Bad decisions cost us in defeat says Dagenham & Redbridge boss McMahon

Daggers were reduced to 10 men on the half-hour mark, with Harry Phipps shown a straight red card for a challenge on Matt Worthington.

Referee Alan Dale also deemed the offence to have taken place inside the box, with former Dagger Jordan Maguire-Drew converting from the spot.

And, after Daggers had created chances to get back on terms, the Glovers sealed the points late on as Worthington fired home from range.

“The referee’s decision to send Phippsy off, I’ve seen it back during the game and at half-time, Phippsy was outside the box so it wasn’t a penalty and we had two players round covering as well, so to give a red card I think is a bad decision,” McMahon told the club website.

“It’s happened to us a couple of times now with officials and I’m not one ever to moan about officials, I think I’m pretty lenient on officials, I always am.

“But I feel like we’ve been let down today, we got down let down Tuesday by one, giving Bromley a drop ball, Maidstone recently on New Year’s we were let down on a penalty and a goal we scored.

“We just seem to be on the receiving end of some bad decisions at the moment and then when it’s 10 men it’s an uphill task against anybody in this division.

“The team worked really hard, stuck together, created lots of chances, even with 10 men, but we have to now pick ourselves up and move on.”

Josh Walker and Junior Morias were unable to capitalise on a good opportunity to get Daggers back on terms before the break, while half-time substitute Paul McCallum was denied by Grant Smith after the restart.

Morias flashed a shot just wide and also saw Smith produce a diving save to keep out another effort and McMahon added: “I thought we attacked it really well, I thought we were really positive, we should’ve equalised after that with the 2-v-1.

“We had chances to score goals but we didn’t take them. We weren’t clinical or ruthless enough in their box.

“There were loads of bits we need to improve on, we know that. But it makes it difficult when you’ve got 10 men.

“The game is a totally different game when you’ve got 10 men, we’re chasing and they’ve got an extra body.”

Daggers had been forced to replace Sam Ling inside the opening quarter of an hour, while Josh Hare went off just past the hour mark.

But there was some positive news in the crowd of 2,739 on Daggers Celebrate Diversity Day.

“Sam has gone to hospital, he’s obviously had a bad knock on his head, and Josh’s back seized up,” said McMahon.

“So you’ve lost three of your back four during the game which makes it difficult as well.

“But again I have to say I thought the players stuck to their task really well, worked hard, stuck together, and we need to put it behind us now and move forward.”

The club offered discounted tickets in an attempt to attract new fans, with McMahon praising the initiative.

“It was terrific to get new people in that haven’t seen us play before, they haven’t been to the ground before, maybe not been to a football game before,” he added.

“The club do a great job in arranging a day like today and hopefully we get more people back off the back of it.”