Angry McMahon laments ‘scary mistakes’ by inconsistent Daggers

Danny Whitehall’s sixth-minute penalty proved the difference between the National League rivals at Victoria Road, with Elliot Justham saving a second spot-kick from Kairo Mitchell.

And defeat, after a 2-1 home win over Solihull Moors on Saturday, saw inconsistent Daggers slip back down to 10th in the table, two points off a play-off spot.

“I don’t know where to start,” McMahon told the club website.

“We spoke before the game about how Eastleigh are a threat on the counter-attack. Rash challenge [for the first penalty], we didn’t need to make the tackle.

“The threat they had with Mitchell going in behind and Whitehall up there as well, we didn’t defend that well enough in the first period of the game.

“After that we probably took control of the game, but then another crazy decision to give the penalty away, another error, to give them another chance.

“Thankfully Elliot saved that penalty, but hugely frustrated and in some ways not surprised. Our season has been a high of Saturday, a terrific performance and you expect us to go and back it up, and give the same performance levels, but we haven’t got the ability to be able to back it up and hit that level again. We’re too inconsistent.”

Inih Effiong had a good chance to add to his brace from the weekend and get Daggers back on terms, but could not take it.

And McMahon felt there were too many mistakes from his players on the night, adding: “Our individual errors are scary at the moment, there’s far too many of them happening, in both boxes.

“Inih should’ve scored in the first half as well, he’s got a tap-in really for a player of his quality. So disappointed with that. 

“Goals change games for sure, 100 per cent. We know he’s going to score goals, he’s a proven goalscorer.

“At that moment in time it would’ve been important for us to get a goal back but we didn’t.

“But I still felt we had enough of the ball at the end of the first half and in the second half to create better chances than we did.

“Our decision-making was poor and we’ve got to be strong and show more courage than that as a team.”

As well as needing to show more courage, McMahon felt his players were lacking in concentration at key moments, with the incidents that led to the two Eastleigh penalties highlighting his point.

And he asked them to commit wholly to their careers as professional footballers, adding: “Look at the winning goal for us on Saturday when we made 12-14 passes before we scored and I didn’t see that tonight.

“It was a bit more erratic in terms of our build-up play and too easy to win the ball off. We have to show more courage in everything we do, more consistently.

“A definite lack of concentration. It’s not a job it’s a career, commit to what you’re doing, be focused on what you’re doing, be a professional footballer.

“Don’t be a semi-professional footballer and say I play well Saturday and I don’t play well Tuesday. Take care of what you’re doing, take care of your career. It goes quickly.”