Dagenham & Redbridge need goals from anywhere says boss

Daggers have failed to find the target in four successive National League matches and have now gone 411 minutes without finding the net, since Josh Rees struck in the first half of their 3-1 defeat at Chesterfield.

They battled to a stalemate at Halifax Town in midweek, after a 1-0 home loss to Hartlepool at the weekend, and are back on the road to take on Aldershot on Saturday.

And Strevens says the search for a goal is a shared responsibility.

“I sound like a broken record, it’s not just the strikers,” Strevens told the club website.

“There’s been moments in the last three or four games where any one of our players could’ve scored a goal – full-backs, centre-halves, central midfielders, wide players and strikers.

“Goals come from all over the pitch. When we’re attacking, everyone has got to be thinking ‘I can score’.

“We were dangerous from set-plays, our full-backs getting in areas – Lingy[Sam Ling]’s header on Saturday, Tavs [Nik Tavares] had that chance tonight. It’s a collective.

“When you’re defending, you’ve all got to be doing it, that’s the demand of the game now.

“So when we get a clean sheet, it’s literally from Els [Elliot Justham] to the front man, all of them together. And when we don’t score it’s all of us again.”

Conor Lawless and Ryan Hill were denied by Halifax keeper Sam Johnson in the first half of their midweek meeting, with Nik Tavares thwarted in the second half.

But Elliot Justham was called upon to save from Angelo Capello and Millinic Alli in either half, with Strevens adding: “In the first half we had some really good moments, in terms of that little bit of incisive play in the final third, Hilly had a shot the keeper saved with his legs.

“Then in the second half I just felt it become a little bit ‘basketbally’ – they attacked, we attacked.

“Then we’re putting it down to chance in the last minute – if the boy scores a header we go from here absolutely gutted at a 1-0 defeat. I don’t want us to be put in positions like that.

“Their goalie pulled off an unbelievable save from Tavs and I thought we had a stonewall penalty. Anywhere else on the pitch I think the ref gives it.

“But I don’t want them to be excuses, we just need to be better in that final third to convert them chances.

“It’s not even the finish, it’s the weight of the pass or timing of the run from some of the players.”