Warren Hackett delighted with Dagenham progress

The Daggers eased to a 2-0 win in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy courtesy of first-half goals from Ashley Hemmings and Matt McClure, sealing their first competitive win of the season.

"It's been coming," Hackett reflected afterwards. "I know it's not a league game but every game counts and certainly the win counts.

"If a team's behind at half-time they're going to have a go, and Cambridge were at home. They weren't very effective in the first half but they tried to have a go second half and they threw the kitchen sink at us for small periods, but we still created a lot of chances to sew the game up."

Referring to his side's winless start to the League Two campaign, Hackett added: "The confidence has been there.

"I think in the Wycombe game we gained lots of confidence and on Saturday in the first half I thought we played very well.

"We just need to piece it all together and have a good 90 minutes rather than just 45 minutes. There's lots of confidence going into the next games, which will be tough against Northampton and Carlisle."

"All those boys who came in tonight were excellent and have all got every opportunity to stake a claim in the starting line-up on Saturday."

Cambridge boss Richard Money felt his side's performance demonstrated why some of the players he selected do not feature more regularly, having made seven changes to the line-up that draw at Barnet on Saturday.

"It's very important to give players who haven't played an opportunity to start," he said.

"When you keep doing that there's an element where they still look like strangers. But having said that the first half wasn't good enough, clearly.

"I thought we gave it a bit more of a go in the second half and might have got back into it, and when you're chasing it like that in a cup tie you might lose another goal.

"I think it's very important when you're the manager, when people knock on your door and ask why they're not playing, you need a valid reason. I don't pick the team at the end of the day, the players do. It's nights like tonight where they make your job a little bit easier.

"One or two individuals at the minute are struggling. We have to be patient and we have to give them some help, but I think everybody knows that most of our best players were sat in the stand tonight.

"No one can bang on my door and say that we haven't given them the opportunity."