you just can’t shake that uneasy feeling that we’re going to do something stupid and act really soft for just a minute.

137 Chester fans in the away end.

Your post seems to imply that whether we stay up or not is somehow down to us.  I suggest we're at the mercy of our players (I use the term advisedly in some cases) and our manager. However whether we survive as a club is down to us and we'll done everyone who is striving to make that happen.

We are much improved lately but It’s clear to see we are a team lacking in confidence and now we are all but down but if we can finally get back to back wins I’m confident we can go on a run as we finally look like a team now but the confidence is a massive issue

I keep reading about rebuilding in the NLN, as if it will be an assured and comfortable ride. Don’t know whether this is  confidence based on an accurate assessment, or blind faith based on nothing other than hope.
My fear is that the club will start preseason with neither quality or experience, with little money to compete for players. It’s more a question of who would want to stay than who we would like to keep. Willingness to join Chester on the way up is very different to wanting to join a club on the way down. Sadly I’m seeing a double relegation on the horizon, and rather than a rebuilding exercise it will be fight for survival as a club. Who will want to sponsor the club? How can New supporters be attracted? 

I'm not sure where you get your statistics from when you say 'the majority of fans'. To go blindly down believing all will be well is short-sighted. Plans need to be formulated to make the club bigger and more successful again rather than relishing lower league football and a small time outlook.

It’s very clear I disagree entirely with your comments, as I would with any wearer of rose tinted specs. Nothing to do with positive or negative on my side, purely a genuine fear based on logic. Not long to wait until preseason, so let’s see how that pans out.
Your “core” appears to invent an extra 450, but don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story., and where you get that nonsense about what the majority of fans want is fantasy. I’m beginning to suspect you have shares in Evo-stik.