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| Daggers 3 Kettering Town 1 |
| Conference - 17/09/02 |
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The best news of the season so far for Daggers fans was on the teamsheet for this game. The brilliant, the wonderful, the man-of-the-match on his comeback after over a year out, Lee Matthews, was included in the starting line-up. A 3-5-2 was deployed and it worked very well as Heffer and Terry held while Hill pushed on, and Bruce and Janney were more than capable of playing wing-back. Lee Matthews was forever roving upfield from his right-centre-back position.
Danny Hill nearly opened the scoring when he curled a left-footer around the keeper but only to see it come back off the post. Then Lee Matthews should really have buried a header from six yards which he dived at after Paul Terry had swung the corner over. The ball went wide of the post as he failed to make proper contact with the ball. At the other end, Tony Roberts made a magnificent save to tip away Murphy's drive across goal that looked destined for the far top corner.
The Daggers did take the lead though when Paul Terry answered his critics in the best way possible. Jūniņr skinned the defender and crossed the the near post with Terry running in to simply head into the net. Terry had another chance when he tried a left foot curler from just inside the box which needed a little more height to beat the keeper.
Walsh hit back soon after though to level the scores. He was put through and Paul Terry could not quite stop him, as the ex-Chesterfield midfielder beat Roberts with a low shot. Kettering went through again after but shot the ball from 25 yards despite having a run on goal. Some wayward shooting such as one that ended up on the training ground meant the Daggers could not take the lead again, but eventually it came with three minutes of the half left. A clearance fell to Danny Hill who drove it low into the box and Stein backheeled the ball into the net. Soon after it should have been three as Jūniņr went through and passed to Stein to his right. With Janney also alongside, the small striker pushed the ball too far and the chance was lost. Janney also had a great chance when he danced his way around two defenders on his way into the box and chipped the keeper who had gone to ground, but the ball came back off the post. Jūniņr also nearly set up another as he again skinned the defender and chipped the bll to the back post, taking the keeper out of it, but the resulting header was not on target.
The start of the second half saw Kettering come at the Daggers but without being able to really test Roberts. After this opening period, the Daggers reasserted themselves and proceeded to carve Kettering apart on many oppotunities, and really the three-one could have been six-one. Danny Hill hit wide before the third goal came, another penalty. After two misses in the last two games from McGavin and Stein, Jūniņr stepped up after he had been climbed on in the box. The ball was sent to the keeper's top right and although he got to it, he could only help it into the corner.
Danny Shipp lashed one wide, and Paul Bruce also had a good left-foot strike that fizzed past the post. Mark Stein then had several chances to add to his tally. The first was blocked inside the box as he tried to shoot past the advancing Bowling, but the keeper blocked it. He then forced another save out of the visiting keeper, before his final chance. He picked the ball up to the keeper's right and from just inside the box he tried to curl it into the far top corner only for it to go just over.
