Forest Green Rovers 1 Dagenham 4

Last updated : 17 August 2004 By Footymad Previewer

It was a case of deja-vu from Saturday as Forest Green Rovers once again started off so well only to spectacularly slump to a heavy defeat this time at home to Dagenham & Redbridge.

The game had started in spectacular fashion for Rovers when good build-up play was followed by Scott Rogers' cross and Charlie Griffin directed his header past Tony Roberts to score his second goal in two games.

Griffin almost added a second ten minutes later but this time his header from Mike Green's cross was tipped over by Roberts.

Unfortunately for Forest Green this was as good as the game got just before the half hour Rovers lost possession as Dagenham's John Taylor hit a weak shot which fell to Chris Moore and his close-range thunderbolt rattled the crossbar before bouncing down and being cleared, but the linesman adjudged that the ball had crossed the line.

Rovers heads went down and despite holding the visitors until half-time their heads never raised after the interval and with so many mistakes made throughout the defence and midfield throughout the second half it was a wonder that Dagenham only scored three more.

Within four minutes of the restart Dagenham took the lead from a direct free-kick, the wall did not do its job and Lee Flynn's direct drive deflected off the wall into the right-hand corner of the net.

Just after the hour Green lost possession deep into his own half and Moore latched on to the loose ball going round debutant Jimmy Turner and calmly waltzing round Steve Perrin and slotting the ball into the empty net.

Dagenham continued to dominate the entire second-half with Glen Southam's chip going just over the bar and Mark Janney having his low shot parried by Perrin.

But Rovers' misery was complete ten minutes from time when a dreadful pass by Darren Davies went straight to Southam and his shot on the turn took a slight deflection, but easily beat Perrin into the far corner of the net.