IT MUST be difficult for the Daggers faithful to sing that they're just a "Pub team from Essex" while their tongues are so firmly in their cheeks, writes Jackie Bass.
And Josh Scott is keen to set the record straight that the non league days are long gone. As League One beckons with a day out to Wembley next Sunday, Scott has hit the ground running at the perfect time as the Daggers make a bid for their second promotion in three years
They say that confidence plays a major part in a striker's game. In Scott's case he can ask for no more than having scored four goals in last week's first leg semi final against Morecambe.
And he's not the only one who's on a high at the moment. The air at the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Stadium is so thick with team spirit right now it threatens to choke you. And woe betide anyone who attempts to come between the Daggers and victory .
Scott explained: "Everyone is buzzing, every day you come into training and everyone is happy. It's the best team spirit I've ever experienced. There's nothing out there similar to what we have, it's an amazing sense of togetherness and no one can come between what we have.
"There's been no celebrations yet though, we had a few drinks after the game at Morecambe but that was it.
"We're in as usual, we'll be having Sunday off, but it's business as usual. I don't think the gaffer would have let us put our feet up. Even after the first leg he made sure that we still knew there was a job to do. As much as at the back of our minds we knew that the job was as good as done, there were still 90 minutes to get through."
Not so long ago, the Daggers were known for FA Cup runs and giant killing. The TV cameras and Fleet Street's finest would descend upon twee little Essex and pun their way through their match reports. Tim Cole would 'butcher' his man and Ashley Vickers would 'teach' strikers a lesson. There would be a pat on the head for the pub team and then when the FA Cup bubble burst, it was back to business as usual with press box attendances back to normal.
But now? After Sunday? Who knows? It could well be Dagenham that become the giants that the minnows one day look up to. Forget David and Goliath, more like Dagenham Dave becomes Goliath.
Scott concurs: "Everything is run like clockwork, we're not a non league club any more, we are run professionally, by professionals. We train in exactly the same way as any other club would and we're run in the same way, maybe on a smaller budget, but that doesn't seem to have hurt us at all."
First however, there is a small matter of a game at Wembley. One minor stumbling block on the way to the promised land, one massive day out for the minnows of yesteryear.
"It will be a massive day for us all. Emotions will be running high and I dare say there will be a bit of nerves, but that's to be expected and we will thrive off of that.
"We will prepare in the same way as any other game. We know there's a job to be done and every man knows what he has to do.
"You read about these things and it would just be amazing. We were relegation candidates at the start of the season and we've proved everyone wrong. We always knew that would never happen. We knew we had enough to go for promotion and that belief is still very much alive."
