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| Yeovil Town 2 Daggers 2 |
| Conference - 09/11/02 |
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The game started as a relatively tight affair as neither side wanted to give anything away. A distinct lack of goalscoring chances was all that characterised the opening minutes of the game. The Daggers had Fletcher back from injury to replace West who had been impressive in recent weeks. The bench also saw the return of Mark Stein from injury after getting flattened at Aldershot. Both sides started with a 3-4-1-2 formation, and this has been successful for Yeovil and also for Dagenham since they turned to it last month.
However, Yeovil looked the more impressive as they won the midfield due to the supreme work rate of little Darren Way. The Daggers were sloppy on many occasions where they failed to mark their men and ball-watched, which allowed Yeovil out of tight spots on a few occasions. The first real shot resulted in a goal and it was not in the Daggers' favour. Crittenden was adjudged to have been fouled outside the box despite the ball appearing to have been won by Matthews. As has been seen throughout the Conference, McIndoe is a specialist in these situations, and he made no mistake to curl it over the wall and right into the top corner past Roberts' hand.
The Daggers tried to hit back and Steve Heffer was unlucky when his volley took a slight deflection to take it just the wrong side of the post. Fletcher smashed a long shot over the bar, and Paul Terry had a good effort when his shot from 20 yards went just past the angle of post and bar. McIndoe tried to increase the lead for the home side but Roberts did well to get back and palm over his chip, and McIndoe missed a great chance at the back post after Crittenden's cross, heading over the bar from close range.
The second half saw a renewed Dagenham. They started to win the midfield and pinned Yeovil back for much of the half. Shipp's shot deflected just past the post after Weale had gone the wrong way, and it was against the run of play when Yeovil took a bigger lead. Crittenden was penned in the corner and two men went over to him, leaving Grant completely free behind him. A neat one-two took Crittenden into the box and his cross-shot hit Smith, cannoned onto the post, hit Roberts and then Smith again before rolling over the line, a slide on the line by a recovering defender not keeping it out.
However, the Daggers were not to be beaten and Bruce's only decent cross all day seemed headed for Fletcher. However, as he went for the ball, Pluck, who was the wrong side of his man, shoved him over and the ref gave the penalty. Junior took the penalty and blasted it in via the underside of the bar to Weale's right, who had gone the wrong way. The Daggers now had more confidence and dominated play for most of the remainder of the game. Some good midfield play saw Yeovil chasing shadows. Terry put a similar shot to that in the first half just past the angle of the goal, although the home team did defend the final ball quite well to keep the Daggers out. However, Fletcher made sure of a point when he scored an amazing equaliser. Picking the ball up from Junior's pass, he ran 40 yards past several defenders and some neat footwork took him into the box where he finished low past Weale's right hand.
The Daggers still had some good play and held the ball in the corner from corner kick's when maybe the win was possible, but the Daggers protected their comeback and took a deserved point away from Huish Park.
Junior 
Steve West