Southampton’s Opponents 2010/11 – ‘The Daggers’

The Daggers have existed since 1992. Formed in a merger between Redbridge Forest and Dagenham they are based in Dagenham.

Redbridge Forest were in themselves a merger of three teams. Ilford and Leytonstone came together to become Leytonstone/Ilford in 1979,and when they absorbed a struggling Walthamstow Avenue in 1988, although the name change took place a year later in 1989.

This team won promotion to the Football Conference in 1991 and a year later merged to form the current team.

In 1996 they were relegated to the Isthmian League where the stayed until winning promotion in the 1999/2000 season.

2006/7 saw D & R win promotion from the Conference, as champions, to the Football League for the first time. Their first ever game in the league was on 11th August.

Last season the club finished work on a new 1200 seater stand which made the ground compliant with League regulations.

Despite losing 9 first team players their manager John Still manged to bring in several players and guided the team to the last play-odd space.

Dagenham beat Morecambe to reach the final of the play-offs after winning at home 6-0 and 7-2 overall. Rotherham they beat 3-1 in the final to continue their run of success.

Now they are in Division One the question is how well will they do. Will they be a force, will they simply surve or will their bubble burst?

The club is based at Victoria Road and the ground holds a 6078 capacity. So we know that it is small. The ground is used by West Ham United for reserve matches as their home ground.

So far the Daggers have brought in 7 players including one from Portsmouth. 3 have left but with a fully experienced manager I would expect the team to be full prepared at the start of the season.

Can they be a force in our league? I don’t expect them to be in the top half of the table. They may struggle and will be among the favourites to be relegated.

I would think that with the size of their ground, that the team will struggle as they cannot compete financially with the majority of clubs in the league.

I predict a tough season with them probably returning to the division below. A banker for bottom 6 in a spread bet though odds are not good.