Non-League and Academy football writer

Chris Mascall is the manager of step 8 non-League club Dagenham United, as well as being the club chairman of the adult section of the club, and he is also a player for Dagenham United’s first team. Dagenham United were founded in 1961, and the club’s men’s first team will play their football in the Essex Alliance Premier Division (East) for the 2024/25 season, having finished in third place in that league last season (2023/24), just two points off one of the promoted sides from that division – Ongar Town. Dagenham United are a club who have been at step 7 of the non-League system in the past, and returning to that level is clearly a real aim of the club.

With real experience in football, Chris Mascall was only recently awarded FA coach of the year. And in the past he has also been awarded prestigious awards, such as FA Highly Commended Coach, in 2022. I recently had the great pleasure of speaking to Chris, about some of his memories (so far) of being at Dagenham United, as well as looking ahead to the 2024/25 season. He has made a really good impression during his time at the club, so far.

Could you talk me through a bit about your footballing background, prior to joining Dagenham United?

Chris: So for myself I did the whole academy route, and I also worked my way through non-League, playing at every step, bar 6. I quickly fell out of love with football, as it was hard going from that academy background where you’re told what and when to do things, five or six days a week, and then you’ve gone from there to non-League football. All of a sudden you go from being one of the bigger and stronger players in academy football, to being a small fish in a bigger pond, so to speak. I think that it was that amalgamation of different managers and stuff, that really sort of pushed me into wanting to manage. As I wanted to take all of the things that I’d experienced as a player, both good and bad, to really help players that I would coach/manage.

The chairman of the youth team section at Dagenham United, his son is a friend of mine. He messaged me saying that I should come over to the club as I’d enjoy being there. So I came down to the club as a player. I became captain of the team straight away and I was enjoying playing, and then at the end of that season I was asked to take over the first team role. I was still quite young at the time, so I told them that I still wanted to focus on playing. So it became me taking charge of the reserve team, when we were in Division four, with only about 12 players to start the season with. From there we kept on building and building, and then in the following season I took on the first team manager’s role as well.

Having taken over the first team at the club, I also became the chairman of the senior section of the club.

Would you able to talk me through a bit about the history of the club (Dagenham United FC)? 

Chris: Dagenham United were founded in 1961, and they are probably one of the biggest clubs in the borough. We’ve got 29/30 teams at the club, and we won FA Charter Standard club of the year in 2010. Things were really looking good for the club with investment planned for the club and improved facilities also planned, but then Covid hit, and that really set the club back a couple of years. We don’t have a home base as such for the club, and the club has had to play at different grounds, but we’ve got to try and make both sections of the club closer, going forward.

What did you make of Dagenham United’s 2023/24 season, in the Essex Alliance League Premier Division (East)?

Chris: It was a real mixture of emotions, to be honest with you. It was very frustrating for us in the end, as we missed out on promotion by only two points, and that was because Ongar Town, who had been in third place, were awarded three points by the league. So going into the final game of the season we were promoted, and then Ongar were awarded the points from a fixture, which was difficult for us to take. As for the season itself, we started the season slowly, and it was a big transition for us having dropped down at the end of the previous season. So we started slowly and also got too many draws, but then again we only lost about two or three games in total last season.

From last Christmas onwards we went on this incredible run, going unbeaten in 13 out of 15 games. At one point we had eight clean-sheets and had scored 49 goals in ten games, and so we really went on a good run.

What did you make of the 2023/24 Essex Alliance League Premier Division (East) season as a whole?

Chris: I think that to be fair, the quality of the division is a lot better than it is given credit for. It’s got better and better ever year since we’ve been involved in the league, whereas in the past you’d have three or four teams who you knew you’d win comfortably against, but in the Premier East it does seem like any team can beat anyone, on any given day, even teams at the bottom of the table. So it was a really competitive season, last season.

Since you’ve been the manager of the first team, who would you say has been the most difficult team that Dagenham United have faced?

Chris: I would say FC Petrocub. When we played them in the season before last, we beat them in one of the games, but in the other game they were absolutely fantastic. We were just chasing shadows in that game and we knew that we’d been beaten by the better side, that day. In footballing terms they are up there with the best teams that we’ve played.

For those who haven’t seen Dagenham United’s senior men’s team play before, how would you describe their playing style?

Chris: So we play very high and wide, with our wingers and our forwards. Defensively we’re very, very solid, and we like to keep nice and tight on the pitch. Possession doesn’t bother me at all, as there’s no point having the ball for 70/80% of the game, if you’re not going to do anything with it. So we’re quite happy to sit in and soak up the pressure, and then hit teams on the counter, and that is how we win our games. We get a lot of the usual stick from some teams, that this isn’t football, but it’s effective and it works. I think that this Euros has been a perfect example of teams keeping the ball for 75% of the game, and then doing nothing with it.

Could you talk me through some of your standout memories of being the manager of Dagenham United, so far?

Chris: Literally in the past week I was awarded FA coach of the year, which was really nice on a personal note, and being nominated by the other players and coaches is a real highlight. In terms of highlights for the actual club, I’d say that it’s the sheer amount of progression that we’ve made, going up through the divisions, from Division Four, all the way to the Senior Division. Obviously dropping out of that division was hard to take, but we probably got promoted to that league just a season too early. But during the season just gone, the idea was naturally to go back up to the senior division, but to lose out on that by two points, to a team who has been awarded points, is hard to take.

How much are you looking forward to the 2024/25 Essex Alliance League Premier Division (East) season? And also, what are some of your thoughts ahead of next season?

Chris: I can’t wait to start next season, and retention wise for players it’s been fantastic this summer, with the lads having really bought into the project at the club. Again the aim is obviously promotion to step 7, and I I’m currently working  through my UEFA B license at the moment and that’s something that I’m hoping to complete this season. But we just want to keep on growing the club more, and ultimately we want to become one of the biggest clubs in the borough, with Dagenham & Redbridge obviously being the professional club in the area. As a club we basically want to go as far as we can, and in five/six years we’ve gone from the bottom of division four to step 7, and we just want to see how far we can keep on pushing.