Andy Carroll made his Dagenham & Redbridge debut on Tuesday, a matter of days after signing for the non-league club
Former Newcastle United forward Andy Carroll
Former Newcastle United forward Andy Carroll (Image: Getty Images)
Former Newcastle United forward Andy Carroll suffered a horror start at his new club, after Dagenham & Redbridge were thrashed 5-1 against Crawley Town on Tuesday.
Carroll, 36, signed for Dagenham, who play in the National League South - the sixth-tier, on Saturday after leaving French side Bordeaux at the end of last season. Three days later, the Gateshead-born striker made his debut for the Daggers but couldn't prevent them from a crushing loss.
He came on as a substitute around the hour mark when his team were 2-1 down, with Harry McKirdy and Harry Forster scoring for Crawley. However, matters got even worse for Dagenham, who conceded three more times, as Trialist netted a brace and Reece Brown scored the other for Crawley.
It marked Dagenham's second loss in three matches at the start of pre-season. They began with a 3-0 defeat to seventh-tier Aveley but bounced back with a 1-0 win at Sittingbourne, who play in the eighth-tier.
Ex-Newcastle ace Carroll completed the move to east London on a free transfer, penning a three-year contract. Speaking to Sky Sports after he was confirmed as a new Dagenham player, Carroll said: "It doesn't matter the level, or anything, as long as I get on the pitch and play football, that's all that matters.
"Coming here and showing people I am just playing for the love of football rather than the money and the level is something I wanted to do. This is something which could be fantastic.
"We have a project to get them out of non-league and back up the leagues."
Carroll started his career at Newcastle and made his first-team debut at the age of 17 against Palermo in the UEFA Cup in 2006. Despite this, it took him two years to register his first goal for the Magpies, as he found the net during a Premier League fixture against West Ham.
However, Carroll's breakthrough in the Newcastle side didn't occur until they were relegated to the Championship at the end of the 2008/09 season. This is where Carroll had his chance to shine, and he took it with both hands, netting 19 goals in 42 appearances during their promotion-winning campaign.
He hit the ground running when Newcastle returned to the Premier League in 2010/11, finding the net 11 times in 19 matches. That run of form increased speculation around his future and Liverpool ended up coming in with a record £35million bid for his services - something that the Magpies couldn't turn down.
But Carroll struggled at Liverpool. In fact, he scored just 11 times in 58 appearances for the Reds before moving to West Ham in August 2012.
His time at the Hammers was a lot more successful, even if he didn't score as many as he would have wanted, and often struggled to keep fit for a sustained amount of time. Carroll ended up spending six years at West Ham, scoring on 34 occasions in 142 matches.
The former England international returned to Newcastle for a brief spell under Steve Bruce before then moving to Reading twice, either side of a disappointing spell at West Brom.
Last season, Carroll enjoyed a fruitful stint at fourth-tier French side Bordeaux and scored 11 times in 23 matches for them. However, he announced his departure last month to be closer to home.