Still the place to be if you want to go places, but get in line if you want a coffee

My shout: John Still enjoys living the dream at Dagenham
Andrew Fifield11 April 2012

John Still is trying, not very successfully, to get a cup of coffee. Nobody bumbling around Dagenham & Redbridge's cavernous supporters' bar seems sure how to operate the drinks machine and when Pat, the formidable bar-lady, eventually appears, Still's request is met with the kind of short thrift that only an EastEnder can muster: "I'm busy 'ere, ya know."  Still sighs, but cannot resist a smile. This, after all, is how things are at Dagenham, a club where the familiar trappings of the football lifestyle, the flashy motor, the diamond ear-studs and designer gear, are conspicuous by their absence. Not that anyone is complaining. Dagenham, promoted to the Football League less than two years ago, currently sit proudly at the summit of League Two, peering down at the multi-millionaires from Notts County and the likes of Bradford, a Premier League club as recently as 2001. It is, as Still, their hugely respected manager, points out, "the fairytale that just keeps going and going."  The Dagenham success story is one in the eye for those who claim there is no room for romance in the cut-throat, commercialised world of modern sport. Dagenham's self-imposed salary cap of around £700-a-week is less than half the League Two average; no other Football League club boasts a smaller average gate (1,944) and Still has been forced to sell an entire team in the last two seasons simply to balance the books. Yet still the results keep coming. A win at Accrington left them top of the table and they look like genuine promotion contenders. "We can't make players' dreams come true financially, instead, we can put them in a shop window and provide a showcase for their talents," Still explained. "We identify players who will buy into that and have that attitude and desire to improve. "The culture shock can be startling. Nana Ofori-Twumasi, a teenage defender signed on loan from Chelsea, was duly told to wash his own kit after every training session, a far cry from the molly-coddled existence enjoyed by those who call Cobham's exquisitely-kept playing fields home.

"He thinks it's fantastic," Still said, chuckling.

"He can't believe that everyone talks to you here. We know have created something quite special. It's like a social club and the bar is open every night, people get married here, they have funerals here, birthday parties, everything.

"This club is part of the fabric of Dagenham and there aren't many supporters that I don't know personally." He adds: "I am very happy here. I'm 59 and had a few offers along the way but I don't think I'm ever going to leave now. Why would I want to?"

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