Views from the Sieve

Before our most crucial period of the season, as we play promotion-contenders Stockport, Halifax and Chesterfield in consecutive Saturdays, comes a break from League action in the form of the FA Trophy.

It's a second home game against Southend United, who have been slowly improving under Kevin Maher and arrive here with a bit of confidence. Time to quash that.

Not a huge fan of the FA Trophy but we've probably now got a big enough squad to compete on that front if we so desire. Win today and the latter stages, and a potential trip to Wembley, will appear in the horizon albeit still very far away.

With Vilhete, Johnson and McCallum on the bench for our last game against Torquay, I wonder if there will be some minor alterations to the team today.

Playing Sarfend is always good for us, they try but unfortunately for them they are s4it, should have been more than 2-0 even though we were on an off day.
COYD

I don't know what it looked like live but it sounded exciting listening in on BBC Essex. Details on what happened after the second goal would be appreciated.

After the second goal our kids started taunting their kids and a few of their kids piled forward in a faux attempt to get at them and one guy actually got on the pitch. Was quelled by the Boys in Blue but delayed the game for about five minutes.

Personally apart from the first 20 minutes where Southend actually had the better of the play, we controlled the rest of the match.
If we had been more clinical, it could have been 5 or 6. We will have to play a lot better in the coming weeks, but that said hopefully we'll have a few players back in time.
Motm for me was Joey Jones.

A great atmosphere in the ground and a deserved win with a much improved Southend from the one we faced back in October, however the idiots up in the corner created more of a problem for my brother and I, we made the decision to leave the Sieve a few minutes earlier before the final whistle to avoid having to walk past large groups of opposing fans, we attempted to get back to my car which was parked less than 150 yards away in Wants Road but a police barrier located just outside the Builders Stand prevented both of us and a young mum with her young daughter from getting access to the Pondfield Park gate which meant we had to walk back to Reide Rd and then had to walk through the park passing a mass of well behaved Southend fans coming the opposite way making their way back to the Station, I do understand the Police reasons to avoid any more problems but this decision could have made the situation worse but even more concerning was that many of the Southend supporters were allowed to stand at the front of the seating area when their were many seats available in their stand which I believe allowed this confrontation to happen in the first place, the club safety Personnel and the Police need to rethink these arrangements when these local Derbys are due. perhaps a comment from the club would help us to understand this decision.

Really good solid performance by our boys deserved the result and overall thought it was an enjoyable game but please let's not have anymore of that stuff going on in the corner there's a reason why I, like many have always enjoyed the lower league, meeting opposing fans and even the odd share of beer, nothing wrong with rivalry or even a bit of strong banter but let's hope we see the last of that and from someone who has used the TBS stand for years as a season ticket holder occasionally us home fans have wandered out the bar and shackled a bit over the front gangway and always have been moved on and up, maybe someone from the club or even old bill could testify why was masses were allowed down bottom? It dented a good day and a shame to watch!

Bar the first 20 mins it was comfortable really, bigger tests to come now.

This trouble has been coming, first of all allowing Southend into the terrace when no tickets were sold for them was the first mistake and then again failing to move them on to their seats. The same thing happened against chesterfield and at the time we were told to move them on would create more of a scene, I guess this time the plan completely backfired and caused all the unpleasantries.

The club simply need to get a grip of this, they were on the backs of our own fans for years at that end for standing in seats language etc etc hence why the our own fans don’t use it anymore with the atmosphere being like a wake for most stands now as the singers are spread out. The away fans just do what they want time and time again and get away with it but our fans were harassed out if that end. What’s more important upsetting people that visit once a year or those that come every week. Stewards and police were weak as ****** yesterday, pathetic why even pay them to do a job that they don’t or can’t do.

Thankfully most of kiddies corner won’t be back again this season except Southend away, they were singing we’re Dagenham till we die, more like we’re Dagenham til half 5.

A slow start but ultimately a comfortable win, that we didn’t really have to work hard for. Hopefully a nice draw awaits us in the next round.

Joey Jones was superb yesterday, the defence too. Although Yoan’s booking was a silly moment from him. I honestly don’t have a clue who our best team is anymore (in a positive way). Where do we play Robinson after Jones and Sagaf’s performances? Morias hasn’t passed the eye test for me, but he keeps scoring so how can we justify bringing McCallum back in? Who’s dropped for Johnson? Good problems to have going into a run of very hard games.

As for the trouble, our safety team should be embarrassed. Nowhere near enough stewards and the decision to let them into the sieve was brainless. I can’t blame the stewards for not moving their fans into the seats, there wasn’t enough of them to make it happen so not their fault. Can’t condone the bottle throwing, but it’s something that we can avoid repeating if the stewarding and policing are resourced properly. No need to wish the fans away from the club unless they act like the clown who fancied fighting 100 people in the sieve. Then we can have a fiery atmosphere from both sides that everyone enjoys seeing.

Just seen the draw for the next round we’ve got Spennymore Town at home.

It’ll be played on Saturday 12th Feb which clashes with our fixture against Maidenhead so looks like we’ll have a game in hand. However I’d rather we concentrate on the League

Daggerfan wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:45 pm Just seen the draw for the next round we’ve got Spennymore Town at home.

A cracking draw for us.

Can’t ask for more than a home draw against a non-National league club. Spennymoor are middling in Conference North, and their away form in the league to date is W3 D2 L6.

Elsewhere we have some of the top ranked teams knocking each other out with Halifax v Notts Co and Wrexham v Boreham Wood

Come that game against Spennymoor we will know if we’re going to make play offs or just miss out with the teams we’re playing before then and the others playing their games in hand.

Victoria Road hosted another keenly-anticipated Essex derby that proved highly reminiscent of the initial meeting three months prior as the Daggers produced a scintillating second half display to assertively brush aside their relegation battling visitors and consequently generate jubilant scenes in the home end.

Match report from Daggers' FA Trophy triumph - https://dagnificent.weebly.com/match-re ... ited-0-fat