The Positivity Thread

Discuss all matters related to Dagenham and Redbridge
durnzo
Posts: 282
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 1:28 pm
Location: Dagenham

Followed the arsenal all over Europe for 13 years, at least 15 away games a season, so going football nearly every week is engrained in my life. Fell out of love with the premier and it's obscene obsession with money and changing fan base a few years ago so jacked that in, which was very hard. Decided to head over to the daggers as I can see the ground from my flat and fell In love with it instantly. And my first season was the final in league 2! Had a season ticket each year, go to as many aways as I can, although I do prioritise work over long trips up north now!! Whether or not this means I'm a true dagger or not doesn't bother me, I just really love watching football like it used to be. 3pm sat, fans not tourists and customers, players playing with passion and the two main things are the humour in the stands, long forgotten in the sanitised world of the prem and no mention of the match day experience or the product. Money isn't mentioned because there isn't any!!

I stick around because it's enjoyable. Me and my step dad have season ticket, he's still got half of his west ham one but prefers it at the daggers, and you feel a lot more involved in the club rather than just a customer. Also, like I said there's actual humour. Who'd have thought it, enjoying your lesiure time.

I love the whole lot to be fair. My local team, the fact that they stay afloat amazes me, the passion on and off the pitch. And the fact I'm back in the easty 5mins after full time on a sat evening.
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Mike the Dagger
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ARNU wrote: Tue Sep 04, 2018 6:24 pm I stand by the fact clubs when able to do take liberties with your sentimentality.
Of course they do, that is what makes being a football fan special. If you don't understand that I suggest you don't really get it.
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ARNU
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Mikethedagger That's the weirdest admission of you being wrong you've ever put into print on the internet forever lol! So you're basically saying I'm right and for me to recognise that fact makes me somehow odd ?
I absolutely get it, always have.
Bollix to Shampoo, it's real poo we want !
Alan
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Going well this thread, isn’t it?
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Mike the Dagger
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ARNU wrote: Wed Sep 05, 2018 11:00 am Mikethedagger That's the weirdest admission of you being wrong you've ever put into print on the internet forever lol! So you're basically saying I'm right and for me to recognise that fact makes me somehow odd ?
I absolutely get it, always have.
OK lets take this more slowly.

People are massively attached to their chosen football club. "Dagenham 'til I die" is pretty much fact if you have been brought up or grown up that way. You know that and I suggest that at some point most people have done stuff/made sacrifices above and beyond to support their chosen club.

In these days of massive commercialism in the top end of the game where players from all round the world earn millions and top clubs are more worried by the TV deals and selling shirts in Asia than the people that attend the games that has been stretched very thin. I know a lot of people that have cooled their support for the top clubs as a result of that, and feel used. The clubs still play on that though as much as they can, but the people buying season tickets at Premier League clubs are now a fairly small part of the income stream and the demand is such that someone will probably take up any seat that becomes free so...

At out level it is rather different. Any given week you can grab the guys that run the club in the bar after a game. You can speak to the players after a match, ask the manager why he dropped your best right back for the match, and they are pretty much guaranteed to actually be able to reply in your own language ;)

It is how it is meant to be, and anyone that followed the journey from the Ryman League to League One and most of the way back over the last 20 years has had so much out of the experience that a Premier League supporter will never understand.

That is what is special about supporting your local clun (which isn't my local club any more as, like many, I have moved away). And that is why clubs know they can play on that "sentimentality" sometimes, and supporters will respond. And if you don't understand that, then you aren't really, in your heart, a Dagger.

You can't go to that well too often though or people will feel used. The club have gone close to that over the last few years and that is, I believe, why we have such issues between some fans and the club at the moment.

Nights like last night will help though, it was back to being a proper buzz watching that second half under the lights.
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Auntie Merge
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please can we get this thread back on topic. It’s been nice to see a few different posters in here.
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ARNU
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Does being a true supporter come with condescending arrogance or can you bring your own ?
Bollix to Shampoo, it's real poo we want !
DagenhamDan
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:47 am

Just you arnu!

I've really enjoyed reading other people's stories and it's great knowing people love this club as much as me
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Mike the Dagger
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Love this from a Twitter post from Hemel Hempstead...

Image
Dr Monkatron
Posts: 371
Joined: Fri Oct 18, 2013 7:00 pm

Some of you might have already heard my roots as a Dagger on the podcast but I’ll do it again.

First come over Dagenham for a Capital League match against Brentwood in the 84/85 season. It was a freezing cold night on a pitch that you could only describe as mud. The match finished in a 5-2 defeat but these are the things that stood out to me as an 11 year old. Firstly at half time, the drunk steward attempted to walk across the pitch. He kept slipping over and I was transfixed with him. Also at some point in the second half, there was a 20 man brawl, which also delighted my young dark soul. I knew then that I’d be back plus I absolutely loved Les Whitten. The following season I became a ball boy with a few of my mates and done that for a couple of years. £5 and a free hot drink. I loved being that close to the players and soon had firm favourites like Steve Scott and a bit later, Paul Goyette.

The reason I stick around?

It’s in my blood now. Every high (2007, 2010) is counter balanced with absolute heartbreak (1988, 1996). But I wouldn’t change it for the world. Plus in those early days I knew that every person standing with me was there for the love of the club. We certainly weren’t there for the glory so when a bit did come, like beating Southend 2-1 in the Essex Senior Cup Final in 1987, is made it extra special.

There is something strangely special about our club and we need to remember those times.

But most importantly, I f*cking love this club.
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triplescarf
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Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2015 1:34 pm

Great thread to start, Merge, and I'm happy to contribute. It's a shame that some people just can't resist posting something negative or have a dig.

I was born in Hornchurch, and grew up with a Dad who supported Man Utd because of family links, my eldest brother choosing to also support them, my middle brother being a Gooner, and me a Hammer. I still have a soft spot for the West Ham of old, but don't like what they've become at all. I first went to watch the Daggers when I was 11, in 1988 (and they were still Dagenham), with a group of friends as one of them had an elder brother who always went. I was totally hooked on the atmosphere, and we carried on going as season ticket holders until I left school, got a job and moved away in about 1996. It was always friendly, the players were happy to chat to fans before the game, and we as a bunch of kids were welcomed into The Sieve. Russell Powis would start the Digger Dagger chants and we all had a great time, being beaten or not.

It was only the last couple of years that I've been able to get to games again (having moved to East Herts where I'm about an hour drive away), but I came back – and stick around – because non-league is a much, much more honest game. There are the odd moments of theatrics, but largely it's quality football with not too much of the diving, cheating and gamesmanship seen in the Premier League these days. I take my 13 year-old son to games now (he's a Spurs fan because of a vindictive ex-wife!) and we love it. We can both support the same team, and whilst we sit in the Carling Stand (there's a little too much swearing and bad feeling in The Sieve these days for my liking), it still feels a lot like the Daggers I knew and loved as a kid. I always get behind them, there's no point moaning at them. The players ALWAYS do a walk around acknowledgement at the end of games which doesn't happen with every team, that's for sure. Like many, I played in Sunday leagues as a kid/teen, but went on to become an FA qualified coach, and have coached kids football for seven years. Some of the abuse the 'fans' at Daggers games is shameful, and that needs to be removed from the game at every level. Some of the young players for the Daggers are not much more than kids themselves. I'll always show my appreciation, and I think ultimately they'll reward that with entertaining football. I'll never be one to get on their backs, I just go to watch the game and have a bit of fun away from work and stresses of everyday life.

What do I love about the Daggers? I suppose I've covered most of that already, but especially now, watching a team play under a Manager with such experience and an obvious love of the game is brilliant. What's not to love about having Peter bloody Taylor as our Manager?! That's amazing! We've got some great young players; a much healthier atmosphere than what I saw in my infrequent visits over the last 2 or 3 years; a place that you can take your kids and not see violence in the stands; at a cost that isn't a massive rip-off; and they're the Daggers. I love them because I always did and always will.
Voice of reason
Posts: 223
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:15 am

ARNU wrote: Wed Sep 05, 2018 1:09 pm Does being a true supporter come with condescending arrogance or can you bring your own ?
Back to your old self after a period of constructive comments and common sense I see Arnu :wink:
RampantDuke
Posts: 379
Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2014 7:01 pm

Dr Monkatron wrote: Wed Sep 05, 2018 8:33 pm Some of you might have already heard my roots as a Dagger on the podcast but I’ll do it again.

First come over Dagenham for a Capital League match against Brentwood in the 84/85 season. It was a freezing cold night on a pitch that you could only describe as mud. The match finished in a 5-2 defeat but these are the things that stood out to me as an 11 year old. Firstly at half time, the drunk steward attempted to walk across the pitch. He kept slipping over and I was transfixed with him. Also at some point in the second half, there was a 20 man brawl, which also delighted my young dark soul. I knew then that I’d be back plus I absolutely loved Les Whitten. The following season I became a ball boy with a few of my mates and done that for a couple of years. £5 and a free hot drink. I loved being that close to the players and soon had firm favourites like Steve Scott and a bit later, Paul Goyette.

The reason I stick around?

It’s in my blood now. Every high (2007, 2010) is counter balanced with absolute heartbreak (1988, 1996). But I wouldn’t change it for the world. Plus in those early days I knew that every person standing with me was there for the love of the club. We certainly weren’t there for the glory so when a bit did come, like beating Southend 2-1 in the Essex Senior Cup Final in 1987, is made it extra special.

There is something strangely special about our club and we need to remember those times.

But most importantly, I f*cking love this club.
Hey Dr Monkatron - I also started watching the Daggers that very same season 1984/85. My first Daggers hero was Errol Daniel although of course he was swiftly replaced by the great Joe Dunwell. I used to watch Arsenal regularly at that time and dipped in and out of the Daggers for a few seasons when Arsenal were away. The turning point for me was probably post Hillsborough. In my opinion clubs jumped all over the Taylor report and were probably secretly delighted that the recommendation was for all seater stadiums. It meant they could increase the prices 4-5 fold in one season, kept all the yobs in their place and turned their grounds into sterile expensive family entertainment centres. I'm not saying that was all bad but it ruined the atmosphere at Highbury. Around the same time D+R were formed and I went from being an erstwhile Dagger to full time with a bit of Gunners thrown in along the way. Now pretty much only go to Daggers games.

If I am really honest I have fallen out of love with the club over the past couple of seasons, some of the great supporters have been driven out and the whole set up since Dave Andrews stepped down stinks of incompetence. Despite that I still go because I've got some top mates there and despite the crap we have had to put up with on and off the field we still have a brilliant laugh. I'm afraid that if they stopped going then so would I.

Let's see what the future holds - I might feel differently in a year or so. I am certainly enjoying watching the kids put in so much effort this season. If the 'stars' we had here this time last year had put in 25% of that effort we would be back in the football league now.
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bloke down the pub
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Joined: Sat Oct 19, 2013 1:08 am

Voice of reason wrote: Thu Sep 06, 2018 1:18 pm
ARNU wrote: Wed Sep 05, 2018 1:09 pm Does being a true supporter come with condescending arrogance or can you bring your own ?
Back to your old self after a period of constructive comments and common sense I see Arnu :wink:
Once a NOB always a nob.
DagenhamDan
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2018 8:47 am

Does anyone remember a player called Peter Bruce then seeing as it's been going a while my friend said his uncle played for us. I said the only Bruce I knew was Paul but had no recollection of Peter is this a fabrication or was he a real player?
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