Dagenham & Redbridge boss Ben Strevens expressed his disappointment with his side’s first-half performance as they were made to settle for an underwhelming 1-1 draw with Solihull Moors on Saturday.

Harry Phipps opened the scoring at Victoria Road, just four minutes after the restart before Jack Stevens levelled for the visitors.

However, a wasteful first 45 minutes frustrated Strevens on a day on which he thought his side should have taken all three points.

“I’m disappointed. I’ve got to be honest,” Strevens told the media.

“I’m as disappointed as any game that we’ve lost this season. First half, we missed some real good chances.

"Good goalkeeping - I can’t take anything away from their goalkeeper. Good goalkeeping from him, but I think they’re big chances for us to miss.

"We went 1-0 ahead without being really in control of the second half, if I’m being honest.

“I can’t put my finger on it today, but I’ve told the boys I’m not happy with that performance. I want to be better than that. I want them as a group to demand better than that from each other.”

Despite the sub-par performance, the return of talisman Jake Hessenthaler offered Strevens another lifeline in his pursuit of success in the National League this season as the Daggers boss welcomed the midfielder’s comeback.

“Hess played every minute of every game last year, as you know, and Hilly’s (Ryan Hill) numbers were up there with what Reesy [Josh] and Dion [Pereira] continue to do this year," he added.

"When you take those two boys out of the team, the way Hess nicely controls the game and helps others around him. Like I’m saying, Hilly’s numbers last year were excellent. The goal contributions from him, Reesy and Dion were all top last year, and we’ve been missing them as well.

“I wanted to get them on the pitch. We were 1-0 up at the time. Did that change the game? I don’t think it did, but for whatever reason we thought that was going to be the little spur and bit of life to kick us into gear and really go on in that last half an hour.

“Junior [Morais] and Coxy [Reece Grego-Cox] have put in a good shift, and they played a lot of minutes in the last couple of games, so we thought that bit of energy was coming on.

"It just didn’t quite work out in that way, and they got the equaliser not long after they’d both come on.”

After a midweek meeting with Tottenham U21s in the new National League Cup in midweek, Daggers continue the relentless National League schedule with a long trip to Yeovil Town on Saturday.

Their FA Cup campaign begins a week later (October 12) with a fourth qualifying round trip to former boss Daryl McMahon's National League South Hornchurch or Leiston, who were meeting in a midweek replay after a 1-1 draw last weekend.

Liam Nash put the Urchins ahead just before the hour mark in Suffolk, but Kyran Clements levelled in the fifth minute of stoppage time to set up a second meeting at Bridge Avenue.