Dagenham & Redbridge boss Strevens wants to build fear

Dagenham & Redbridge boss Ben Strevens wants to make life difficult for any team visiting Victoria Road next season.

Daggers took just two points from four games under Strevens towards the end of the 2022-23 campaign, after his appointment as permanent successor to Daryl McMahon.

And he wants to give supporters much more to cheer and other National League clubs more to fear in 2023-24.

“Whenever a team is leaving here, [I want to make sure] they walk away from it going ‘Cor, that was tough today’,” he told the club website.

“We will lose games, that’s football. I want to win every single game and to win every home game would be amazing, but whoever we play against and however we do it, they walk away going ‘that was hard today. They were a proper team, playing for each other, everyone right behind them, the fans right behind them, good atmosphere around the place’.

“A small ground, fans wanting to see their team playing a certain way, wanting to see everyone working hard for each other because they’re in a hard-working area too.

“I just want people to walk away from Dagenham & Redbridge next year, hopefully not getting any points but going ‘they’ve got something going there. There’s a togetherness, a team spirit, a feeling around the place’.

“We’re working to do that now, any little bits we can do as a staff is going to be important to that, because there has been a little bit of disconnect between the players and fans. I’ve got to try and bring that back together.”

Former Daggers striker Strevens, 43, enjoyed away wins at Torquay, Boreham Wood and Barnet last season, but knows there is work to be done to ensure they can turn their home ground into more of a fortress.

And he is actively seeking the right type of player to bring to the club this summer, to help in that quest.

“It’s easy to do it with words and say what you want to do, but the only really way is going to be when they start seeing us pre-season,” he added.

“They’re going to see a visualisation of what they want to see – hard-working, together and quality footballers as well, players that have got that attacking threat but are going to work hard for each other.

“The words are easy, it’s actually work, recruitment, then work on the training pitch to show that on a match day, that’s the only real way they’re going to see us. 

“Hopefully before and after games they’ll get to meet players and see they’re good people as well, but the only real way you can show people that is on matchday and we didn’t give them nowhere near enough to cheer about in home games when I come in at the end of the season.

“So from the first day of pre-season, going into the season whether we’re home or away, whatever it’s going to be, as soon as we play that first home game I want them to see a different type of team.

“A team they want to really get behind and that hopefully will build into the moments I’m talking about.”