Crawley Town 2 Dagenham 0

Last updated : 30 August 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Crawley bounced back from Saturday's 4-0 drubbing at Accrington Stanley with a comfortable home win against former leaders Dagenham & Redbridge.

Charlie MacDonald scored his fourth goal in five games to put the Reds ahead just after half-time and Ryan Palmer sealed the points on the hour mark.

Crawley had the better of the first half and thought they had taken an early lead.

MacDonald beat visiting keeper Tony Roberts from close range, but his strike was ruled out for offside.

Danny Davidson almost gave Crawley the lead on 22 minutes when he fired over after being left unmarked at the back post from a cross by Adrian Deane.

Mark Janney missed Dagenham's best chance of the first half when he volleyed wide from five yards when it looked easier to score.

Neil Jenkins was guilty of missing an equally good chance for Crawley. The former Southend pro was left all alone inside the six-yard box and was picked out by a cross from MacDonald, but he missed the ball completely.

Reds should have gone into the break ahead with Jenkins again guilty of wasting a gilt edged chance.

The left winger exchanged passes with MacDonald to run clean through on goal only to see his finish blocked by Roberts.

Crawley finally broke the deadlock three minutes after half-time when Jenkins squared the ball to MacDonald, who took a touch before sliding a left0foot shot under Roberts and into the bottom corner.

The Daggers almost hit back soon after when a free-kick by Glen Southam came back off a post.

Crawley made things safe on 61 minutes when Charlies Mapes floated in a corner for the unmarked Palmer to head home powerfully past Roberts, who got a hand on the ball but could not prevent it going in the top corner.