That the Daggers have now slipped outside the top seven for the first time this season, nearly a third of the overall duration in, is symbolic of two things: how tremendous their start was but conversely also the extent of their recent decline.
Even without our top-scoring duo of Josh Walker and Paul McCallum for the past three league outings, we've managed to find the net five times to uphold our status as the division's most potent team with 29 overall. It's a damning indictment on the defence, therefore, whose leakiness will surely only increase now Elliott Johnson could be facing a spell on the sidelines. This comes alongside a spate of injuries in other positions, which necessitated the last-resort measure of having two academy scholars plus an emergency loanee on the bench for the Chesterfield game. Thankfully we now have a near-full compliment of bodies available but possibly Daryl McMahon will still have to seriously consider delving into the market for a few more. But how has it got to this stage? And what has changed? Quite simply, not actually much - we're now struggling for form because our short-term formula of simply outscoring the opposition has been exposed as exactly that; we're conceding at exactly the same rate just without the unsustainable level of firepower at the other end to conceal it this time. Performances have long been characterised by brief energetic spells rather than thorough domination and that's no different now either - three goals in six minutes against Southend, two in ten against Chesterfield. Our renowned expansiveness leads to regular chances at both ends. It's frustrating at times but few can question the entertainment value, as demonstrated by our home results being 4-2, 2-2, 4-2, 5-1, 2-3, 3-0 and 2-2 - an average of just under five goals a game. Attendances don't align, especially when contrasted to comparable or even smaller-sized clubs at our level, but that's a whole other topic of conversation. It does, though, reinforce the idea that we ship far too many goals. A measly two clean sheets at the expense of Barnet and Southend, both of whom were in dreadful condition, does similar. Yet identifying a problem and mitigating it are entirely different things. Everybody involved in the footballing aspect of the club will be very aware of our shortcomings but they show little sign of being reduced; any tactical tweaks towards this will also surely come at the detriment of the attack. We absolutely need to halt the decline, though, because teams behind us are advancing quickly and we're suddenly at risk of being left behind by a pack we were leading not so long ago. We're good enough, but we're not quite streetwise enough.
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May 2024
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