Shots boss Danny Searle has again spoken of the importance of strong vocal home support as the club enters its season-defining last ten games.

Aldershot have five games left at the EBB Stadium and five on their travels as they look to secure National League status for next season as quickly as possible.

And Searle hopes as many people as possible will heed the rallying cry to Fill The East Bank in the closing weeks of an intriguing season – starting with the not-so-insignificant visit of Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday.

“The fans are crucial in all of our games,” said Searle, who has been particularly impressed by the level of noisy support at away games this season.

“When you look at the support we had away at Maidenhead, I don’t think it was any coincidence that they were behind us from start to finish in their support of the team and they got a performance out of the players, and the players also gave them something to sing about. It’s a two-way relationship.

“I know the fans will say ‘if they perform, we’ll be loud’ but sometimes we need them to be loud to perform.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve got such a great support that when they are loud we are probably the best in the league from what I’ve seen so far this season.”

And he added: “They will be crucial for every home game. We’ve got some big games coming up and it would be lovely to go unbeaten for the remainder of the season at home with the supporters behind us.”

Saturday’s home clash with Dagenham is particularly intriguing as there are several sub-plots, not least the fact that the Daggers cut the Shots to ribbons in a 6-1 humiliation when the sides met in November at the Chigwell Construction Stadium, but rather than revenge, all the boss is concerned with is picking up three points and moving further up the National League table.

“I’m sure there will be lots of people talking about us getting revenge for earlier in the season, but from our perspective it’s purely about three points on Saturday, and if that’s a crushing home performance and we absolutely batter them to pieces or we get a really late winner, I don’t really care, I just want to win the game,” said Searle.

The Shots found themselves 4-0 down inside 25 sorry minutes on that miserable day in November on Aldershot assistant manager Anwar Uddin’s emotional return to a ground where he spent six successful years as captain, but the optimistic Searle found positives in the wreckage.

“You wouldn’t have wanted to have got beaten the way we did but it helped us to evaluate what we are doing and make little changes,” he said.

“I was obviously very critical of the players but we had to look at ourselves as well and look at our part in that and what we could do to make it better and make sure that games like that never happen again. Did we want it? No. Has it helped us in the long run? Probably, yes. We have taken that on the chin and we’ve built on that and, in my opinion, we have got better and better since that day.”

The facts certainly bear witness to that statement, with Aldershot unbeaten in their past nine games at the EBB Stadium, including a barnstorming 3-2 win against highflying Boreham Wood last time out.

And while the Daggers have had a mini recent revival of their own, including three Essex Senior Cup wins, they find themselves anxiously looking over their shoulder as they sit uneasily in 19th place just one point above the dreaded drop zone.

“Dagenham is going to be a really tough test,” said Searle.

“I don’t think people need to look at their league position and think that means it’s a home banker because when they got beat by Barrow that was their first defeat in six. They’ve got some top players and we need to be at our very best. But as much as we are saying it won’t be an easy game against Dagenham on Saturday, we fully envisage it not being a nice experience for them either.

“We’ve done it a few times at home where we’ve shown that it doesn’t really matter who you are, if we do what we are capable of doing we can cause problems for anybody.”

After Dagenham, the Shots head north on Tuesday night to face FA Trophy semi-finalists Notts County.