McMahon hails Daggers defensive efforts at Aldershot

Published:
8:02 PM April 18, 2022

Dagenham & Redbridge boss Daryl McMahon paid tribute to his side after their 2-0 success at Aldershot Town made it back-to-back National League wins over the Easter weekend.

Junior Morias and Mauro Vilhete struck minutes apart in the first half to put Daggers on top in Hampshire, following their 7-3 home win over Barnet on Good Friday.

And the win left them two points behind seventh-placed Notts County in the race for a play-off place.

“We shipped a couple of poor goals [against Barnet] and can’t shy away from that,” McMahon told the club website.

“We spoke about that and defensively today we were excellent from start to finish. We gave Aldershot very little in terms of opportunities on our goal.

“I thought the first 15-20 minutes the game was pretty slow, pretty sloppy from both teams, and that happens sometimes when you get games close together.

“Both myself and Mark [Molesley] at Aldershot picked the same team that played the other day, but then I thought after that spell we really settled down and played some good stuff, got our two goals and could’ve scored some more.”

Morias made it five goals in three games from Vilhete’s pass for the opener – and 11 for the season – before Vilhete converted a Myles Weston cross to double the advantage.

McMahon added: “Junior’s record for us since he has been here has been awesome. He’s enjoying his football, everyone is enjoying having him here and long may that continue.

“Maz gets in great positions. It’s only thing we always say to him is he could get some more goals. It was good play. He’s excellent in the air but I thought he arrived well to finish that one at the back post.”

Leading scorer Paul McCallum was unable to add to his 18 goals, but earned praise for his all-round work from McMahon.

“He’s a great target for us, he defends our box well from set-pieces as well,” he said of McCallum. “He’s been on a fantastic run himself in terms of scoring goals, I thought he worked ever so hard, even in the last minute he’s pressing full-backs, he’s been an out-ball for us. I thought he was excellent.”

The Daggers boss also used all three substitutions available to him in the second half, explaining: “The risk to injury and Mo [Sagaf] has been on Ramadan, so he’s not been able to eat and it’s obviously been hot against Barnet and really hot again today, so we’ve got to make sure he’s okay.

“Junior has run a lot, Westy has run a lot in the last couple of days, especially at Westy’s age, he puts a lot of miles into the tank.

“The players who came on I thought were excellent as well. Josh [Walker] gave us an out-ball, Lingy [Sam Ling] was very good and Dean [Rance] shored up the middle of the pitch for us.”

Daggers are back on home turf to host lowly King’s Lynn on Saturday and McMahon thanked the near 200 fans who travelled to Aldershot.

“The away fans give us so much support and the noise they make in the away grounds for us is really important,” he said.

“They were terrific and as always we thank them for travelling.”

https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/sport/dagenham-and-redbridge-daryl-mcmahon-quotes-8905134

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