Dagenham & Redbridge boss relishing Barnet challenge

The Bees visit Victoria Road having taken 10 points from a possible 12 so far this season, while Daggers prop up the table at the bottom with just a single point from their opening-day draw at Altrincham.

And although the formbook may suggest an away win is on the cards, Strevens remains defiant.

“We’re going into the game against Barnet and it’s brilliant, they’re top of the table, and we’re down the bottom,” he told the club website.

“Everyone is saying Barnet are going to win that game, I certainly don’t feel that way.

“I know the position Barnet was in two/three years ago, and how well Dean [Brennan] has done in the time and what he has done with that group and how well they did last year leading into this season, the consistency of what they’re doing with the team and recruitment.

“But we just want to get better. We want to win a game of football. I hate losing, I’m a terrible loser, any criticism I get from anyone can’t be worse than what I put on myself.”

Daggers suffered a third straight defeat last weekend, going down 1-0 at Maidenhead United.

Reece Smith’s goal proved the difference between the sides, but that somewhat paled into insignificance when Daggers striker Inih Effiong collapsed on the pitch at the final whistle.

The 32-year-old was treated by club staff and paramedics before being taken to hospital, with Strevens adding: “Saturday I wasn’t thinking about the game if I’m being honest, but Sunday into Monday, once I knew Inih was ok, in terms of well enough, I had to start looking at the game and the performance, analysing it and knowing we have to get better.

“No excuses for it, we can make all the excuses we want, but we’ve got to be better.

“I think being better with the ball is going to really help us, we’re turning the ball over too many times. The better we can be with the ball as a team and really focus on us, hopefully that leads into good moments and good performances lead into wins.

“That’s what we’ve got to do, we’re searching for that this Saturday, and we can’t wait. We’re not even thinking about Monday [away at Wealdstone]. We’re thinking about Saturday and trying to get three points on Saturday.”

As for what went wrong at Maidenhead, Strevens felt some poor decision-making hampered his side’s cause.

But he acknowledged the absence of some key players too, and the fact there is still a long way to go this season.

“There was very little between the sides, one really good bit of play by them and it was a good finish by the boy Smith, the way he just quickly manipulated it into the far corner was the difference on the day,” he added.

“The boys we had missing was a big blow, but it also gives them opportunities, in terms of [Omar] Mussa coming back into the folda and coming on, I thought he did really well.

“We had some moments where we had opportunities to create moments to score goals, but were poor in our decision-making.

“I get it, because of the results we had against Southend and Gateshead, but it’s four games into the season, that’s not us saying it makes it’s acceptable, it isn’t, but it’s really early days.

“It’s having a bit of understanding with them as people, trying to work out relationships on the pitch, understanding the situation with some of the boys we have missing, some big players missing for us at the moment, but hopefully they will start coming back.

“We need to have more moments of trying to score goals. A lot of the game the other day was played in the middle third of the pitch, by both teams. They found that moment to score and we didn’t and that’s on us.”