Dagenham & Redbridge boss Daryl McMahon said his side were 'absolutely incredible' in the first half of their 7-3 win over Barnet.

Junior Morias fired a 12-minute hat-trick to help Daggers into a 5-0 lead by the break, with Paul McCallum and Myles Weston also on target.

But Barnet hit back with a Daniel Powell double and Callum Reynolds own goal after restart to set nerves jangling.

"We were incredible in the first half, absolutely incredible. It could've been any score at half time if I'm being brutally honest," McMahon told the club website.

"We got in numerous times, we were terrific in our play. The second half, the first 15 minutes, we reacted poorly to the goal.

"We said to the players, you concede one, I know you're still four goals up, be compact, be defensive, be tight, don't give them a leg up, we know they've got good players, playing without any care really if I'm honest.

"They're effective players, they've got goals in them. We made it a game of basketball for 15-20 minutes where we were too open, when we should've killed it, made it tight, made it compact.

"They were always going to score again, we probably created the same amount of chances as the first half."

Elliot Justham, having denied Ryan De Havilland with a fine save to protect a 1-0 lead, produced another stunning stop to thwart Wes Fonguck when it was 5-3.

And McMahon praised his goalkeeper, while also revealing his regret at not making half-time changes.

He added: "He's always impressive, he's the best goalkeeper in the league, I say it every week.

"The save at 5-3 to keep it at 5-3 not 5-4. It was a big save.

"I wish I'd made subs. I probably should've just put three fresh legs on straight away.

"My thinking behind it was lets not make three subs and everybody's starts relaxing.

"Defensively, and I'm not blaming the back three or our goalkeeper or wing-back, we were just too open and you've got to react better to those situations.

"It's a hell of game to be involved with and as good as we were going forward we showed some flaws defensively that we haven't seen, because we've been defending really well as a group.

"I'm sure everybody enjoyed it, I'm sure they had a bit of a panic in the second half, but the players showed their qualities."