DAG & RED 4 EASTLEIGH 0

COREY Whitely bagged his first Dagenham hat-trick as John Still’s side continued their promotion charge with a comfortable victory over a poor Eastleigh side.

Three goals in the space of five blistering first-half minutes – including a first goal back at the club for veteran striker Paul Benson – set the tone for victory before Whitely went on to complete his treble from the penalty spot just after the hour.

Whitely gave Dagenham the lead on 26 minute, after lobbing Spitfires’ Graham Stack from distance. Benson then doubled the lead two minutes later, scoring from a rebound from Luke Guttridge’s shot. Whitely then notched his second and Dagenham’s third on 31 minutes, beating Stack with a near-post effort. Still’s men went for the jugular at the start of the second half when Sam Matthews struck straight from the kick-off but couldn’t get his effort on target.

But, they didn’t have to wait long to seal the game with a fourth – Guttridge going down in the box under Gavin Hoyte’s challenge and Whitely doing the rest from the penalty spot.

A satisfied Still said: “I thought we played better against Forest Green (the Daggers beat them 2-1 last month), but we played well today, I’m absolutely delighted with them. “We can only keep doing what we are doing. I think we’ve come in to a decent little bit of form, but the games are tough now whoever you play.” Eastleigh boss Richard Hill said: “We’ve done so well over the last three games and if anyone had said we’d get 10 points from the last five games, then we would have been happy. “But today was one of those days where our performance, as a group, just wasn’t good enough.”