A couple of months ago, where mid-table obscurity was a luxury that seemed to be an inevitable pathway for our increasingly-developing squad and there were even brief yet realistic murmurs of a potential run towards the play-offs, the future seemed to be bright at last. Most people expected us to calmly and assuredly negotiate the rest of our campaign with unspectacular nonchalance, but you tend to find that, at Dagenham & Redbridge, things never quite unfold as you would imagine. Instead, the title-winning form that saw us beat Salford City and Leyton Orient in consecutive days has been replaced with that befitting of a team destined for the drop. That good run, in the aftermath of the hysteria generated by the arrival of our new American owners and the instant cashflow they injected to the club, was sandwiched between two terrible sequences of form but seems to be enough to keep us up. We're so hard to predict. We've shown that we can match any team in the division, but on other occasions look like we could be dragged back into the relegation scrap again. As soon as our unbeaten sequence ended at home to Barnet at the end of December, we've plummeted to the complete other extreme. All of a sudden, we lack a cutting edge in attack and are just as shaky at the other end. It feels like August again. So, it begs the question of what truly is the identity of our current squad. Are we good enough to defeat all of the top teams, or was that just the momentum of the situation carrying us through? Are we a struggling team just good enough to survive but nothing more? Is it something in-between? I firmly believe that, in Balanta and Wilkinson, we have two of the best players in the league but recently we've seen just how average we are without that duo. When Havant & Waterlooville took the lead at Fylde on Tuesday, it took us to within three points of the relegation zone, and when you look at some of the teams we have to play before the end of the campaign, it's enough to suggest that there will be a lot of looking over our shoulders between now and then. Sutton United. Harrogate Town. AFC Fylde. Ebbsfleet United. Solihull Moors. All sides firmly embroiled in the play-off race. That's before you even consider some of the teams around us who we play. Maidenhead, Bromley, Dover, Chesterfield, Havant & Waterlooville, Braintree - all huge games. Taylor speaks about earning five more wins but when every side seems to either be battling at the top or fighting for their lives at the bottom, that tally appears to be quite a difficult target. That feeling is only heightened when you look at our recent form. Only four teams have started the calendar year worse; there's not been a single game where we've looked that convincing, and that includes the victory at Maidstone. So, therefore, it's absolutely imperative for us to collect three points this weekend. If we can get back to winning ways quickly, such has been the dramatic trajectory of our season that we could be spurred on to our best form again. On the other hand, though, every defeat adds more pressure and narrows the gap between us and the relegation zone. A loss this weekend only makes next weekend even more vital, and then things start to become overwhelming. Maybe we got into a comfort zone. Maybe we just weren't that good to begin with. Maybe it's just a blip. Whatever the reason for our steep decline in form, we must snap out of it quickly. Who better to play, therefore, than a tricky play-off chasing side who you've notoriously struggled against in the past. Sutton United wouldn't be our ideal opponent but in some ways, maybe it's better to play a tougher team because a win would work wonders for our confidence. Sutton United, in a word, are frustrating. They always resemble quite an average, unspectacular team who you're always capable of beating yet never manage to. They're experienced in how they operate and, like Gateshead who we saw last week, are very effective in what they do. Going 1-0 down spells disaster against Sutton because they are physically imposing and have all the skills to time-waste in an absolutely infuriating manner. No surprise then that all but one of their victories this season have been by a single-goal margin. It's important to recognise that they're also decent on the ball. You don't get to 6th in the league purely by intimidation and annoying antics. They're a good side and have had the measure of us over the last couple of years. The job Paul Doswell is doing, to consistently defy the club's size and budget by always fighting alongside the bigger sides, goes under the radar but is worthy of immense respect. They drew 0-0 with Barnet on Tuesday, where an injury crisis meant that two wingers were deployed at full-back. Although they ultimately kept a clean-sheet so obviously didn't struggle that much, if this is a problem that persists through to this weekend, then we have to look to exploit it. The way we play is usually with 3 centre-backs and central midfielders, which means Conor Wilkinson should be up against someone who isn't even a natural defender. He should be relishing that. On the topic of our formation and tactics, I hope to see Balanta return to the lineup this weekend as we've really missed him. Reports of him aggravating his injury are concerning because when Lamar Reynolds partners Wilko up top, he simply doesn't do the job Balanta does of holding the ball up and earning space for his strike partner. So often Wilkinson is isolated, which is why he was dropping so deep to win the ball last weekend. Hopefully Munns retains his place and McQueen plays further forward, where he can flourish. Phipps deserves a recall to the team, too, because he looked like a very good player when he featured for us last year and in Doug Loft I don't see someone that brings more to the team than Phipps does. With Peter Taylor, literally anybody could be in the lineup, maybe Justham is the only certainly. Whatever your opinion of him and his suitability to lead us next season (personally I'm undecided), it's time to continue backing him and the players. We can only do so much and now it's over to the boys.
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January 2024
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