Clinical Dagenham saved by the heroics of Naisbitt

2:54pm Wednesday 21st January 2004

Barnet2 Grazioli 25, 84 Daggers4 Plummer og 20, Cole 28, Janney 58, Hill 90 (Nationwide Conference)

TARKAN MUSTAFA spoke out to last week's Guardian on how he was hoping to have a stormer at his old stomping ground, but it was former B's keeper Danny Naisbitt who had the last laugh against his old club at Underhill on Saturday.

The stand-in keeper put on a spectacular display, including a penalty save to deny Ian Hendon from the spot. And although the football was by no means the prettiest played by the Daggers, the finishing in front of goal was just what has been missing this season.

Naisbitt was in the thick of the action from the start, being clattered by Ismail Yakubu early on as he denied him a shot on goal. But the play soon swung up the other end to allow the Daggers to take the lead thanks to a Chris Plummer own goal.

Paul Bruce sent the ball across the face of goal and in his efforts to clear his lines, Plummer deflected the ball into the back of his own net.

This was to be the start of a mad ten minutes as the game twisted and turned by the second. Five minutes after the Daggers had taken the lead, Giuliano Grazioli nipped in to lob Naisbitt from the edge of the box just seconds after Richard Pacquette had seen his offside effort cannon off the cross bar.

Three minutes later and the Daggers were back in front, courtesy of Tim Cole as Chris Piper's cross was neatly met by the centre half who flicked it into the net off the back of his head.

It looked as though this was going to be another short lived lead as Mark Janney was adjudged to have fouled Yakubu in the area and the referee pointed to the spot despite the Daggers' protests.

Hendon stepped up to the spot but his effort went straight down the middle and Naisbitt cleverly ducked to save with his knees, and was still cocky enough to dummy a mock save when the follow up effort flew wide of his near post.

Then followed a brief respite on the goalscoring front with Barnet going closest through Grazioli when he headed inches wide of the post.

Pacquette could have stretched the Daggers' lead twice, stabbing wide at one point and then ballooning over from Chris Piper's superb cross.

Mark Janney was the man who then surprised everyone, most of all himself, with a superb left footed finish from 25 yards out. Looking up and spotting the target, Janney let rip with a swerving shot which sweetly fell in the top corner of Shane Gore's net.

That was not to be the talking point of the day though as more was to come, sadly in more tarnished circumstances.

The sorry sight began when Grazioli netted his second of the day as he headed past Naisbitt, and the Daggers keeper then booted the ball out of the net in frustration.

Taking the law into his own hands, Plummer capped a disappointing day for himself by barging Naisbitt to the floor and leaving him in a heap in the goalmouth.

Danny Hill soon restored the footballing element to the game though as he put the tie beyond doubt as he robbed Geoff Pitcher of the ball and chipped Gore from 10 yards to cap a truly superb performance.

DAGGERS: Naisbitt, Hoyle, Bruce, Cole, Mustafa, Moore, Pacquette (sub: Braithwaite 68min), Janney (Watts 72), Piper (Shipp 72), Jackson, Hill.