Dagenham display leaves Laurie smiling

A TIMELY piece of good fortune after 39 minutes set Slough Town on their way to another superbly constructed win at Victoria Road on Saturday, to maintain their lead at the top of the Berger Isthmian League, Premier Division.

The turning point of the match came when Dagenham's Denis Moore headed the Rebels into the lead six minutes before the interval. And from that point onwards Slough never looked back as they went on to collect three more vital points.

Apart from their win at Wycombe, this was probably the Rebels' most impressive performance away from Wexham Park this season, and manager Laurie Churchill had every reason to leave his seat in the stand at the final whistle with a broad smile on his face.

Eric Young returned to the defence, with Steve Norman making way for the central defenders. And it was the Rebels' defence who were influential in setting up victory, superbly containing Dagenham's lively front runners.

And up front Eggie James, having one of his best games this season, and Micky Kiely were a constant threat to the Daggers defence with their forceful and determined running.

Within 30 seconds of the start the hosts went close to scoring when a Les Cobb corner was allowed to run right across the face of the Slough goal. However there were no Dagenham players near enough to put the finishing touches, and then nine minutes later Steve Jones fired wide from a good position.

The lively James soon started to give the Dagenham defence headaches with several searching runs on the left. But it was a move on the opposite flank involving Dave Russell and Dave Yerby, after 32 minutes, which came closest to giving Slough the lead.

Yerby's fine low cross found Barry Friend, and his well struck effort from close range produced a superb one handed twisting save from Ian Huttley.

The breakthrough came seven minutes later when a fine run and cross from James was headed into his own net by Moore, when under pressure from Kiely.

This goal took the pressure off Slough, and after the interval they settled to take complete control of the midfield to give another highly disciplined performance. Within seconds of the second half starting a poor back pass from Wright almost put Russell in for a second goal.

A Friend corner on the right was then headed over by Young, after the tall defender had found himself in a good unmarked position.

Breaking dangerously at every opportunity, the Rebels however did not have to wait long for a second goal. And it came after 71 minutes. Pat Morrissey flighted a dangerous free kick into the heart of the Dagenham penalty area. And as the ball appeared to stick in the mud, and the Daggers defence were unable to clear the danger, Kiely stole in to slam the ball past Huttley from six yards for his 19th goal of this term.

Dagenham tried desperately to fight back and twice within the space of two minutes wasted fine chances. First Cobb shot wide after breaking clear of the Rebels' defence for once, and then a cross found its way to the unmarked George Duck who hit his effort wide from six yards.

During the final 10 minutes Dagenham's lively young winger Ron Francis, making his league debut, started to cause problems for the Slough defence but it was too late to influence the result of the match.

The only black mark for Slough was a booking for Kiely after 85 minutes. It was more a case of his enthusiasm getting the better of him than a bad foul which warranted a booking. However the Rebels were clearly delighted to leave Essex with their two-point lead at the top still firmly established.

* This was probably the last time the two sides will meet in a league match for some considerable time, because on Sunday Dagenham were elected to the Alliance Premier League for next season.