Dagenham & Redbridge 1 Barnet 1

This was quite fun and a nice break from the soap opera of W12. The first point of interest was that Dagenham's Victoria Road makes Underhill look like the new Wembley. Topping off the effect, there were no less than two advertising hoardings proclaiming "We help you car pass". That's good to hear. Me like car. Anyway, Barnet looked awful to start with and conceded a pathetic goal as two defenders and keeper all left it for each other, allowing ex-Barnet "frontman" Ben Strevens to poke home. However, once the visitors managed to bring the ball down and play some football they were by far the better side for the rest of the game. A good spell of pressure leading up to half time almost paid off when Anthony Thomas's free kick whistled into the side netting. Wait a minute, how can it hit the side netting at the far post ? Must be a goal then. Yes, there was a hole in the net. Er, a bigger hole. Unfortunately Barnet couldn't make their superiority pay after the break, despite a late salvo during which home keeper Tony Roberts (familiar of course to QPR fans) took a break from hamming it up for the cameras to save well from Ishmael Yakubu and Jason Puncheon.

Barnet looked quite encouraging despite their poor start to the season ; they had a man sent off in all of their first three games, but since then they beat Bradford last weekend and as I said looked comfortably the better side here. They certainly played a better brand of football than the hosts, whose agricultural style was roundly mocked by the Barnet fans because the Daggers are managed by ex-Bees supremo John Still. They looked desperately short on quality even at this level and could be a good bet to oppose for a while if not the whole season.