York City 0, Dagenham 0

It's one of those unwritten laws of football that when you have one on the bench you're 99 times out of a 100 not going to need him.

But the one time you go without back-up, you're number one custodian is practically guaranteed to lose a contact lens, get abducted by a passing spacecraft or simply poleaxed by the opposition striker.

But not, however, if you're playing York City -- the team with the third worst scoring record in the Conference, who have failed to score in six of the last seven.

Why waste a perfectly good bench place on a 'keeper or even a defender when you're unlikely to come up against any goal-mouth action?

So gambled Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday. And it paid off with a clean sheet and no emergency shirt-swapping required.

But it could have been a different story if Tony Roberts was forced into making more than just the two good saves from 11 on-target efforts.

Darren Dunning manipulated a reactionary save with his legs in the 16th minute after running on to one of Bryan Stewart's many dangerous pull-backs and Roberts just beat Andy Bishop to a dodgy Ashley Vickers' back pass an hour later.

Other than that, he had a pretty easy day at the office.

Dunning's smart curling free-kick eight minutes into the second half had him beat, but whistled round the outside of the top corner.

Meanwhile, Graeme Law epitomised the attacking right-back role, linking up with wing-man Lev Yalcin and insider Kevin Donovan to create a host of neat through balls.

But hitting the target is useless if that target is the goalkeeper as Bishop, Yalcin and Dave Merris all demonstrated.

The main offender though, was Ben Jackson.

Okay, so the sub was never going to rival the entrance made by fellow latecomer Yorkie The Lion, who raced round to the Shippo on a bike on 47 minutes. But he would have been hard-pressed to make a worse impression after missing five chances -- two gilt-edged -- that could have swung the game York's way.

The worst came with just five minutes left on the clock. Donovan lofted in a free-kick to the penalty box, Paul Groves nodded the ball down to Jackson's feet and Jackson, confronted by two yards of fresh air, the goalkeeper and a sizeable view of the net from six yards away, hesitated before scuffing the shot wide of the far post.

Two minutes later, a quick break from a free-kick saw Bishop, Jackson and Stewart three-on-three with the Daggers' defence. Bishop chose Jackson on the left but the 1,800 or so City fans would rather have seen him go right to firecracker Stewart after watching the young 19-year-old Doncaster Rovers loanee's poor shot.

In the City goal was youth trainee David Stockdale, brought in 'to give Chris Porter a break' and audition for a contract next season. The result was a confident performance with positive play in the air and a neat dive to palm away Glen Southam's 91st-minute effort.

Chris Moore rattled the outside of a post on 80 minutes and Stockdale conspired with Steve Davis to clear an 87th minute scramble, Law flicking a follow-up shot over his own bar.

But Stockdale had little else to do in a game where Yorkie's dramatic entrance raised the biggest cheer. Even two penalty appeals for a push on Stewart and a Vickers bear-hug on Bishop were half-hearted at best.

This 0-0 draw may have gone some distance to erasing the nightmare of Tuesday night's 6-0 debacle but won't inspire much hope of a goal-fest at Canvey Island tomorrow.

Their visit to KitKat Crescent in October ended -- yes, you've guessed it -- goal-less.

York City 0, Dagenham 0

Nationwide Conference,

Saturday, April 16, 2005 at KitKat Crescent

Stockdale 7, Law 8, Groves 6, Davis 6, Merris 7, Yalcin 7, Dunning 7, Donovan 8, Stewart 8, Bishop 7, Paul D Robinson 6 (Jackson 67, 5)

Key: 10 - Faultless; 9 - Outstanding; 8 - Excellent; 7 - Good; 6 - Average; 5 - Below par; 4 - Poor; 3 - Dud; 2 - Hopeless; 1 - Retire

Dagenham: Roberts, Flynn (Midson 68), Vickers, Uddin, Foster (Bruce HT), Griffiths, Goodwin, Leberl, Southam, Boot (Mackail-Smith 62), Moore. Subs not used: Lettejallow, Francis.

Yellow cards: Flynn 53.

Red cards: None.

Referee: Jonathan Moss (West Yorkshire). Rating: Hardly noticeable,but missed a couple of off-the-ball incidents.

Attendance: 1,933.

Weather watch: Cool, but dry.

Game breaker: Ben Jackson's two late misses meant City had to settle for a point, but they should have had three.

Match rating: City won the territorial battle but lost out again due to lack of goals. The potential is there.

Player watch

Bryan Stewart

Shots on target: 0.

Shots off target: 2

Blocked shots: 0.

Passes to own player: 8.

Passes to opposition: 3.

Crosses to own player: 1.

Crosses to opposition: 3.

Pass success rate: 60 per cent.

Dribbles ball retained: 6. Dribbles ball lost: 2.

Dribble success rate: 75 per cent.

Headers: 1. Tackles: 0. Offsides: 1.

Clearances, blocks and interceptions: 1.

Free kicks won: 2. Free-kicks conceded: 1. Bookings: 0.

Final summary: Disappeared for parts of the first half maybe due to a lack of match-fitness but still fired in a number of dangerous crosses. He switched to the right in the second half and came alive with the ball at his feet.

Updated: 10:52 Monday, April 18, 2005