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DAGGERS IN THE
FOOTBALL LEAGUE ! |
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Dagenham & Redbridge made it yet
another year to remember for Essex football by clinching
promotion to the Football League over the weekend.
The Daggers needed just three points from their
remaining five games to become a Football League club
for the first time in their history and the all
important win came on April 7 with a 2-1 home victory
over Aldershot.
Former White Ensign striker and Conference top scorer,
Paul Benson, got the promotion party started on 12
minutes before David Rainford made it wo from the
penalty spot after an hour.
Jonny Dixon pulled one back for the visitors but the
Victoria Road outfit managed to hang on and John Still's
men can now look forward to playing the likes of Notts
County, Brentford and Darlington next season.
Dagenham & Redbridge's Conference title comes a year
after Southend United and Colchester United clinched
promotion to the Championship and Daggers chairman, Dave
Andrews, commented: "We've all been on tenterhooks
for the last few weeks just waiting for this moment.
"Obviously you always want to win games but when
you are so desperate it's not really that
enjoyable!"
Dagenham & Redbridge were formed after Dagenham FC
and Redbridge Forest joined forces in 1992 and their
promotion comes after two narrow misses in 2002 and 2003
when Garry Hill was at the helm.
John Still took over in 2004 for his second spell in
charge at Victoria Road and Dave Andrews is delighted
that a local man has taken the club into a new era:
"He did not have the greatest of budgets for this
campaign because we insisted that we didn't get into
debt.
"We were realistically thinking we could finish
halfway. There was no conscious decision that this was
our year but we just got on a roll and kept rolling.
"Oxford were eight points ahead of us at one stage
so it's a fantastic achievement."
Dave is already looking forward to the challenge of
League Two football: "We don't have any fears about
going up. The Conference is a fantastic league and the
worst that could happen is that we come straight back
down."
ECFA chairman, Mike Game, passed on his congratulations
to everyone at Dagenham & Redbridge: "Obtaining
Football League status is a deserved achievement for a
number of years hard work and we wish them every success
in sustaining their position in League Two."
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