Millwall 5-0 Daggers.

Dagenham & Redbridge crashed out of the cup last night following a 5-0 defeat at The Den to an experienced Millwall side who bounced back in style following their 6-0 home defeat at the weekend. I'll just give a rough outline of the action as well as some pictures because recounting a whole thrashing isn't exactly pleasant.

The Lions first goal came from a rebound, Darius Henderson who was restored to the side after a few games out, curled the ball around a helpless Lewington into the bottom corner. First goal scored on 7 minutes and that really set the tone for the evening in terms of action.

Millwalls second game just before half time, Dominic Green giving the ball away to Henderson who played it across to Tottenham loan star Harry Kane. He took one touch out of his feet before hitting a daisycutter that flew past Lewington into the bottom corner. I think at this stage, the majority of us knew that this was not going to be our year to progress through to the fourth round.

We went in at half time two goals down, by all means it could have been worse. After the Daggers foray into the Millwall half within the opening five minutes, we'd shown little attacking promise. To be fair, our attack was blunt, Brian Woodall missing through injury and Montano cup tied left us with Jon Nurse playing seemingly as a lone striker which was not working. The extent of our injury woes were shown by Danny J Green getting a start, he hasn't even been near the fringes of the first eleven in recent weeks! We were then given our first look at Rob Edmans, coming on at half time for the anonymous Abdulla.

The Daggers had a couple of good chances to pull a goal back, Jon Nurse firing one high over the bar after a good Rob Edmans knock down; and then Edmans himself just missed out on equalising when a Millwall defender got to the ball before him in front of goal. Billy Bingham nearly caught out Forde in the Millwall goal, when his cross came close to looping under the bar and in, but the stopper punched it away for a corner. The final chance of the Daggers good spell of possession was a Danny Green shot, however his effort went horribly wide of the mark.

All this pressure of course, left us wide open at the back. This was inevitably exposed by our higher ranked opponents. Some good interchange between the impressive Kane and winger Feeney, saw Feeney bearing down on goal. However, he unselfishly squared the ball across to Henderson who was on hand to get his second of the game and the Lions' fifth, by tapping home into an empty net.

Darius Henderson then finished the game off from the spot after chief tormentor Harry Kane was brought down in the box by Femi. Henderson stepped up and dispatched the spot kick as he made it 4-0 which ensured he would get the match ball. The scoring was finally rounded off on 65 minutes, Henderson was involved once again, slinging a ball into the box which found the head of Kane to make it five and completely kill the game off. The link up play of Kane & Henderson was admirable, even if it was against a struggling league two side.

In summary, a pretty poor game in terms of performance, but it was something different. The main plus point for me was the introduction of Rob Edmans who could be the thing we need up front. A big target man for others to feed off of, at least the early signs look promising. A quick word on The Den as well. How steep was the stand we were in, because it felt shockingly high up! A very modern stadium, but one that made very good noise as the 'Wall fans showed when they scored, time, after time, after time.

Well done to the Daggers fans who made the trip to The Den yesterday as well. We took 542 supporters out of a terrible total of 3651. People just don't seem to care for the greatest cup competition in the world anymore. The 542 of us were in good voice throughout, but in particular the second half with an array of hilarious songs and a Poznan to boot. The Millwall fans enjoyed it and after a somewhat miserable performance, it cheered me and several others up. Well done to us as well, for drowning out the Hammers that were in attendance down the front. They started up the "follow over land & sea" chant, which really gave their position away and from then on in, they weren't given a say. Superb Daggers!

Infact, here are a couple of comments from Millwall fans, "They were also a good spirited bunch and made the whole of our stand laugh and clap them when they did their 'let's pretend we scored a goal' chant followed by the Man City style celebration....can't fault them, I'll be watching out for these lot now, I want them to do well. Another reads, "As a Millwall fan (a very gobby one at that) I never say this to other teams on their pages but I have to say, your fans cheered and sang through out, stayed until the end despite the score and that 'let's pretend we scored a goal' chant followed by a celebration was classic, had us in stitches. Well done. Both of those were from a Millwall fan on our unofficial facebook page by the name of Paige. Proud to be a Dagger!

We have more important things to worry about now after a good cup run, starting with a trip to Crewe at the weekend where we hope to continue our 100% record against the Railwaymen.

I will leave you with an assortment of pictures from the evening! Remember to follow me on Twitter, @NickDRFCMurphy.



The Dens welcoming turnstiles....



Hogan & Lewy warm up.



"Match Action"

My next report will be from Crewe, have a good week everyone.