Harrow Borough 0

Dagenham & Redbridge 5

Boro's brief revival was brought to a shuddering halt by third-placed Dagenham & Redbridge on Tuesday in their heaviest home defeat of the season.

Shorn of players by injury and with manager Alan Paris suspended, Boro were ultimately outclassed.

With Darren Coleman and Jeremy Lord, both casualties, Boro fielded another new defensive combination, Darren Gorman and Chris Green.

This left much of the backline responsibility to skipper Kenny Webster, who played well in the circumstances. Goalkeeper David Hook was still sidelined.

Boro had their fair share of the early play, with Mark Xavier and Jon-Barrie Bates creating openings, and a powerful shot from Pat Gavin palmed away by keeper Gothard.

Dagenham defender Matthews was lucky to escape with only a yellow card for a scything foul on Steff McGarrell. From Ekoku's free-kick, Xavier had his shot deflected over the bar by Matthews.

Disaster struck in the 22nd minute when Gorman could only steer a cross from Janney into his own net.

Boro suffered another blow when Gavin was injured and Ian Rutherford took over.

Parratt, denied by the brilliant intervention of Green, put Dagenham further ahead in the 38th minute when his 25-yard shot sailed inside Noel Imber's near post.

Harrow began the second half brightly, with a shot from Bates blocked. But any hope of a recovery was ended in the 59th minute when Shipp's cross sailed over the Boro defence and Cobb was left unmarked at the far post to net with a header.

Though Webster hit a 30-yard drive just wide, it was mostly one-way traffic, and it took a combination of Imber's handling and Dagenham's wastefulness to prevent further goals, until the 68th minute, when Janney fired in the fourth from Cobb's cross.

Though Imber dived to save from Shipp, who had stormed clear, Boro's experienced defenders were losing out in the tackles, and when James did so in the 87th minute, Janney ran on to steer a shot wide of Imber.

A minute later, Boro were denied a consolation penalty when Xavier was tripped from behind by Cole in the box, but referee Torrance waved play on. It was all a far cry from Boro's 2-1 triumph at Dagenham last August.

HARROW BOROUGH: Imber, Ekoku, James, Green, Gorman, Webster, McGarrell, Issott, Gavin (Rutherford), Xavier, Bates.

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