Dagenham & Redbridge manager Daryl McMahon was pleased to see his side implement the high-press and continue playing with momentum as they sealed a 3-0 victory over Hornchurch.

Goals from Mauro Vilhete, Aaron Blair and Scott Wilson helped the Daggers see off the FA Trophy winners Hornchurch at Bridge Avenue In pre-season.

“First and foremost in the early pre-season games, fitness and getting minutes into people’s legs is the most important thing, but you like to see as you get through the pre-season games people coming into form and showing their qualities,” McMahon said.

“You still see bad decisions at this early stage, it just happens when people get tired, but I thought for the majority of the game we dominated and played some good football.”

Barking and Dagenham Post: Josh Walker of Dagenham and Jordan Clark of Hornchurch during Hornchurch vs Dagenham & Redbridge, Friendly Match Football at Hornchurch Stadium on 24th July 2021Josh Walker of Dagenham and Jordan Clark of Hornchurch during Hornchurch vs Dagenham & Redbridge, Friendly Match Football at Hornchurch Stadium on 24th July 2021 (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

He added: “It’s things that we were looking at during the last six months of the season, we were looking to press high and win the ball back high, we’ve changed the squad during that period to give us more energy and more legs. It’s the way we want to play.

“Maz (Mauro Vilhete) is excellent at winning the ball back high, as is Angelo Balanta, I think Angelo had the most attacking recoveries In the division last year.

“We do try win the ball back high and it was good to see that again today.”

The boss brought on five trialists including Blair as well as Josh Strizovic, Will Wright, Paul McCallum and Joey Jones late on in the match to balance the minutes played.

“They were all planned, we tried to give players as long as we could, we’ve obviously got a busy week. We’ve got Tuesday, Friday and Saturday so everyone will get at least 90 minutes across the week.

“We tried to get plenty up to 60 today (Saturday) then brought on some strong players, youngsters and trialists as well.”

Barking and Dagenham Post: George Saunders of Dagenham during Hornchurch vs Dagenham & Redbridge, Friendly Match Football at Hornchurch Stadium on 24th July 2021George Saunders of Dagenham during Hornchurch vs Dagenham & Redbridge, Friendly Match Football at Hornchurch Stadium on 24th July 2021 (Image: ©TGS Photo tgsphoto.co.uk +44 1376 553468)

Dagenham are due to take on Great Wakering Rovers, Aveley and Hemel Hempstead in pre-season this week.

“We’ve got to watch the minutes, that’s why we didn’t train this week, we wanted to load the players in terms of training minutes.

“We felt that would stand us in good stead, rather than have another game, as games affect your training days as you never train as hard as when you’ve played a game.”