Dagenham & Redbridge make the short trip to Barnet on Monday afternoon possessing one of the four remaining 100% records in the National League.
While the Bees are without a victory from their opening two fixtures, they have faced promotion contenders Notts County and Solihull Moors.
Match preview
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Having joined a club which finished bottom of the National League table in 2020-21, recently-appointed boss Harry Kewell will naturally have higher expectations for the new campaign.
Conceding five second-half goals at home to Notts County would have set alarm bells ringing behind the scenes ahead of the visit to Solihull over the weekend.
However, Kewell was reassured with a much-improved performance, Daniel Powell netting an equaliser 10 minutes from time to secure a 1-1 draw.
After spending much of his career in the EFL, the acquisition of the 30-year-old is regarded as somewhat of a coup for a club who only avoided relegation to the sixth tier due to coronavirus-related reasons.
That said, this feels like a fresh start for Kewell and the Bees, albeit a difficult one given the confidence of their next opponents.
Dagenham's 12th-placed finish last season did not tell the whole story with 22 points being collected from their closing 10 fixtures.
When adding the fact that they scored for fun during pre-season into the equation, few people were surprised when they made a mockery of Stockport County's outstanding home record from the last campaign.
Scoring three goals in 19 minutes at Edgeley Park was followed by four more against Bromley, Josh Walker and Matt Robinson adding to their strikes from the previous week.
Even though Daryl McMahon will be disappointed with the three goals which have been shipped at the other end, this Dagenham outfit look strong contenders to end their stay in non-league at the sixth time of asking.
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Team News
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Kewell is expected to make at least one alteration to his Barnet XI after Sam Beard needed to be substituted during the early stages of the Solihull game.
Jordan Thomas should come into the team at full-back, while Ephron Mason-Clarke is an option further forward after making an impression as a substitute.
Josh Doherty is available again after serving a one-match ban for a professional foul on the opening weekend.
With Myles Weston having made an instant impact versus Bromley, McMahon must decide whether to hand a recall to the Dagenham winger.
Mauro Vilhete could drop out of the team to accommodate the inclusion of the 33-year-old in what may be the only change to the starting lineup.
Barnet possible starting lineup:
Sargeant; Sesay, Taylor, Richards-Everton, Thomas; Granville, Brundle; Powell, Flanagan, Tasdemir; Bloomfield
Dagenham & Redbridge possible starting lineup:
Justham; Wright, Johnson, Reynolds, Ling; Sagaf, Jones, Robinson, Weston; McCallum, Walker
We say: Barnet 1-1 Dagenham & Redbridge
Despite their contrasting fortunes over the opening two weekends, we feel that this will prove to be a competitive fixture. Dagenham deserve to be regarded as the marginal favourites, but Barnet could build on the improvements that they made against Solihull.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Dagenham & Redbridge win with a probability of 62.5%. A draw had a probability of 20.9% and a win for Barnet had a probability of 16.62%.
The most likely scoreline for a Dagenham & Redbridge win was 0-2 with a probability of 10.71%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (10.67%) and 1-2 (9.93%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (9.89%), while for a Barnet win it was 1-0 (4.93%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 10.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 0-2 win for Dagenham & Redbridge in this match.
