Dag & Red Paul Gothard Mark Rooney Mark Smith Lee Goodwin Steve McGavin Mark Brennan Mark Janney Paul Terry Danny Shipp Mark Stein Matt Jones Substitutes Danny Hayzelden Steve Heffer Danny Hill Tony Lock Steve Vaughan

Goals Lane (og) Teale Stats 7 Goal Attempts 8 2 On Target 5 5 Off Target 3 0 Hit Woodwork 0 5 Corners 3 Cards Yellow Jones Parke   Robertson Red None None

Southport Steve Dickinson Chris Lane Carl MacAuley Shaun Teale John Robertson Martin Clark Gary Bauress Steve Jones Lee Elam Simon Parke Neil Grayston Substitutes Brian McGorry Stuart Whittaker Ben Obong Phil Morgan Barry Jones

The Daggers began the Conference campaign with a poor performance and a point at home to Southport, the venue of the Daggers last Conference game back in May. Matthews, Cole and Vickers were missing at the back, but new boy Mark Smith impressed in the back line.

However, Stein and McGavin, two other recent acquisitions were far from impressive as the Daggers were outfought in midfield, something not seen last season when Terry and Heffer were there to break up the play.

The Daggers took the lead through an own goal, although this came after some early Southport pressure. McGavin put a low corner in at the near post and Jones flicked the ball goalwards and it was deflected past the keeper by away defender Lane.

Mark Smith ventured forward to hit a long-range shot well wide before Southport started to threaten again. They were given a series of free kicks by the appalling referee, Mark Ives, and from one of these, the ball was swung in, evading everyone other than Teale who smashed home at the far post.

The Daggers should have gone back into the lead when Stein came from well back to head the ball in at the near post but the goal was disallowed for offside.

Paul Terry headed a a good chance over after McGavin had crossed from the by-line, but the Daggers best chance to take the lead came from another corner. Smith headed a deep corner across goal to the far post where Jones couldn't quite connect, the ball going inches wide.

The game was a poor affair, the play not allowed to flow by Ives, who gave a free kick for every little thing, but failed to punish the bigger fouls accordingly. Fair tackle after fair tackle were deemed fouls by Ives, showing an awful display much similar to that when he refereed Dagenham v Woking at the Vic last season.

In the second half, Brennan cut inside and hit a right foot effort over the bar, but his poor show for most of the game was rewarded with a substitution, Heffer coming on and giving the Daggers much needed work rate and tackling in the midfield.

Heffer nearly created a good chance when he played McGavin through. He beat two men with some trickery and gave it back to Heffer who miscued his shot. Janney, on one of the few times he was given the ball to feet, looked lively and beat the full back but his cross was not met.

Matt Jones found himself in a similar situation, as he did brilliantly to catch a throughball and cross but nobody met the ball at the far post, probably due to lack of height of Shipp and Stein.

Stein was marked out of game completely and perhaps the downfall of the Daggers was due to the poor workrate of Stein and McGavin compared to last seasons equivalents, McDougald and Heffer. McDougald was surprisingly not in the squad at all.

Southport had several chances as the game went into it's final quarter, Simon Parke having a free header at the back post with no defender within 15 yards of him, but he headed into Gothard's arms.

Gothard had to save well soon after as Southport carved out a chance and a low shot from inside the box was stopped by Goff, returning from a two year absence.

The referee was in action towards the end, an off the ball incident seen by the linesman resulting in only a yellow card for the Southport player and another elbowing incident only shown a yellow as well.

Garry Hill was clearly not happy as he spent a lot of time on his feet shouting at the players on the pitch who were quite clearly not producing the goods. The fans were also unhappy at the performance, especially after the promise of last year, but the 3-5-2 formation did not suit the team and Heffer and McDougald were clearly missed .