VNL#30 - Daggers 1 Torquay United 0
In the aftermath of Tuesday's narrow reverse against fellow high-flyers Hartlepool, Daryl McMahon made the astoundingly bold claim that this Dagenham side have reached the stage where they are close to becoming one of the best teams in the division. While that is doubtful to the extreme, there's no disputing that we have been improving at a rapid rate, both in performances and now results too. This was quite different yet it nonetheless continued that trend. Against a Torquay outfit that were admittedly quite poor themselves, we produced a flat display that can only be described as average at the very best. Despite this, though, we managed to claim all three points and a clean sheet, which rendered all of that completely meaningless. It makes a pleasurable change from us controlling games yet ultimately getting beaten, which is a far more regular occurrence. As a spectacle, it was drab and uninspiring. The game was littered with unprompted errors and periods of mind-numbing monotony. I would take that every single week, though, so long as it produced the same outcome. Ugly wins are regarded as the most enjoyable ones according to many, and the ability to scrape results like that is certainly a desirable attribute to have. It wasn't a wholly bad display, though, as we showed glimpses of quality and looked the more dangerous of the two sides. The difference-maker was, not for the first time, Balanta. He was brilliant throughout and capped an impressive showing with the decisive winning goal - although nobody within the fanbase could possibly provide any opinion on the key moment itself given that this coincided with the live stream going inactive. Whether it was an audacious overhead kick or an impossible-to-miss tap in, it's impact was massive regardless. At the other end, Kenny Clark made a very good impression too. He was faultless with the exception of one instance, albeit a pretty monumental one, where he handballed in the box. Thankfully, we benefited from poor refereeing there, although it evened itself out when a foul on McCallum in the box was inexplicably ignored by the official. Luckily, we got the job done regardless, and a very impressive job it was too with the Gulls sitting 3rd in the division. With our scheduled fixture against Dover cancelled due to the erasure of their records this season, we now have an additional few days to prepare for the next. Hartlepool away will provide a really tricky test but we'll go into it with confidence following the events of today.
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May 2024
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