Dagenham & Redbridge manager Daryl McMahon revealed it had been a tough 10 days to start the new season but it all felt worth it after three consecutive victories sees them sit top of the National League.
Daggers had beaten Stockport County and Bromley before following that up with a 2-0 win at Barnet on Bank Holiday Monday thanks to goals from Paul McCallum and Josh Walker.
They will now have a few days to recover before welcoming Wealdstone to Victoria Road on Saturday.
“We’ve had a good start, obviously it’s been a tough 10 days, away to Stockport who were a play-off team last year then at home to Bromley another team that were in the play-offs then a quick turn around to come here,” McMahon said.
“It has been difficult both physically and mentally for the players, but I thought they were excellent.”
It was a first clean sheet of the season for the Daggers at the Hive much to the delight of the boss.
“We mentioned before the game that we’ve shown real resilience and determination to come back from 1-0 down, but we can’t keep doing it, and I thought the first goal was important especially as Barnet had a good result on Saturday away to Solihull Moors," he added.
“Barnet started well to be fair to them, that first 15 minutes it took us a little while to put a foot on the ball, and get ourselves into the game.
“The goal settled us down and I thought we kicked on from there. If you score goals like that across the season, you score 25 goals, they’re food and drink for centre forwards. Macca and Josh are arriving at the right time and that’s where they should be.”
Joey Jones was forced off in just the fourth minute through injury and Sam Ling stepped into midfield where he impressed.
“Joey is in hospital, we think he has dislocated his shoulder, quite a nasty injury. Sam was outstanding when he came on, he’s been outstanding since he has been here, and was unlucky not to start today (Monday). Westy came on Saturday and had a good game," said McMahon.
“I thought Westy won us the game on Saturday, so it would have been harsh to leave him out, that’s unfortunate for Sam.
“Same reason Westy came on Saturday, put in a top performance and didn’t sulk, and I thought Sam made a real difference.”
Dagenham had 489 travelling fans away at Barnet and McMahon wanted to praise them, saying: “It was incredible, the fans from start to finish were outstanding, and I did say to one of the members of staff when was the last time we had an away following like that and they said quite a while.
“They really drove the team on.”
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