A point and a place below Barnet in the League Two standings, Saturday’s opponents Dagenham & Redbridge have made a stuttering start to the new season but the role of underdogs is nothing new to the east London outfit.
The Daggers are currently 22nd in the league with only goal difference separating keeping them clear of Crawley Town in the relegation zone.
Only once since former boss John Still left for a second time in 2013 – having been the club’s first manager between 1992 and 1994 – have the Daggers finished in the top half of League Town.
Still was the man responsible for guiding the club into the Football League for the first time in 2007 and even took Dagenham – formed when Dagenham and Redbridge Forest merged in 1992 – up to the dizzying heights of League One for a solitary season before falling back down to earth with a bump.
Current boss Wayne Burnett, a former midfielder at Leyton Orient, Huddersfield Town and Grimsby Town, took up the reins after Still opted to leave for the then Conference side Luton in February 2013 and was rewarded for keeping the side in the league last season with a new two-year contract in April.
In his first season in charge Burnett kept the Daggers in the Football League – just – with goal difference sending the Bees back into non-league football in their place on a dramatic final day.
Ninth the following season, Dagenham appeared to be going backwards in 2014/15 but eventually finished 14th thanks to a run of seven wins from their final 13 league fixtures.
Restricted by one of the smaller budgets and posting one of the lower average attendances in the division, they are – much like Barnet – arguably punching above their weight by merely surviving at this level.
Just over 1,600 saw a goalless draw at home to bottom-of-the-league Newport County last week, a result which does neither side much good at all.
And speaking afterwards, first team Darren Currie told BBC London: "With the chances we created, certainly in the second half, we're disappointed to have not scored a goal.
"There were words said at half-time, there was no real urgency in the first half.
"We just played at too slow a tempo and didn't really warrant anything out of the first half."
Currie made more than 100 appearances for Barnet as well as turning out for Ipswich Town and Brighton & Hove Albion before finishing his playing career at Victoria Road in 2013.
Burnett, 40, had spells as manager of non-league sides Fisher Athletic – where he won the Southern Football League Eastern Division and London Senior Cup – and Dulwich Hamlet following retirement.
His big break came when he was appointed boss of Conference side Grays Athletic in 2008. Unfortunately his time with the Essex outfit was short-lived and he left by mutual consent halfway through the season and just 23 league games in the hot-seat.
He subsequently joined the Daggers as Still’s number two in 2009 and stepped up to become caretaker following his mentor’s move to Kenilworth Road.
After steering the club to safety by the end of the 2012/13 campaign, Burnett was handed the role on a permanent basis.
Much like their boss the majority of the new arrivals at Victoria Road this summer have been youthful, though the capture of former Sunderland and Watford centre-back Nyron Nosworthy bucks that trend.
The 34-year-old ended last season on loan at Portsmouth from crisis club Blackpool but has spent the majority of his career in the Championship.
A former Jamaican international, Nosworthy won promotion to the Premier League with Sunderland in 2007 and has already established himself as a big part of Dagenham’s regular back four with the rest of the backline far less experienced.
At the other end of that scale is former Wycombe Wanderers striker Matt McClure.
The 23-year-old Northern Ireland youth cap has already netted three times in five league starts – one of those coming against his last club – to earn his new side four points.
Dagenham picked up their only win of the season so far on the road – 2-1 at Northampton Town – but have only last one of their last five home or away.
Dagenham & Redbridge XI v Newport County (19.9.15): O’Brien; Passley, Nosworthy, Obileye, Widdowson; Hines, Boucaud, Ferdinand, Hemmings; Doidge, McClure.
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