GARRARD PLEASED WITH START

IT WAS a case of two very different-looking sides to the ones who finished last season and both started strongly, if unspectacularly.

Boreham Wood arguably edged the opening exchanges, although the Daggers came closest early on.

Chike Kandi broke away for the visitors with a sight on goal, but he had timed his run too early and was pulled back for offside.

Danny Woodards reacted with a teasing ball into Ricky Shakes, but Elliott Justham just pipped the forward to it and plucked it from his feet.

The second half was a much more exciting affair and the home side started on the front foot, with four corners in the opening 10 minutes.

Their attacking intent was rewarded on the 52nd minute following yet another corner.

Woodards recycled the setpiece down the right to Shakes, whose cross was cutely flicked past Justham by Balanta.

Lemar Reynolds replaced Ollie harfield shortly after the opener and made an instant difference to the Daggers’ attack.

Two edge-of-the-area efforts had to be forced wide by a mixture of Tom Champion and Ryan Huddart.

However, a late red card for Goodliffe would help the Wood over the finish line, following a nasty challenge on Shakes, from the youngster.

Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard said: “Today was all about three points. By hook, or by crook, just get three points.

“That’s all I wanted, to start the season off with a victory.

“I don’t think that they created that many opportunities.

“They threw a lot at it towards the end, as they are going to, but I think that we had in excess of 10 or 12 corners.

“At the end of the day, we won a game of football today and kept a clean sheet.

“To get the clean sheet, I am over the moon with and I think that we looked strong there.

“We have targets where we want to shave goals off our record and add goals on.”

A reflective Dagenham & Redbridge assistant manager Terry Harris said: “Yes, it is disappointing, and certainly because of the manner of the goal.

“It is a bugbear of mine to concede from restarts, which is what we done today.

“Don’t forget, we are coming up a Boreham Wood side who were successful last year and they have actually taken players on board that will make them stronger.

“Towards the end of the game, we started to pick up the pace and we were certainly going for the goal.

“But their goalkeeper has pulled off two very good saves to stop us from getting a goal.”