No. 58: Victoria Road [Dagenham & Redbridge]

Saturday, 21st November 2015
Dagenham & Redbridge v. Oxford United 0-1 [League Two]

It's been a spartan autumn for 92 blog updates, for a combination of reasons. Mainly me not being in the country. But I was resident and able - so it was time to visit another League ground as the weather turned frozen this past weekend.

There was only one real choice today - to visit the Essex-end of London and take in some more of Oxford's remarkable season so far. Dagenham was the destination, for a visit to the team currently rock bottom of the Football League, Dagenham & Redbridge.

A game in London, especially the eastern side of it, would normally mean a train and tube adventure. But today, The District Line that usually takes you to Dagenham East station was closed. I had a choice of either fucking about with overground trains, buses and taxis in the arctic weather or just hopping in the toasty car and driving around the M25 for an hour or so.

The car won. Having only ever approached Dagenham before from central London, I was surprised at how leafy and rural it was on the approach from the North - via pretty villages like Abridge that I passed through, skirting past the M11 towards Romford on B-roads that passed fields and forests.

Don't be fooled by their beauty though - these forests aren't full of wild boars and faeries. The forests on the North-Eastern outskirts of London are full of dead bodies dumped out of Range Rovers by Essex drug-gangs. That and dogging couples. Best to drive straight on past and not look too closely.

Forests of London: Full of Bodies & Doggers.

There are also the odd mock-Tudor or bright-bricked stone-clad mansion behind 8ft high security gates nestled amongst the fields to remind you that you were in Essex. Homesteads not necessarily all been built on ill-gotten gains or have anything to do with the dead bodies in the forests...but were certainly built with an absence of taste or aesthetic decency nonetheless.

It wasn't long before the fields, forests & fucking gaudy mansions gave way to the city edges and before you knew it I was pulling up outside the ground.

I've been here before of course. My first trip here for an August 2006 game under floodlights being the first away trip of Oxford's 4 seasons of non-league exile. 2,022 souls were in this small ground that night, and it felt like the majority of that crowd were squeezed in together on the tiny four-step open away terrace.

D&RFC - Victoria Road, Dagenham.

Late in that game, a few of the floodlights failed at the other end of the ground, the travelling fans barely able to make out what was going on. It was at that moment time it truly sunk in for me we were now non-league and on a par with teams like Dagenham. We simply had to get the hell out of it and back into the sanctuary of The Football League ASAP.

Dagenham won the Conference that season - so for many of the past 9 years since that first visit Oxford haven't been on a par with them, Dagenham have been the side in ascendency - even going up to League One in 2010 for a season.

1st Half Action, Victoria Road.

The away terrace I once stood on was replaced during their 2009-10 promotion season with the all-seater 'Traditional Builders Stand'. This apart, I can't see anything else has changed at Victoria Road since August 2006, save the sponsorship naming of the ground (The Chigwell Construction Stadium, if you must), and the respective fortunes of the two clubs playing each other this afternoon.

In 2006 Oxford were destined for probably the worst 4 seasons of their existence, dealing with the misery of being unexpectedly outside of League football, whilst Dagenham were embarking on undoubtably the best seasons in their history.

Victoria Road: Minute's Silence for the Paris Terror Attacks.

Now, the tables are turning again - Oxford riding high and strong contenders for the title this season, and Dagenham, who have still yet to win a home game this season, find themselves 92nd out of 92 and clear favourites for a return to non-league after their 10 year adventure with the big boys.

Regular readers of the blog will know I like to get a feel for each town I visit on these 92 Club trips. Sadly, like many suburbs there isn't an awful lot to do or see in Dagenham. Besides which, it was absolutely freezing so I didn't fancy walking up and down the high street trying to find some culture that probably didn't exist.

Dagenham Shops on Rainham Road: Not exciting.

Dagenham basically came of age in the early 30s when Ford moved its motor works plant here (then the largest in Europe) and the bulk of the residential and retail around the ground is from the decades that followed as the plant drew workers in to live nearby.

The only thing that looks like it was built in the last 40 years is the brand new Pipe Major 'pub' on the main road, which unfortunately wouldn't let me sit down for a pint inside unless I ordered one of their meals, which looked to be variations on reformed chicken breasts coated in different sauces and oily cheese, all served of course with ubiquitous chips.

As a general rule, if the pub has a laminated menu with idealised pictures of the food on it, you are probably in for a disappointing meal served by someone who doesn't give a fuck whether you are disappointed with it or not. So I left.

D&R Social Club, Victoria Road.

Only thing to do really with time to kill before the game then was head to D&R's Social Club at the ground - a lively old place that gets packed out before the game as the only viable place to have a drink around the ground - and the club's lifeblood.

I was told that this place is busy most nights of the week with locals, and its steady revenue allows a club that barely pulls in 1,000 people though the turnstiles each week to compete with clubs that have double their attendances at this level.

I met an old colleague who lives in Dagenham in there for a quick few pints. He used to be a Dagenham player shortly before their most successful years, and spent much of the afternoon scouring all the team pictures on the walls trying to find one with him in it. Unsuccessfully, bless him.

Soon it was time to leave the warm comfort of the Social Club and head into the new away stand. This new stand is a carbon copy of many in the lower leagues, holding about 1,200, raised above pitch level and set back a little but steep so the view is still reasonable.

Oxford fans housed in the new Traditional Builders Stand.

I've always thought it odd that a club would stick away fans in its 'best' or newest stand - but considering they were charging Oxford fans £21 for the pleasure of sitting behind the goal when the home fans were paying £18 in the older stand on the side, I can see why - especially as the away fans often make a good proportion of the crowd here. It's a money spinner, innit?

I'd much rather be on the old four-step terrace, personally. But then I'm a miserable old bastard. Despite there being enough space in that stand for 2 seats each for the 680 travelling yellows, there was still some argy-bargy with the stewards over the netting over of about 1/3 of the seats, meaning there wasn't actually enough room unless you wanted to sit right in the corner.

Even the intervention of the Oxford chairman, watching the games with the fans, couldn't change the minds of the stewards. Apparently they wanted the Oxford fans all together. Perhaps they were just trying to keep us all warm in the freezing conditions? That was nice of them I guess.

Victoria Road, Dagenham & Redbridge FC

The game itself, well it wasn't a classic. It always looked like a potential banana-skin for Oxford, the team that haven't yet won at home against one fully expected to beat them. And when Plymouth went 2-0 down, meaning Oxford would gain ground on the league leaders if only they could grab a goal at the League's worst performers, it almost seemed sod's law that they wouldn't.

But, of course they did - thanks to a moment of dead-ball magic from Kemar Roofe.

A late Oxford Attack on The Daggers.

What looked set for 0-0 disappointment for the travelling fans, or a Daggers late winner as they pressed late on, was settled in the end by Roofe calmly slotting a free kick over the wall and into what looked like a momentarily unmanned Dagenham goal as the keeper was left flat-footed by its accuracy.

And so that was that. My toes were freezing and I was trudging out of Victoria Road to my car - probably for the last time for a while, with Oxford and Dagenham looking like they are heading different directions this season.

But football is a funny old game - just look at how different it was 10 years ago. Who's to say I won't be back here in the social club in another 10 years with my mate looking in vain for pictures of himself on the walls again?

Not me, anyway.