West Ham throws Dagenham & Redbridge a lifeline

West Ham United are set to play a friendly as a fundraiser for one of their non-League neighbours.

East London National League club Dagenham & Redbridge is currently in serious financial trouble this season after narrowing missing out on a chance to go into the Football League in the playoffs, losing to eventual promoted club Forest Green Rovers in the first round.

Dag & Red spent nine seasons in the Football League after being promoted in the 2006-07 season and they even were in League One for two seasons, but they were unable to consolidate their position in the League, and were relegated after the 2015-16 season. Despite having a successful season last year, they fell short of promotion, meaning that they were going to face a difficult year this season.

Dagenham & Redbridge need an immediate influx of cash in order to stave off liquidation, and West Ham staging a friendly on 21 March in order to help raise funds is a grand gesture by the Premier League team. While West Ham have seemingly lurched from one public relations crisis to the next this season, doing a simple thing like helping out a local club survive seems almost quaint.

The match is set to take place at the home of Dagenham & Redbridge, Chigwell Construction Stadium in Dagenham. The details of the match, per the Daggers official website:

We are delighted that the management of our nearest Premier League team, West Ham United, have agreed to support the cause by fielding a team comprising first team squad members in a friendly game at the Chigwell Construction Stadium during the forthcoming International break. Our thanks to David Sullivan, David Moyes and his team for this fantastic gesture and their help.

The game will take place at 7.30pm on Wednesday 21st March 2018.

We have been able to agree good value ticket prices, and are hoping this will encourage a bumper crowd to turn out for the game.

So please come on down to the Chigwell Construction Stadium for an additional night of football. Bring a friend, or two, or more and we can use the gate takings to help get us back on track.

Terrace tickets are only £10, and seats are £15, so you can’t beat the prices to see East London’s finest take on one of their neighbours in an effort to keep the Daggers afloat. Supporting grassroots football and local Non-League sides such as Dag & Red are the least that the big clubs can do, since almost every club has at least one or two players on their roster that came through a non-league club, either signing a youth contract, spending time on loan, or as a permanent signing before they were discovered by a bigger club.

So check out it out when the Hammers take on the Daggers, and who knows, maybe one of the players at Dag & Red could suit up in the Claret and Blue for West Ham one day.