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Dagenham & Redbridge FC unofficial website

The Gaffer

Dagenham & Redbridge FC manager John Still has returned to the club having been the first manager after the merger of the two clubs. 

John played for Ilford, Dagenham, Leyton Orient and captained the 1974 Bishop Stortford team that won the last Amateur Cup Final at Wembley.

Since he's been gone...

It’s now ten years since John left Victoria Road to try his luck in the Football League and he returns today a better and more experienced manager than he left in 1994. Since he left he has worked as a manager, as an assistant manager and as a Director at Football League Clubs and this knowledge can only help Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club reach their aim of a Football League place.

Leaving Victoria Road and arriving at Peterborough in June 1994, he took on the huge task of having to rebuild the Posh. The London Road side had just been relegated from the first division and he did so by making the most of his non-league contacts. In his first season the Posh finished 15th but after an opening day victory in 1995/6, Posh struggled to find form in the league and John left London Road in November 1995.

Almost immediately he took up the position of assistant manager to John Beck at Lincoln City for around a year then succeeded Terry Bullivant as Barnet manager in 1998.

He twice steered the Bees to a play-off slot in three years. In November 2000 John Still Became a director of Barnet Football Club but returned to the managers position to help the Club after the disaster of dropping out of the Football League. Still was building a club capable of regaining their league status when he was offered the chance of becoming Ray Graydon's assistant at Bristol Rovers which he accepted.

During these ten years John became very friendly with a military person called Alex Armstrong and he has taught him new skills in fitness and diet which John feels has helped him in his ability as a manager. John explains, “everyone knows what food they can eat and what food they shouldn’t but it’s about getting balance and fitness right. Every player is different and if a player works as a builder during the day he goes up and down ladders all the time it’s not necessarily fitness he needs working on. In the same way an office worker needs a different type of coaching than a builder. Its all about helping players reach and maintain their potential.”

“The skills I’ve learned from Alex I used on Marlon King. He was talented but wasn’t strong in terms of bodyweight. So we worked on getting him stronger using weights and now he’s a far better player.”

Hopefuly John can use these new skills along with his EUFA Coaching badge he obtained in Summer 2000 to ensure it won’t be long before success returns to the Glyn Hopkin Stadium.

Welcome back John.

Managerial experience

Leytonstone & Ilford (1979 – 1983)
Isthmian League Division One Champions
Isthmian League Premier Division Champions
Isthmian League Premier Division Runners up
Essex Senior Cup Winners
London Senior Cup Winners
Isthmian League Cup Winners

Dartford FC (1983-1985)
Southern League Premier Division Champions
Finished third in Conference

Leytonstone & Ilford (1985-1988)
Isthmian League Division one Champions
Lying fourth in Isthmian League Premier division when he left

Maidstone United FC (1988-1989)
Conference Champions and Promotion to Football League 

Redbridge Forest/Dagenham & Redbridge (1989-1994)
Isthmian League Premier Division Champions
Finished Third in Conference
Essex Senior Cup Winners

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