Dag & Red 3  Ashley Vickers 5  Mark Smith 8  Paul Terry 9  Danny Shipp 10  Mark Stein 13  James Pullen 15  Leon Braithwaite 16  Jimmy Jackson 17  Lee Matthews 18  Mark Bentley 19  Tarkan Mustafa Substitutes 4  Lee Goodwin 6  Chris Piper 7  Mark Janney 11  Paul Bruce 20  Alex Meechan

Goals Vickers Elding   Costello Stats 10 Goal Attempts 10 5 On Target 7 5 Off Target 3 0 Hit Woodwork 0 7 Corners 0 Cards Yellow Mustafa Cook Matthews Watson Red None None

Stevenage Simon Travis  2 Lee Flynn  3 Jason Goodliffe  5 Barry Laker  6 Tony Battersby  10 Jamie Cook  11 Nathan Abbey  13 Danny Carroll  18 Peter Costello  19 Steve Watson  34 Anthony Elding  37 Substitutes Matt Langston  14 Clint Marcelle  20 Rocky Baptiste  22 Gary Holloway  23 Graham Benstead  39

There were changes for the Daggers after the weekend's loss and poor performance at Leigh. Bentley came in for Janney after his impressive substitute appearance on Saturday, and Matthews came back for Bruce, pushing Jackson forward and moving Vickers across to full-back. Smith came in for the injured Cole. There was still no squad room for Lenny Piper, and his brother again made do with the bench as did Meechan, Stein and Shipp continuing despite disappointing at Leigh. Scott was loaned to Tamworth and so was unavailable.

The Daggers started the better of the two sides. Bentley and Tarkan were working well down the right with some good crosses coming into the box. The first chance came to Braithwaite and it should really have been one-nil. Stein got away down the left and pulled back to Braithwaite, who had an age to turn and then poke his shot goalwards, but the ball was a nice position for Abbey to save with the goal gaping.

Stevenage didn't take long to take advantage of this reprieve and they showed the difference as their first chance did make it one-nil. Matthews got up to take the ball off Elding's head but it squirmed loose, and with Vickers not coming across to cover, Watson dribbled across the face of the box before handing over to Elding who finished low at the near post.

The Daggers lost their way after this and began to get overrun in midfield by a sharper and quicker team. Pullen had to make a block with his legs from Cook who had got away down the left and Battersby's neat flick at the near post dropped wide. Matthews also had to head out from under his own bar with Elding looming. At the other end, Bentley failed to connect with a header from a corner and Matthews' wild volley after Abbey's misjudgement from another corner was closer to the corner flag than goal.

The second half again saw the Daggers give a glimmer of hope. Stein chested down and volleyed way over from the edge of the box and Braithwaite seemed to be through but couldn't control the ball and was dispossesed. The game started to go in Stevenage's favour once more as they pushed the Daggers back and they eventually got the second goal.

A free kick 25 yards out saw Pullen line his wall up in the middle of the goal and then stand behind it. Not being able to see the ball, it was touched right and hammered in the top corner by Costello. They could have added more with a vicious shot that went just wide of Pullen's right hand post and Watson also blazed high and wide.

As the game moved into the last twenty minutes, Stevenage were protecting their lead well and keeping tight at the back. However, they let the Daggers back in the game with a mistake by Abbey. Smith's back post cross was met by Vickers who beat Abbey in the air and looped his header over the stranded keeper, and it just dropped in before anybody could get back to clear.

Expecting a big push, the Daggers again fell back a bit, but came alive again with 10 minutes left. Smith's attempted long-range lob found the top of the net before Stein missed a great chance. Tarkan battled down the right and pulled back to Braithwaite who floated it over everyone to the back post. Stein met it but his header went up rather than down, allowing Abbey to make a great save to push it onto the bar, Meechan not able to get himself onto the rebound.

Crosses were coming in as Bruce put in some deep balls as did Tarkan but the lack of height meant no chance of converting one for the equaliser. The best late chance was Meechan's as he stooped to head a low ball in towards the bottom corner, but it lacked power and again Abbey made a good one-handed stop. Baptiste would have been away with minutes left but he stupidly was offside with half a clear pitch in front of him.

Chances at both ends and, despite a poor performance for the most part, the Daggers could have taken something. With two games gone and no striker able to find the net, and rarely mustering a shot, and also Stevenage's superior sharpness in midfield, will give the Daggers something to think about before Saturday's game with Barnet.