STANLEY were denied the victory they deserved on Tuesday night as punch-drunk Dagenham held on for a goalless draw.

The Daggers are still looking to gatecrash the play-offs yet the Reds had them on the ropes for much of the contest.

And although manager James Beattie was disappointed not to claim all three points, he felt all that was missing was the knock-out blow.

“If that was a boxing match it would have been stopped!” he said.

“We said at half-time that we’ve been in this position before. We’ve been dominant and needed a bit of extra quality to finish the game off.

“We went out in the second half and performed even better – I’d love to see the statistics on it.

“The amount of chances we created and the way we played, both defensively and offensively, was tremendous. But football’s all about sticking the ball in the net and I share the lads’ frustration.”

The home side were unbeaten in six coming into the game and in just the second minute, an Ashley Chambers shot was spilled by Marcus Bettinelli but the Stanley keeper managed to gather at the second attempt.The Reds then took charge with James Gray denied a penalty while Adam Buxton drifted inside and saw a deflected shot go narrowly over.

Nicky Hunt then played in Gray, whose shot from a tight angle was blocked by keeper Chris Lewington.

Luke Norris scored a superbly-taken equaliser in Dagenham’s draw at Bury last Saturday and the on-loan Brentford forward tried to repeat the feat, charging forward from midfield before unleashing a 20-yard curler which Bettinelli turned wide. Medy Elito’s 25-yard strike was then easy for Bettinelli but that was all the hosts could muster in the first half as the Reds went agonisingly close to going in front before the break.

Will Hatfield’s cross from deep on the right eluded Lewington and had to be cleared off the line by a Daggers defender, who also managed to block Peter Murphy’s follow-up.

But the hosts only cleared as far as the left wing, where Tom Aldred played it back to Buxton and although his inswinging cross was glanced goalwards by Murphy, Lewington dived to his left to superbly tip it onto the crossbar.

The Daggers rode their luck again on 52 minutes as Stanley almost broke the deadlock three times in quick succession.

Lewington dived at Gray’s feet and the ball broke for Kayode Odejayi, starting in place of Kal Naismith. His volley was blocked and Hatfield had a shot cleared off the line before Buxton fired over from the edge of the box.

Gray then did well to latch onto Odejayi’s flick, only to see Lewington save again at his near post.

But with four minutes left, Dagenham almost snatched victory as Sean Shields put in a hanging cross and the Reds were relieved to see Chris Dickson skew his header wide.

Stanley still nearly won it, though, as Molyneux’s 20-yard strike was tipped over by Lewington in stoppage time.

Stanley: Bettinelli 8, Hunt 8, Aldred 8, Winnard 8, Buxton 9. Hatfield 8, Murphy 9, Joyce 8, Molyneux 8, Gray 9 (Naismith 89), Odejayi 8. Subs: Atkinson, Bowerman, Liddle, Mingoia, Webber, Windass.