Dagenham & Redbridge places up for grabs says Ben Strevens

Daggers fell to a 2-0 home defeat against Essex rivals Southend United on Saturday, as Harry Cardwell and Oli Coker netted in each half for the visitors.

And Strevens wants to see his players respond from that setback with another home fixture in midweek.

“I want them to be hurting, 100 per cent, like I am now,” Strevens told the club website.

“There’s got to be a different vibe. That feeling sorry for yourself and down and upset has got to be gone, there’s another three points to win.

“I have to watch it back and suffer it like our fans did, analyse it, and I have to have a plan in place and a team ready to play Tuesday night.

“There’s certainly places up for grabs now. We’ve talked about our collective, a group, a togetherness, players wanting to play. There’s people sat on the bench who would’ve been desperate to play in that game.

“The boys that get picked have got to go and perform and the ones coming off the bench have got to impact it. It has to be better.

“We’ve got to show our people a much better level of performance than we did.”

Crisis club Southend had run out 4-0 winners over Oldham Athletic in their opening fixture of the season at Roots Hall a week earlier, as Daggers snatched a last-gasp equaliser at Altrincham.

And the visitors helped boost the Victoria Road crowd to 3,233 – and left the majority feeling disappointed.

“It’s a big occasion with everything that is going on with their club,” added Strevens.

“I said it before the match, there’s a common enemy that is galvanising players and supporters, which can be a really good thing.

“I watched them against Oldham, I thought they played very well. Then watching it today, I thought they played very well, I thought we were very poor.

“I have to talk about ourselves first and foremost. For our fans that have come out to support us on the first day of the season, they’re going home so disappointed.

“We’ve now got to get them to come back and see us again and they need to see a better level of performance, they have to.”