Bright starts earn Daggers another excellent three points on the road

Excellent starts to the first and second half earned Dagenham & Redbridge another victory on the road as they scored twice after the break to defeat Morecambe.

Luke Howell put them ahead inside the opening minutes before Andy Flemming equalised for the Shrimps to make it level at half time.

But Ayo Obileye and Jamie Cureton scored in the first seven minutes of the second half to give Daggers the win.

And although Jack Redshaw pulled one back deep into stoppage time it didn’t matter and this victory moves the Victoria Road outfit up to 17th in the table.

But more important Daggers are now seven points clear of the relegation places and looking at the top half rather than the bottom two.

Burnett picked the same team for the third consecutive match, but again made changes to the substitutes bench with Ade Yusuff returning and Joss Labadie missing out.

The visitors got proceedings underway at Globe Arena and made a phenomenal start by scoring after just 18 seconds.

They attacked on the left-side and Joe Widdowson’s cross was only half cleared out to Howell and he riffled past Andreas Arestidou, via a deflection, to open the scoring.

It was the midfielder’s fourth goal of the campaign, but his first since September and it was also Daggers fasted ever league goal.

Although John Stimson could still boast the quickest goal in the club’s history as he scored after 12 seconds in an FA Trophy match at Dover in 1996.

The visitors continued to build on their encouraging start and Ashley Hemmings delivered an excellent ball into the box, which the Shrimps managed to clear before Billy Bingham had a shot blocked by Mark Hughes.

Morecambe slowly start to gain a foothold in the match and Kevin Ellison tried to test Cousins, but Abu Ogogo deflected his effort wide.

But midway through the first period and the Shrimps did find a leveller through Andy Fleming.

Jamie Devitt fired a weak shot in from outside the area, which Mark Cousins spilled and the ball eventually worked it way to Shaun Beeley. He crossed into the box for Fleming to convert from close range and level the scores with 24 minutes gone.

Daggers responded, though, and Widdowson won a free kick for the away side. However Jamie Cureton fired it straight into the wall.

Burnett’s side continued to attack and Luke Howell combined excellently with Alex Jakubiak before driving into the penalty area. He passed to Ashley Hemmings, in a great position, but he smashed straight at Morecambe’s keeper.

The home team were able to clear away and an excellent chance for the visitors to retake the lead was missed.

Quick thinking from Ellison nearly produced a second for the Shrimps as he passed out to Beeley. He squared for Laurence Wilson, but Cousins brilliantly tipped over the bar.

Both keepers had trouble with balls into the area with Arestidou missing a cross from Andre Boucaud and Cousins dropped a high ball into Daggers area.

But despite some late pressing from both sides, it was level at the break. Morecambe had made their first substitution though, Redshaw replacing Devitt.

Shrimps got the second period underway and though Daggers didn’t score inside the first minute this time, they did get another early goal.

Bingham’s free kick into the area caused all sorts of problems for Hughes, he let the ball drop and Obileye sneaked in behind poked the ball over Arestidou and tapped into the empty net.

It was the Charlton Athletic defender’s first for the club and he had admitted after Tuesday’s draw with Portsmouth he was desperate for a goal and now he had it.

It gave Daggers something to hold onto for the second half, but they weren’t finished there.

Again Bingham was involved making a crunching tackle in midfield before attempting to play in Jakubiak. That ball was blocked, but he passed out to Hemmings.

The wide man raced down the line before crossing in for Cureton and he side footed past Shrimps keeper and into the net to make it 3-1.

Two goals in the space of seven second half minutes had put Burnett’s team in control at Globe Arena.

The 70 Daggers supporters had made an incredible amount of noise all afternoon, but they were singing even louder now and urging their team on.

Morecambe looked to find a way back into the match, but the visitors were defending excellently and continued to dominate possession with Bingham brilliantly in the middle of the park.

It could have been 4-1 nine minutes from time when Jakubiak and Hemmings combined to good effort.

Hemmings raced down the left again and crossed in for Cureton, but despite having almost the whole goal at his mercy. He got his effort all wrong and Morecambe were able to clear.

If the 39-year-old had scored it would have been the 250th league goal of his career and he was visibly gutted.

Yusuff was introduced afterwards and nearly scored a stunning goal a minute from time, but after running past two Morecambe players his effort was blocked.

Scott Doe and Ayo Obileye almost combined to score a comical own goal in the 90th minute, but Cousins was able to make an excellent one-handed save to prevent a horror back pass own goal.

Redshaw did score an excellent individual goal in the third minute of four added on, but it was too little too late.

Daggers secured an excellent win to make it five games unbeaten, one defeat in their last nine matches and more importantly seven points clear of the bottom two.

Dagenham & Redbridge: Cousins, Ogogo, Doe, Obileye, Widdowson, Howell, Bingham, Boucaud (Connors 90), Hemmings, Cureton, Jakubiak (Yusuff).

Unused substitutes: O’Brien, Saah, Chambers, Carr, Jones.

Morecambe: Arestidou, Beeley, Parrish, Edwards (Amond 55), Hughes, Wilson, Goodall, Fleming, Devitt (Redshaw 41), Ellison, Mullin (Sampson 78).

Unused substitutes: Jones, Kenyon, Williams, McGowan.

Attendance: 1,351 (70 Daggers supporters).