Four of us set off from South London for a doubleheader on Tuesday to East London/Essex.
The first port of call was Romford Dog Track for an afternoon race meet and a few beers before the main event at Dagenham and Redbridge for their National League match against Aldershot Town.
Before jumping on a bus from Romford train station to the track, I bought a cheese and pickle roll from a Cafe on the high street. To my surprise, they had no clue what Branston Pickle was! So after trying to explain and a few minutes of them searching through a fridge, a jar of Branston was located; worryingly, for me, it was a jar that would look more at home on an episode of the Antiques Road Show!
They say betting is a mug's game, and after watching 11 races where the four of us didn't have 1 winner, the phrase was at the forefront of my mind, along with the Branston coming back to haunt me at some point!
Studying the form didn't work, using combinations that my Granddad used to use were fruitless, and even dog names with a football link didn't work; I honestly thought Crafty San Siro would save the day! It obviously didn't 😂
So, with the last race imminent with only 5 dogs and a vacant trap 4, I settled on Trap 6; my three mates did 3 & 6, 3 & 5, and 1 & 6; yep, you guessed it, trap 2 romped home! 😂
That said, it was still a great way to spend the afternoon before the Daggers match which was only a short bus ride away and the bonus was I didn't end up in a trap myself with Branston's Curse potentially being the only cert of the day!
Onto the main event at the Daggers Victoria ground which was the first visit for the 4 of us to the club that was formed in 1992 through a merger of Dagenham and Redbridge Forest.
It was a reasonable £17 to get into the terraced stand, and some 50/50 half-time draw tickets were bought along with a few golden goal tickets in the desperate hope of winning some money back!
My first impressions of the stadium were a good one, a compact stadium that holds 6,078, although the attendance was only 1,210 tonight, probably due to the recent poor form of both sides; there is terracing along one side of the pitch and behind the goal, which was mirrored by two impressive seated stands on the opposite sides.
Before kick-off, it was time to get some food to soak up the copious amounts of alcohol consumed drowning our sorrows at the dog track and a quick pint in the big clubhouse at the ground, Julie's Fast Food Bar hit the spot in the home end with a reasonably priced Cheese, Bacon and doubled burger for £6 and the obligatory cup of Bovril to warm the cockles on a cold November evening.
Onto the match, Aldershot looked the more threatening side with a few good chances and hit the post twice, with the home fans getting restless with their defence, who looked as tired and lethargic as the greyhounds we had bet on a few hours earlier!
Half time came, and now we were all ears for the 50/50 draw, although deep down, we knew we weren't going to win; after ripping up our losing tickets, LOL, we took our places back on the terrace for the second half and would you believe it? The Daggers won a penalty bang on 49 minutes to the glee of one of us who had 49 minutes on the golden goal tickets!
Sadly, in true fashion and cementing our bad run of luck on the day the stadium announcer said those fatal words, 1-0 to Dagenham scored by Pereira on 52 minutes!
😂😂😂 you couldn't make it up!
The previously lethargic Daggers were now oozing with confidence and playing well, and then Aldershot imploded in the 57th minute by going down to 10 men. Their fate was sealed with a wonderfully well-taken goal just a minute late scored by Luca Woodhouse, which, unusually for me, I managed to catch on camera!
Dagenham then wrapped up the 3 points on 77 minutes with a third goal... well, that's what we thought! Aldershot, to their credit, kept battling and got one back in the 83rd minute and then, in the 91st, added a second!
The Shots almost clinched a late draw in injury time with 2 more chances with them going all-out attack albeit with a player disadvantage.
The referee finally blew the whistle to bring an end to a very enjoyable second half and it was three points to the Daggers!
All in all, it was a great day out despite the losses at the dogs and a thoroughly enjoyable Tuesday night out with a few mates.
Best of luck to Dagenham and Aldershot for the rest of the season!
On a sad note, I've been put off Branston Pickle for life! Oh, and gambling, but that's a good thing I guess👍🏻
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