Saturday 7 February 2015 19:53, UK
Dagenham boss Wayne Burnett hailed veteran striker Jamie Cureton after his two-goal blast defeated fellow strugglers York.
Cureton, 39, produced a quality finish in each half as Dagenham won 2-0 and opened up a five-point gap on their hosts who have now slipped into League Two's relegation zone. The Minstermen are still searching for a first win in 2015 and have netted just once in their last six matches. Cureton's performance also cushioned the blow of losing last season's top scorer Rhys Murhpy, who completed a deadline-day move to Oldham. A delighted Burnett admitted: "I'm very pleased because we've had a tough week losing Rhys Murphy. Everyone's delighted for him but we've had to move on and we've come here and got an absolutely fantastic result. "What can I say about Jamie Cureton that I haven't already? His movement is up there with the very, very best. "He is a nightmare to play against because he plays right on the shoulders of the defenders and you don't know where he is from a defensive point of view. "He's been a little bit disappointed in himself recently, because he's wanted to score more goals but I'm sure he'll be a lot more pleased now. "He's not only a top, top player, still, but he's always a great guy to have around. He will continue to score goals because his movement is just absolutely superb. "We could have come in maybe another goal up at half time. The only disappointment was that we weren't switching on quickly enough from set pieces. "We spoke about it at half time though, and the players have given me a fantastic response." Ex-Norwich and Bristol Rovers striker Cureton opened the scoring in the 19th minute when he rode a Keith Lowe challenge after latching on to Billy Bingham's through ball and confidently curled a 10-yard shot into home keeper Bobby Olejnik's bottom left-hand corner. After striking partner Alex Jakubiak was then denied in a one-on-one situation against Olejnik, Cureton doubled the Daggers' advantage when he broke the home offside trap to lob expertly over the on-loan Peterborough keeper following Ayo Obileye's long ball forward. York's best chance of a consolation saw substitute Jake Hyde's header cleared off the line late on but home boss Russ Wilcox pulled few punches with his post-match verdict, saying: "We were nowhere near good enough and I really feel for everybody at the football club. "It's down to me to sort things out and I won't hide away from that or blame other issues. We have got to be better as management, staff and players because if we lose our Football League statues that affects everybody in the city. "We've got 17 games to put that right and I am hoping that, by going in the bottom two, reality will kick in because it needs to."
