A flat and disjointed Bromley returned from Victoria Road with tails firmly between their legs as they found themselves on the end of a three-nil drubbing that in truth could and should have been more.
Two goals in the opening 15 minutes from Angelo Balanta and Conor Wilkinson put Bromley behind the eight ball and the Ravens were unable to recover from that setback. Substitute Chike Kandi sealed the win for the Daggers in the 72nd minute to round off Bromley’s miserable afternoon.
Bromley had entered the match on the back of two consecutive league defeats and no goals scored. With this in mind and with injuries somewhat forcing his hand, Neil Smith recalled the returning Frankie Sutherland back to the starting line-up but also had to contend with losing George Porter to injury. Porter joined a long injury list that includes Jack Holland, Jake Goodman and Adam Mekki.
Setting up his team in a 4231 with JJ Hooper, Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu and Luke Coulson floating behind Omar Bugiel, Neil Smith never got to see the potential benefits of the formation as Bromley found themselves behind to Dagenham’s first attack of the match.
Jack Munns’ excellent free kick was headed home beyond David Gregory by Balanta although Gregory will perhaps feel his judgement was poor in coming and failing to connect with the ball.
Bromley briefly rallied after the goal with Hooper shooting over from Bugiel’s knock down and Coulson testing Elliott Justham from distance with a fierce drive. However that was to be as good as it got in the first half as Bromley failed to deal with the windy conditions and compounded their problems with ponderous defending and laboured attacking.
Dagenham doubled their lead with their next meaningful attack and it was almost a carbon copy of the first. Munns inch-perfect free kick from the left hand side headed home powerfully by Wilkinson for this 11th goal of the season.
Buoyed by the two goal lead Dagenham proceeded to dominate the remainder of the first half and if not for some fine goalkeeping from Gregory they would have increased their lead.
Wilkinson was the first to be denied as he took advantage of slack defensive play to waltz into the penalty area only for Gregory to block his strike at goal.
Moments later Sam Wood cleared Munns effort off the line.
Gregory had time to produce one last save before the half time interval tipping Will Wright’s drive from the edge of the penalty area wide for a corner.
An enforced substitute at half time further compounded Bromley’s woes with the injured Marc-Anthony Okoye having to be replaced by Alan Dunne. The former Millwall man filled in as a makeshift centre-half alongside Roger Johnson for the second 45.
Bromley to their credit were more competitive in the second half and with a tiny bit of luck may have reduced arrears prior to Dagenham’s third goal.
The chances that came Bromley’s way all fell to joint top-scorer JJ Hooper the best of which being his header, in the 63rd minute, from Frankie Raymond’s cross that fell inches wide of the post with Justham beaten.
Wilkinson should then have put the game beyond Bromley’s reach after he seized on Alan’s Dunne’s sliced clearance. The muscular forward held off both Dunne and Roger Johnson but with only Gregory to beat he placed his shot the wrong side of the left hand post.
At the other end Justham kept the two goal lead in tact with a brilliant reaction stop from Hooper. The on-loan Grimsby striker reacted instinctively to Bugiel’s knock down but his toe poke was deflected wide by the feet of Justham.
That proved the pivotal moment in the second half as Dagenham extended their lead with their next attack. Substitute Kandi picked up the ball 35 yards out from goal before advancing unchallenged to the edge of the penalty area and firing a great strike beyond the reach of Gregory.
Despite Justham going on to save one more effort from Hooper after the striker had broken the offside trap, Dagenham should have extended their lead on more than one occasion in the final 15 minutes.
Kandi saw Gregory tip his curling effort wide and the Bromley custodian had to be at his best to block Doug Loft’s free kick and Tomi Adeloye’s lob
Bromley to their credit did keep pressing for a consolation goal and substitute Jordan Higgs missed two good opportunities late on but even if he had scored it would have been barely deserved reward for a below-par team performance.
Next up Bromley entertain Chesterfield FC on Tuesday night looking to arrest their slide alas with mounting injury woes and a misfiring forward line Neil Smith may well need to pull a rabbit out of the hat.
Dagenham and Redbridge (3-5-2): Justham; Goodliffe , Onariase, Smith; McQueen, Wright, Loft (Phipps 86), Munn, Gordon; Balanta (Kandi 68), Wilkinson (Adeloye 78)
Subs not used: Moore (GK), Harfield
Bromley (4-2-3-1): Gregory; Brindley, Johnson, Okoye (Dunne 46), Wood; Sutherland (Higgs 83), Raymond; Hooper, Sarpong-Wiredu, Coulson, Bugiel
Subs not used: Meekums, Philpot, Lewis
Goal scorers / Time of goal: Dagenham and Redbridge: Balanta 3, Wilkinson 14, Kandi 72
Referee: Mr Alan Dale
Star Man: Jack Munns
Attendance: 1,186 (138 away)