Daggers boss aware of Bromley threat; Balanta out for season

Daggers travel to Hayes Lane on Saturday to face their fellow play-off hopefuls, who have gone nine league games without a win but sit just two points behind McMahon's men with two games in hand.

FA Trophy finalists Bromley go into the game on the back of a midweek loss at lowly King's Lynn, while Daggers were held to a goalless draw by Boreham Wood.

And McMahon told the club website: "We know Bromley is a tough place to go, they're a very good team, they're having a good season as well.

"They will also be aware that we're a tough team to play against. All season we've been very, very competitive, whoever we've played against, win, lose or draw.

"We know we'll have to go there, play well, defend our box well, they've got a real threat with Cheek, James Alabi, Louis Dennis. They've got lots of good attacking players, Corey Whitely.

"We've got to defend properly but we've got to make sure we don't let them influence our game as well."

Daggers sit in ninth place, six points off a play-off spot after taking just four points from a possible 12 in recent weeks.

But McMahon was looking at the positives ahead of tackling Bromley on their 3G pitch, adding: "It is what it is, we know it's going to be flat, which is always nice.

"We know we'll be able to pass on it, depending on the weather and if they water it, it could be dry. We'll just have to adapt to it whatever happens on Saturday.

"We've had five clean sheets in seven games now and playing against Boreham Wood, in terms of the state of the season we're at now, you would've wanted to win, but the result in isolation is not a bad result against a very good team who are having a really good season as well.

"The defensive structure in the last seven games has been very good and we look to continue that until the end of the season."

After facing Bromley, Daggers take on Barnet, Aldershot, King's Lynn and Wealdstone over the rest of April, who are all currently in the bottom eight.

It certainly looks like a run of games where they can get their promotion push firmly back on track and McMahon said: "We've got to look to finish as high as we can. We've had a good season I believe, we've improved on what we were doing last season. Have we improved enough to be where we want to be? We'll find out in eight games time.

"For us, we're going to enjoy the last eight games, if it is eight games. Attack them and try to win a lot of them and be on the front foot.

"I believe we've had a good season so far, but we want to have a very good season and we'll see in eight games if we can get there. I'm sure the likes of Bromley will be thinking the same. We look forward to the game Saturday."

Elliott Johnson trained on Thursday after illness, but Dean Rance remains a doubt for this weekend and Angelo Balanta is out for the season.

McMahon explained: "He's got an 18cm tear in his hamstring, so he'll be out for quite a while, the same hamstring he injured in the first game of the season against Stockport.

"We're devasted for Ang, he's worked to get over his injuries and he's had a tough year. On the pitch for us he has been fantastic, I think he's hit his best numbers in terms of goals per games this season (eight in 23 appearances), but we've just not managed to get him on the pitch enough.

"We have missed him, but it's tough for him as well mentally, to go through what he has gone through with all the injuries."

With it only being a short trip over the QE2 Bridge to south London, McMahon is hoping plenty of Daggers fans travel to watch Saturday's match and thanked the supporters for their ongoing loyalty.

He said: "The fans have been terrific this year. The support the fans have given us, we appreciate the ones who travel around the country to watch us as well as the fans at home.

"We hope they enjoy watching us play and watching some of the players develop as well.

"We hope they're there Saturday, getting behind us, and we hope to give a good performance as well they can be proud of."