Beyond symbolising a sacred ritualism indelibly engraved within the culture of British festivities, the gloriously hectic late December/early January footballing schedule can often be a critical period in determining any side's fortunes thereafter. Just six points away from the top seven status they should never have relinquished, the Daggers will be hoping they can use this period as a springboard towards reigniting a promotion challenge that had badly faltered over the preceding months.
Though punctuated by their entry points to two other domestic competitions, our timely break from National League action these past few weeks has signified calmness before the upcoming proverbial storm of three games inside a hectic seven day period. Hosting Aldershot Town inbetween a double-header against relegation certainties Dover Athletic is a palatable streak of fixtures from which it is neither unreasonable nor unachievable to target a maximum yield of nine points. Our hopes of doing just that will be bolstered by the fact McMahon's starting eleven will resemble something reminiscent of our strongest. Matt Robinson, Mauro Vilhete and Ángelo Balanta are all back in contention after missing the Truro trip through Covid-related reasons, while Josh Walker made a goalscoring return in that very game having replaced fellow injury returnee Junior Morias at half time. Midfield duo Joey Jones and Mo Sagaf, both so fundamental to our style of play, are also presumed fit. Squad rotation amongst the group, especially as many of whom are naturally injury-prone, will be inevitable over the three games yet we're finally in the fortunate position of having some much-needed depth at our disposal. Aside from Harry Phipps, Scott Wilson and Paul McCallum, it's believed we have a full team to strategically utilise but naturally that can also present problems. Will the recently fruitful partnership of Akanbi and Balanta, for example, be penetrated by the return of arguably our best finisher in Walker? That's before we even consider our five-figure arrival Morias, too. It's not inconceivable that having this quality back will trigger a return of our early season form rather than the woeful run of seven defeats from ten that proceeded it. Certainly this period will be vital; it could be the catalyst behind the momentum-driven resurrection of our season, yet could conversely cause us to slip down the division in the unacceptable scenario that results don't go our way. Therein lies the importance of the Christmas period. Besides last season's diluted behind-closed-doors era, which is worryingly becoming reality again elsewhere in the UK, our festive periods have largely been quite memorable since we were relegated to this level, no more so than beating Leyton Orient 2-1 in a Victoria Road classic on Boxing Day 2018. That was a rare high point in the Peter Taylor era but one year later there was a distinctly different vibe, as our results on the 26th and 28th December marked the long-overdue end of his reign. Hopefully, this one is retrospectively remembered as a positive turning point in our season, from which we rapidly shot up the league table and never looked back. The fixtures are promising by every metric, but it's important to remember that many of our opponents will be embroiled in just as stern a battle at the opposite end of the division so, as manager Daryl McMahon often reiterates - it'll be far from straightforward.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
WRITERArchives
May 2024
|