Dagenham & Redbridge boosted by Bank Holiday says boss

Daggers claimed their first win in five outings when upsetting National League leaders Barnet thanks to a late Nicke Kabamba own goal on Saturday.

And they followed that with a 2-0 victory at Wealdstone on Monday, where Ryan Hill claimed his first goal for the club and Omar Mussa also netted.

“Two games in three days, going into it was really tough, coming out of it with six points has given everyone confidence and a little boost to the work we’ve been doing,” Strevens told the club website.

“But it’s important not to get carried away with it, like we didn’t when we lost a few games as well.

“The following couple of days was about the boys recovering properly, spending some time away from us as we were in Sunday morning and played again Monday.

“Doing their own individual bits, whatever it will be, going to the pool, gym, then coming back together as a group, preparing for a couple of days leading into the game on Saturday.

“With not masses of numbers available it’s pretty important we’re getting the rest into the boys, as well as the work we’re doing with them on the training pitch.

“Boys are coming back slowly, there’s still a few that are a little bit of a way off. We’ve had two or three come back and join in training the last week or so.”

Elliott Johnson came off with an injury against Barnet and Strevens revealed the club are looking at making more additions to the squad.

“I had a conversation with the owners and said ‘this is where we’re really light at the moment’ and they’ve said try and see what you can do,” he added.

“It’s been really difficult the last 10 days, we got really close to doing something before the weekend – it didn’t quite happen, then the same we’ve been doing it leading into this weekend’s game as well.

“We’ve got a strong group ready to play but we also realise an injury, something like happened on Saturday, with not the reinforcements ready to go, will leave us really short.

“We are trying, whether there will be players in by Saturday we don’t know but we’re certainly trying to make that happen.”

Although the transfer window closes at 11pm on Friday, it should not hamper plans to bring new faces to Victoria Road too much.

But Strevens is clear about what type of individual he wants to bring on board.

“The only thing we can’t take is boys from the Premier League, that has to be done by their deadline [Friday, 11pm],” he said.

“After that the National League goes on a little bit longer, so there might be some boys that are holding out to stay at other league clubs, come Friday might not happen, and it might open up a whole new market for the National League.

“The intention is there to add reinforcements, the right ones. Since I’ve been here all I’ve said is I want players to come that want to play for Dagenham.

“We got pretty close on one, but clearly didn’t want to come and play for Dagenham, so you move onto the next.

“I want that attitude of ‘I want to come and play for the club’ and that’s what we’re looking for.”