Dagenham & Redbridge boss Ben Strevens took some positives from defeat as his side ended their pre-season campaign with a narrow 1-0 defeat to League One side Leyton Orient on Saturday.

The Daggers, recently returned from a trip to Italy for some warm weather preparations ahead of the club’s forthcoming National League campaign, were beaten by Brandon Cooper’s late acrobatic finish with just 10 minutes to play.

In his post-match interview with Daggers TV, however, Strevens showed his eagerness for the new season to start after a summer of gruelling preparation.

“It was a really competitive game of football. Obviously they’re a very good League One side, and they had some good moments in the game that tested us,” he said.

“But I thought we did as well. I thought we did some really good things in the game. Once we started making changes, probably from about 70 minutes onwards, it got a bit frantic and we had more chances and things like that against us, but I’d seen enough by that point.

“I’m just ready to go, you know. Pre-season’s great, but I’m ready for the season to start now, and I have been for a few weeks, but I've seen enough today to be able to show that I’m ready for next Saturday now.”

Strevens’ side begin their 2024/25 campaign as they host Wealdstone at the Chigwell Construction Stadium on Saturday, with the Daggers boss continuing to wrestle with who will make the starting XI for the opening fixture.

“It’s a brilliant headache and a really hard headache for me because it’s great that I’ve got some good options,” he told the club’s media channel.

“I’ve just mentioned to the boys, we’ve got to this stage, but probably next week everyone will be out on the training field. Hilly (Ryan Hill) should be back with us, and Hess (Jake Hessenthaler) should be back with us. Lingy (Sam Ling) just got his first minutes of pre-season now, so that was the aim - to start pre-season getting everyone there.

“It’s been really hard because the boys have missed long chunks of it, so some of them have been behind, that’s why I got them on.

"I probably wouldn’t have changed it as much as I wanted to, but we had to try and get Lingy some more minutes and Josh some more minutes. Junior (Morias) is just coming into the group as well, so we don’t want to go overboard with his minutes and stuff like that.

"It’s been really positive, we've done lots of stuff and lots of hard work. Everything gears towards the start of the season and being ready. Everyone's going to be feeling the same way.”

With pre-season now done and dusted, Daggers have a few days left to prepare for the National League season, starting with Wealdstone on Saturday (3pm).

Strevens' side then travel to Rochdale on August 17, before a midweek trip to Woking just three days later.