Roberts keen to keep going
TONY Roberts may be gracing the twilight of his career, but the former Wales international says he has no intention of calling time on the game he loves just yet.
The 38-year-old keeper has been holding back the clock with a string of solid performances for the Daggers this season. And he insists he is happy to keep pulling on the gloves for as long as he is wanted.
"I'll keep doing it until John (Still) says I'm not performing." he said. "I want to go on for as long as I can and I feel good in my body, enthusiasm and attitude.
"I'm getting myself though the training and the games, and I'm still enjoying it which is the main thing."
Roberts - who has won two international caps and played in the Premier League with QPR - has notched up almost 300 appearances for the Daggers in seven years following stints at QPR, Millwall and St Albans City.
He has shown his importance to the club in the past and it is proving to be no different this season, the veteran being a steady hand in a young side struggling to adapt to life in the Football League.
Roberts said: "A lot of the lads haven't played league football but I have played the game for 20 years so I try to offer as help as I can. When the players get excited I try to calm them down, when they need a lift then I give them a boost.
"This season is a learning curve for a lot of them, as it is for the club."
And the Daggers will need to learn fast if they are to overcome a poor spell of results that has seen them pick up just one point from the last six games.
While they remain in the FA Cup following Saturday's win at Hampton and continue to put in performances which are on the whole, good, Roberts feels the Daggers need to start stamping out the inconsistency that has crept into their play.
"One minute we look to have cracked it, then all of a sudden we're getting beat," he said. "We've been playing well in games for 60 or 70 minutes but then conceding sloppy goals and at this level the teams are capable of shutting up shop.
"Last year we were the most organised and fittest team in the Conference but 90 per cent of the teams in this league are the same as us. So it's important we concentrate better because one mistake will cost you."
The Daggers enterain Bradford at Victoria Park in a crunch league fixture on Saturday.
The two teams sit dangerously close to the relegation zone, with the Bantams just one position above and Roberts added: "We had a good result in the cup at Hampton at the weekend and we need to turn that into a good performance against Bradford.
"It's nice being in the cups but we need the points to get back on track in the league."
