Daggers are in Shipp shape

Dag & Red 4

Telford 0

(FA Umbro Trophy

fourth round)

A FIRST-HALF hat-trick by Danny Shipp helped fire Dagenham and Redbridge into the last sixteen of the FA Umbro Trophy at Victoria Road on Saturday.

Visitors Telford United, of the Nationwide Conference, had no answer to the Daggers' impressive brand of attacking football and the tie was effectively over at the break with the home side 4-0 ahead.

David Pratt was the other Dagenham goalscorer as Ted Hardy's side sealed a home draw against fellow Ryman League premier division side St Albans City in the fifth round.

Hardy said: "It was a brilliant performance all over. Once we were four up, it was a job to stop and we didn't want to finish for half-time.

"In the first half we were very good and, after the break, we showed a lot of discipline. We didn't concede anything and had the chances to score more goals."

Telford were fielding Scott Huckerby, the brother of Coventry City star Darren, in their line-up but he hardly got a kick as the Daggers dominated from start to finish.

The game was only two minutes old when Shipp grabbed the opener. A Paul Cobb cross was headed back across goal by Gary Howard and Shipp volleyed sweetly home.

Number two arrived after 11 minutes and Cobb was again involved. He flicked on a Paul Gothard goal kick and Shipp ran through to score.

On 35 minutes, Shipp turned creator, picking out Pratt with a raking crossfield ball and his shot beat the Telford keeper via the post for the third.

Dagenham continued to press forward and after 38 minutes, Shipp was able to complete his hat-trick. A Cobb corner was headed down by Lee Matthews and the in-form striker made no mistake from close-range.

The second half was something of an anti-climax for the home fans as the Daggers couldn't manage another goal but they continued to dominate proceedings.

Pratt saw another long-range effort fly narrowly wide and Cobb also threatened to get on the scoresheet but Telford worked hard to keep the score down.

DAGENHAM & REDBRIDGE: Gothard, Cole, Pratt, Howard, Goodwin, Matthews, Broom, Cobb, Shipp, Game, Bird (sub: Terry, 45min). Not used: Blackford, Haywood, Barry, Mas.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000.Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.