Carr in the driving seat at Dagenham

Non-League notebook

Non-League notebook

RUPERT METCALF

Although the GM Vauxhall Conference season is not much more than a month old, the pressure of life at the wrong end of the table has already forced the bottom two clubs to change their manager.

Dover Athletic, who have gained only three points from nine games, turned to Peter Taylor, the former England and Crystal Palace winger and Southend United manager, this week - a few days after Dagenham and Redbridge, one place and two points better off than Dover, installed their new man.

Although Taylor, who succeeds John Ryan, has some non-League management experience, his record cannot compare to the Daggers' choice. Graham Carr, who quit Weymouth to replace Dave Cusack at the east London club, left Kettering in the summer after three seasons in charge there. Before that he managed Northampton, Blackpool, Maidstone, Dartford and Nuneaton.

"Dave Cusack had done a good job but we'd hit bad times," David Andrews, Dagenham's chairman, said last night. "Carr has been successful in the Conference and, given time, we're sure he'll do a good job for us."

Carr has brought in two defenders, Paul Hague from Gillingham and Mark Wells from Scarborough, both on loan. He will not, however, be able to call upon Roy McDonough, the former Colchester player-manager, who was released from his playing contract at Dagenham before Carr's arrival for disciplinary reasons, following several red cards.