Burnett praise for Cureton

Dagenham boss Wayne Burnett praised 39-year-old Jamie Cureton after his hat-trick helped Daggers romp past rivals AFC Wimbledon 4-0.

Daggers took the lead after two minutes with a wonderful move involving Andre Boucaud, Billy Bingham and Christian Doidge which ended with Cureton nodding in. And 13 minutes after the break Daggers doubled their lead when Scott Doe met Andre Boucaud's corner and headed in at the back post. Although Wimbledon looked to reduce the arrears in the 71st minute Burnett's team made the points safe. Luke Howell's long pass found Cureton and he fired over Ross Worner to put the hosts three up. There was more to come for Daggers, though, as Alex Jakubiak teed up Cureton three minutes later and he curled into the top corner for his hat-trick. "We started the game very well and scored a goal with a good move, but that was probably all we did in the first half because I felt AFC Wimbledon were the better team," admitted Daggers boss. "But Cureton was brilliant. His first goal was excellent, his second typical Cureton and the third was a really good move and a good finish in the end. "Three very, very good goals and what can I say about him that I haven't already said. "He is a goalscorer and a wonderful finisher. He is a great character to have around the place and if he was 10 years younger I wonder how much money he would be worth? "Jamie wants to score goals, that is what he does and he has managed himself very well and you speak to him and he'll tell you he has changed his diet and changed the way he looks after himself, but we manage him well too." Dons boss Neal Ardley conceded the evergreen Cureton had been the difference between the two teams. "It was 4-0 because the score says so, we wanted to go for it and spark some momentum and we looked at the players we had available and we wanted to try and attack the game," said Ardley. "I thought first half we did that, although we had a crazy two minutes and then how we haven't come in three or four up I don't know. "Second half there is nothing really happening in the game and second week in a row we are relying on people to do their jobs on set pieces and they don't. "The rest of it, whether you are chasing the game or not, it is awful decision making and we folded at that point. "They had a striker on the pitch at 39 and they probably had six chances all game and he took three of them with quality that we didn't have."