McMahon: Dagenham & Redbridge disappointed to go out

Dagenham & Redbridge boss Daryl McMahon admitted it was “really frustrating” to withdraw from the Isuzu FA Trophy after a 2-0 home loss to Maidenhead United.

Shawn McCoulsky put the Magpies ahead after just seven minutes at Victoria Road and Charlee Adams scored from the penalty spot in first-half added time after Elliott Johnson was sent off.

And Alan Devonshire’s side were able to maintain their lead in the second half to secure a place in the top 16 at the expense of Daggers.

“Really frustrating. With all our possession we made two mistakes which cost us the game and Elliott Johnson for a game which is disappointing,” McMahon said on the club’s website.

“We were disappointed to go out, we wanted to get through. We made some changes to give the players a few more minutes, which I think was positive for us to get people back on the pitch.”

“It’s disappointing to go out but also a lot of good stuff in the game that I felt for us. We controlled the game really well, we passed the ball as well as we have in the last three or four weeks to be honest.

“In particular, I felt Omar Mussa had a great game for us and a lot of things to build on.”

McCoulsky converted the first chance of the tie after being played through by Sam Beckwith to roll a shot past Elliot Justham, with Omar Mussa saving a free-kick and Junior Morias heading the rebound high and wide.

Johnson was dismissed after fouling McCoulsky in the box, Adams converted from the spot and Daggers saw Morias block a shot after the restart and then fired another try just wide.

Josh Hare’s looping cross eluded Paul McCallum late as Daggers ejected, but McMahon found some positives.

“We had some great chances, put some great crosses into the box in the first half but we didn’t manage to test the keeper enough,” he added.

“Football is about both boxes, you win and lose in the boxes.

“We made two mistakes on goals, I don’t think we were cut at all in the whole game, even when we had 10 men we still dominated the ball, also really dominated the territory without hurting them enough.

“We need to do a little better in the last third, but overall people who haven’t played in a while are coming in Manny [Onariase] and even Phippsy, who has been out for a while, played on Tuesday night when he came back from his suspension Lingy, who hasn’t played for a while, was back at it, junior [Morias] Didn’t play Tuesday night, Mussa hasn’t played for a while so there are a lot of positive things to take away from us.”

Daggers return to National League action midweek with Eastleigh visiting on Tuesday and McMahon looking to get back on his feet quickly.

“All the games are tough, we say that every week, there are no easy games in our league, it’s a tough league. That’s why you see results like this,” he said.

“We’ve already looked at Eastleigh, we know Lee [Bradbury] has a good group there and we look forward to welcoming them on Tuesday night.”