Daggers aiming high in new season
Dagenham will seek to build on a solid ninth-placed finish from last season when beginning the new League Two campaign by entertaining Morecambe.
The Daggers were 11 points off the play-off places, but Wayne Burnett will hope to breach that gap after managing to bring in a number of interesting recruits this summer.
Nathan Green, Bradley Goldberg and Frankie Raymond step up from non-league outfits but Burnett has also captured the signatures of several players proven at this level.
Veteran striker Jamie Cureton is now 38 but has scored goals wherever he has been, while Andre Boucaud, Ashley Chambers, Matt Partridge, Joss Labadie, Ashley Hemmings and George Porter also add strength in depth, along with former Colchester goalkeeper Mark Cousins.
Ryan Edwards could miss the first eight weeks of the Sky Bet League Two season and has definitely been ruled out of Morecambe's trip to Dagenham.
The former Blackburn defender, 20, signed for the Shrimps following a loan spell but his first game as a permanent Morecambe player will not come straight away after he suffered a finger injury in a pre-season friendly.
Manager Jim Bentley revealed Edwards had suffered multiple fractures and could not simply play on with the problem.
Otherwise, Bentley has no other concerns and has a larger pool of players to pick from this season as his side prepare to prove the bookmakers wrong once again by avoiding relegation out of the Football League.
Source: PA
