When the last decade got underway with a 2-0 victory at home to Crewe Alexandra enroute to promotion at Wembley, few supporters would've envisaged the environment against which it would end. Nobody would have imagined the small club from Essex soaring to the heights of League One, and few supporters would've imagined the steady decline which would unceremoniously follow the greatest point in the club's history. As the curtain draws on the 2010s and opens on the 2020s, we're left with no vision for the future shaped by anything other than hopes and aspirations. Will we be back in the Football League? Will we slip further down the pyramid? Those questions will long remain unanswered. For today, though, they can remain unanswered; our focus is more short-term, a crucial trip to Ebbsfleet United, the significance of which has been lost amidst days of managerial speculation. The surprising yet long-overdue news of Peter Taylor's departure came as a relief to a significant majority of the fanbase, and it will be interesting to see how the team perform now that they're no longer shackled by his depressing, negative football. It will be interesting to see attacking players like Joan Luque and Alex McQueen unleashed to cause damage, rather than being stifled in a team that sets up for a draw every time they're on their travels. However, while Taylor must burden a significant majority of the blame for our calamitous attempt at a promotion challenge, it's also true that certain players simply haven't delivered on the hype that surrounded them and therefore need to start producing. We're not going to magically become a team of champions, but I am expecting both supporters and players to pitch up at the Kuflink Stadium in rejuvenated spirits, as we slowly enter a new era at the club. It's been just six days since we last met Ebbsfleet, a match where we were inferior with eleven men but managed to salvage something with ten after Chike Kandi found a late leveller to arrest a dreadful run of five straight defeats. It was in truth a game painfully low in quality and so fine margins should once again prove crucial. Despite things looking up for the Daggers after dispensing with Taylor, they're still in the midst of a relegation scrap and desperately need three points from what is a must-win. Tomi Adeloye scored the winner in Daggers' last trip to the Kuflink Stadium, but he'll be in the opposite camp today and contributes to an Ebbsfleet attack which has the capability to cause problems in spite of the side's lowly league position; Gozie Ugwu, John Goddard and Josh Umerah can also cause damage and we'll have to be wary. That day, the Daggers secured safety courtesy of Adeloye - that was our first away victory in three months which is identical to Dagenham's current winless run on the road, so it will take a similar effort today. Ebbsfleet Predicted XI: Holmes, Cordner, Obileye, Ekpiteta, King, Goddard, Sutherland, Grimes, Payne, Adeloye, Reid Dagenham Predicted XI: Justham, Croll, Onariase, Clark, Wright, Luque, Brundle, Deering, Kandi, Quigley, House There's a lot of emphasis on the club appointing a new manager who matches our ambitions, but until then we need to get behind Terry Harris and Jody Brown for as long as they're in interim charge. Let's start the new year with a morale-boosting three points and let it be the beginning of a prolonged period of positivity.
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January 2024
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