Monday, 5 May 2014

Cheltenham Town 2 Dagenham & Redbridge 3

Ade Azeez sealed a final day win for Daggers and an end-of-season bonus for his teammates.

Charlton loanee striker Azeez knocked in the rebound for his third of the season in the 67th minute after debutant keeper Connor Roberts had done well to push defender Gavin Hoyte's effort from the edge of the area on to the post.

The goal ensured Dagenham finished the season in ninth place and Azeez then revealed:

"A few of the boys came to thank me at the end because they get a bonus for finishing in the top twelve. I don't think I qualify, but they told me they'll spend theirs on a holiday."

And he joked:

"The gaffer said he thinks they'll get about £5.80 each so it might just get them a taxi to the airport." 

Azeez is now hoping to find a new team, but admitted:

"At this time of year there are a lot of very good players out there looking for clubs, but I felt I had to leave Charlton to play regularly against real men rather than Under-21s."

Cheltenham skipper Steve Elliott's headed opener from rookie Joe Hank's free kick was cancelled out by fellow defender Sido Jombati who curled a back pass in from 25 yards to stun Roberts.

Full back Jombati was under no pressure when he overhit a 21st minute right flank back pass to Roberts, but only succeeded in curling past the Wales Under-21 stopper.

Jombati is one of several Cheltenham players who will learn this week if they are to be offered new deals, but boss Mark Yates said:

"The own goal sums us up this season. You'll have to ask Sido what he was trying to do. It was one of the worst I've seen.

"I haven't seen anything like it. We play some good stuff and then throw away the lead. I felt really sorry for Connor. It was a terrible ball.",

Midfielder Richards then restored Cheltenham's lead with his eighth goal of the season in the 24th minute when his low shot from just inside the box deflected off Hoyte and looped over keeper Jordan Seabright.

But central defender Scott Doe opened his Daggers account for the season one minute before the break when he tapped in midfielder Billy Bingham's left wing free kick at the far post.

Delighted Daggers manager Wayne Burnett said: 

"The players never cease to amaze me and have surpassed all my expectations. At one point we had three youth-team players on the pitch and that is fantastic because they are the foundations to this football club.


"We were odds on to go down at the start of the season and we'll probably be odds on to go down next season, but we finished above Portsmouth. Wow! The remit was to stay up and we did that."




No comments:

Post a Comment