Dagenham & Redbridge midfielder Matt Robinson insists it must come within the group as they look to bounce back and start climbing back up the National League table.

Daggers have had a slow start to the new campaign and have seen their chances of being promoted limited although it is still very tight throughout the table.

Daryl McMahon’s men were due to take on London rivals Bromley last night (Tuesday) on the back of a 3-1 defeat to 10-men Notts County.

They face a weekend off then are at home to Sutton United on Tuesday, February 23.

“It has to come from within the group to bounce back, put in better performances and to fight for whatever it is that you are trying to achieve,” Robinson said.

“At the start of the season, the gaffer has set out to get promoted and at the moment that is not how it is looking. But it is only us that can change that.

“We still have got to fight to stay in the division at this point. How it looks right now, that is the first priority.”

Having fallen behind early to Kyle Wootton’s 10th minute strike, Dagenham were gifted a golden opportunity to level the score from the penalty spot, when Notts County ‘keeper Sam Slocombe was red carded for a foul on Darren McQueen.

After the resulting spot kick was missed, and with Notts fielding an outfield player in goal, the Daggers failed to take charge and soon found the game out of reach, going on to lose 3-1.

“I think it goes without saying that the lads were embarrassed by what we put out on Tuesday, especially with the way that the game panned out.

“Being 1-0 down and missing the penalty was quite pivotal but even after that, they (Notts County) showed a lot more than us, in terms of desire to win and all areas defensively and attacking. There is no hiding from that.

“They had an outfield player in goal which obviously is an incentive to attack more and test him, which we failed to do.

“It was not only a failure in the attacking area, we did not manage to get to grips with the system that they changed into. Instead of sitting off, they said we are going to take it to them and inevitably they did. They scored two goals on what were counter attacks, but the defending was not good enough all around. That is not just on the defenders and the ‘keeper, that’s everyone.

“It applies to all of us to instil the work ethic that we have to have. The application to want to defend was not there, which was shown in the result.”