Dagenham 0, Wanderers 1,

Wanderers stretched their unbeaten run to eight games after Aaron Pierre struck midway through the second half to down Dagenham at Victoria Road.

After a dull first half the centre back reacted quickest as the ball bobbled around in the penalty area to score the all-important goal after 64 minutes.

The defender came close twice more, from headers, before Joe Jacobson rattled the crossbar with a superb free-kick.

But Daggers came close to snatching a point when Jamie Cureton flicked a shot inches wide of the post in the dying minutes.

Wanderers’ win, coupled with Bury’s postponement, means Blues stay third in League Two ahead of Good Friday’s derby against local rivals Oxford at Adams Park.

Gareth Ainsworth made the bold decision to leave out Fred Onyedinma, who had been looking jaded in recent weeks, and bought Matt McClure into the starting XI alongside local boy Paul Hayes in attack for his appearance since he was sent-off 3.7 seconds after coming on against Tranmere at the start of the month.

Twelve places separated the sides at the start of play but Dagenham are in the midst of a purple patch, having won four of their last five matches, and they had the first effort of the afternoon when Luke Howell sent a half-volley from the edge of the box narrowly over the bar.

Ashley Chambers played three games on loan at Wanderers in 2009 but he didn’t endear himself to the vocal travelling faithful when he threw himself to the floor in the box as Pierre dangled a leg but made no contact with the forward.

Daggers have been a Football League team since 2007, and one of the men who helped them get there, Sam Saunders, nearly created the opening goal as he sent a cross from deep curling invitingly to the back post.

Sam Wood came flying in an effort to get the finishing touch but his lunge left him inches away from making the crucial contact as it drifted out for a goal kick.

The winger had another chance as the clock ticked past 15 minutes this time after a flowing Wanderers move ended with Hayes chesting the ball into Wood’s path, whose shot forced Mark Cousins into a smart stop at his near post.

In victory at Luton on Tuesday night Matt Bloomfield had won a penalty and the midfielder was incensed when Geoff Eltringham failed to award a spot kick when Wood’s cross struck Ayo Obileye on the hand.

The game was in a quiet spell despite the visiting fans, who had almost filled the stand behind Matt Ingram’s goal, doing their best to rouse Wycombe into life.

McClure’s involvement in the first half had been reduced to chasing long balls over the top, often unsuccessfully, but he took the opportunity to run with ball at his feet on the right-hand side before skewing a low shot well wide of the goal.

If Wanderers fans were spoilt for entertainment against Luton four days previously with five goals in the first 45 minutes, then they were being positively starved of action at Victoria Road.

The hosts had posed little threat to Ingram’s goal but they gave the Blues stopper something to think about on the stroke of half-time when Cureton did superbly to turn Ashley Hemmings’ cross goalwards, Ingram had to scramble back on his line but did so and managed to tip the ball over the bar.

It was the first time since playing Cambridge away – nine games ago – that Wanderers had been involved in a goalless first half, and the second started in a fashion which suggested we would still be scoreless at the final whistle.

Long balls were traded between the teams with the offside flag thwarting most attacking moves.

Blues were doing their best to get the ball down but it was proving difficult and the opening ten minutes of the second period had only a McClure snapshot, which rolled harmlessly wide of the goal, to show for it.

Cureton was the hosts’ brightest spark and he put in two inviting crosses which, in his absence in the middle of the box, went uncontested to the visitors’ relief.

Since Sido Jombati was sidelined with an ankle injury before the home game against Shrewsbury, Nico Yennaris has deputised in the right-back berth and he flew down his flank before whipping a ball to the back post where Wood, once again, was just unable to make contact.

Ainsworth recognised his team were lacking a cutting edge going forward and he turned to the man whom he had left out of the starting line-up, Onyedinma, to replace the striker who he had chosen to lead the line.

Neither team had been able to enjoy a prolonged period of pressure but when Wanderers forced the issue just after the hour mark they got their rewards.

The visitors forced three corners in succession, the third of which resulted in Pierre pouncing on hesitation among the Dagenham ranks to poke the ball home from two yards out.

The defender did well to reach the ball ahead of Cousins as Daggers passed up a couple of chances to clear their lines after Saunders had crossed the ball to the penalty spot.

Wayne Burnett, the Dagenham boss, was visibly furious with his players, who seemed to have left all the belief built up by their recent run of good results drift away with the hosts now firmly on the back foot.

A second goal came within a whisker of arriving for Blues with 12 minutes remaining when Jacobson lined up a free-kick just two yards outside of the box.

The left-back ignored the pleas of Saunders before stepping up to send a superb curling shot cannoning back off the crossbar.

The east London natives were growing restless and they were left breathing a sigh of relief as Pierre had a header cleared off the line by Alex Jakubiak before, from the resulting corner, he forced Cousins into a diving save from another header.

A chance to put the game beyond Daggers then fell to Wood who, after Hayes had waited for the right moment to roll the ball invitingly into his path, placed his shot a yard wide of the post.

Blues nearly paid for that miss when, out of desperation, Cousins launched a kick upfield. The ball was aided by the wind and dropped over the head of Alfie Mawson where Cureton was waiting.

The striker pulled the ball out of the air delightfully and his touch set him running into the area where he had just Ingram left to beat. The journeyman forward seemed destined to score but he flicked his shot narrowly wide of the post.

Four minutes of added time were signalled but Blues saw them out untroubled as chants of ‘up the Football League we go’ from the travelling support greeted the final whistle.

Dagenham: Cousins, Doe, Bingham, Cureton, Ogogo, Chambers (Jones), Howell (Jakubiak), Hemmings, Obileye, Boucaud, Widdowson
Substitutes not used: Moore, Doidge, Labadie, Partridge, Gayle,

Wanderers: Ingram, Yennaris, Mawson, Pierre, Jacobson, Bean, Bloomfield, Saunders, Wood, Hayes, McClure (Onyedinma)
Substitutes not used: Lynch, Rowe, Murphy, Ephraim, Holloway, Craig
Goals: Pierre 64,

Referee: G Eltringham
Assistant referees: D Cook and A Crysell
Fourth official: A Aylott