THERE wasn t a single person in Victoria Road who didn t appreciate the importance of Dagenham & Redbridge s 2-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra.

by MIKE SIMMONDS

THERE wasn't a single person in Victoria Road who didn't appreciate the importance of Dagenham & Redbridge's 2-0 victory over Crewe Alexandra.

With the arctic freeze robbing Daggers of any football in 2010, their last action had been a hugely disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Cheltenham Town, making it just one victory in seven games.

Winger Danny Green played a vital part in the triumph at the weekend as after setting up Josh Scott for the opener, he quickly netted the second, driving home from 20 yards, to deflate their mid-table opponents.

"I think we really needed that," he told the Post.

Confidence

"The confidence wasn't low, but it was a bit down and we did really well to get a result against what I thought was a good Crewe team.

"As we hadn't played in a while, we just needed a little bit of time to get our foothold and get into the game.

"Once we got passing and got the ball down the channels and our crossing in, I thought we dominated the first half and they weren't really in it.

"In the second half they had a few chances, but I think we were in cruise control at 2-0 up and just needed to make sure we didn't throw it away."

Whether Daggers were in control until Scott had netted in the 35th minute is debatable, but the second his header went in, the confidence running through the side visibly rose.

It was a superb team goal too, stemming from a throw from Tony Roberts, and Green had a huge part to play, running the ball from defence, and providing the killer cross, his seventh assist of the season.

"We did some nice passing, Robbo's thrown it out to me and I think it's gone in to 'Benno' (Paul Benson), before 'Spills' (Danny Spiller) has played it out to me, and Josh has done brilliantly to score," said Green, who was also delighted to notch his first goal for 12 games.

"The second goal was good play from 'Spills' again and it was a good goal to score. To net the second one so quickly killled the game off really.

"Their confidence went down a little bit. They came out and had a little go in the second half, but nothing major.

"We were in cruise control after that, but had to be sure we gave nothing away."

Once the Crewe resolve had been broken, Green went on to enjoy his outing on the right flank, sending in a number of dangerous crosses and looking back to his early-season form.

"I thought I got quite a bit more of the ball," admitted the 21-year-old, still in his first full season of league football.

Frustrating

"In other games I haven't really seen it, I don't know why and it's been a bit frustrating. But this time I got loads of the ball, put a lot of crosses in and was happy with that."

Although predominantly an attacking player, Green was also delighted with the clean sheet for the Daggers defence, their first at home since the 2-0 victory over Darlington on October 10, where coincidentally, both he and Scott were the scorers.

"We needed that, the defence has played really well this season and it shows just where the club is now," he said.

"The defence wanted a clean sheet and I thought Mark Arber was superb leading us.

"'Doey' (Scott Doe), 'Abs' (Abu Ogogo) and Jamie Day all did really well.

"'Robbo' (Tony Roberts) is a very good goalkeeper too, which is a big help."

With near-neighbours Leyton Orient seeing their game with Bristol Rovers called off and even Premier League Portsmouth suffering an abandonment, the Victoria Road surface held up excellently despite the battering it had taken over the last week.

"The pitch was perfect," confirmed the young winger. "With the way it snowed, I thought it might be quite soggy, but the groundsman did a great job.

"There were Premiership games off so it shows how good a job they have done."

Preparing for the game was also quite tricky, with Daggers confined largely to indoor practice, though it was something that Green clearly revelled in.

"We had a good week training, there was lots of five-a-side work and all the banter was flying around," he said.

"It has been really hard running in the snow, but we couldn't relax too much as we might not have won the game.

"We needed to push on and now get into League One."

That last statement shows that despite the poor run of form Daggers have been on, the squad's belief in promotion remains a strong one.

Before last night's (Tuesday) matches, Daggers were third in the table, a position that would send them up automatically.

Positions

"We're going to change positions every week and we're not going to win every game," said Green. "But if we make sure we're in and around the pack then hopefully we can get into the play-offs or maybe go up automatically."

The immediate threat to Daggers is a trip to Shrewsbury at the weekend.

A 5-0 thrashing at Victoria Road earlier in the season should add some spice to the clash, but Green and his team-mates will be ready.

"It always helps to approach any game by getting a win," he said. "They drew on Saturday, so we can go there full of confidence. We need to go there prepared and ready for a little bit of a battle, and hopefully get the points."

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