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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 14 November 2006 |
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The Daggers face one of their toughest tasks of the season this Saturday when they travel to the comically named Kit Kat Crescent to face 4th placed York City.
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| | | Nationwide Conference
Kit-Kat Crescent
Saturday 25th November 2006
3:00pm |
| Preview | | OPPOSITION
This is York's 3rd season in the Conference. In their first season in the non league game they struggled to adapt and for a while looked like they might be relegated for a second year in a row before finishing in a safe, but lowly position. Last season was a lot better for York, and for a while they looked like they might make the play offs before fading slightly towards the end of the season and just missing out.
So far this season York have been going well and lie in 4th place, level on points with 3rd placed Weymouth. They are not the most prolific scorers in the league (there goal difference is only +1) but they are difficult to beat. Last week they picked up their best result of the campaign with a 2-1 win at Weymouth, a result which ended Gary Hill's side long unbeaten home run.
The main scoring threat will come from Clayton Donalson, who has recently been selected for the England National Game side for the first time.
PAST VISITS
The last two Daggers visits to York have both ended in draws. At the end of the 04/05 season the two sides played out a dour 0-0 draw. At the start of last season the sides produced an entertaining game. The Daggers put in a good performance but it looked like it would gain them nothing until a wonderful injury time strike from Scott Griffiths earned a 1-1 draw. The result meant that the long Tuesday night journey home was made a little easier for the Daggers following!!!!
GROUND
Kit Kat Crescent is really called Bootham Crescent, but due to the club's links with Nestle it has now been re-named after the chocolate bar!!!!
It is a ground which is pretty similar to many lower league clubs. Like most of them who have slipped into the Conference, their fans think the fact it is bigger than most non league grounds is good thing, even though they forget it is a total dump!!!! The two sides of the pitch are seated and behind one goal is a smartish covered terrace. Away fans are housed behind the other goal on an open terrace with toilets with no roof and a horrible food outlet!!!! The highlight of the ground is the selection of Italia 90 dug outs housed next to one of the seated stands!!!
TRAVEL
Despite being a long way North, getting to York is not to bad. By car on a Saturday the journey should take about 4 hours up the M1, unless their is any major incidents. By train the tip us is very quick, with a journey time of about 2 hours from Kings Cross. The Upminster Daggers will be travelling by train with GNER. We managed to pick up some good value tickets, and I understand that thetrainline.com still has some going cheap if anyone else is looking to travel in this way. The supporters club has also organised two coaches to the game, and I understand their are still places on one of these.
Hopefully with this being a top of the table clash the Daggers support will be good (by our standards) and be around the 150 mark. I would imagine that the total crowd will be around or just above the 3,000 mark.
PREDICTION
This is a tough one to call (I say that every week)!!!! Both sides are going very well at the moment and will be pretty confident. I would imagine John Still would be happy to take a point from the game, and so the onus will be on York to push forward. This should suit the pace and power of the Daggers counter attacking style.
For that reason I will go for a 3rd draw at York between the two sides, probably 1-1. | | | | |
| Previous Meetings | (A) |  |  | | | | | | | 2004/05 | 0-0 | | | | 2005/06 | 1-1 | Report | | |
