Nottingham Forest loanee Joe Worrall hoping to kick-start Dagenham'˜s season with win at Mansfield Town

Worrall joined the Daggers back in January and although the club are yet to win since his arrival, the 19-year-old is confident that a good run of form is just around the corner.

The highly-rated central defender is thought of extremely highly by Forest boss Dougie Freedman and although he has set his sights on breaking into the Reds’ first-team in the future, for now he is fully committed to helping the Daggers stay in League Two whilst relishing life playing professional football.

Worrall told the Mansfield Chad: “It has been really good down here and I think I have settled in fairly well.

“The football is different, it’s a lot more physical and there is the added pressure of three points being at stake but the pressure is definitely a good sort of pressure.”

A regular in the Forest Development Squad throughout the 2015/16 campaign, Hucknall-born Worrall admits he was a little surprised when the call came for him to make his professional debut, at Everton in the FA Cup – for Dagenham!

He said: “The gaffer (Dougie Freedman) came in on the Friday morning and said ‘you’re playing’ and I thought he meant for Forest at home to Queens Park Rangers but he meant that I was playing for Dagenham and that I needed to get down there that day for a training session with the squad.”

“I went down to so some training and some shape work and then when the team was read out I was selected which was great. I wasn’t really nervous and to be honest I thought I did okay in the game at Goodison Park.”

Worrall has joined a club who are yet to win on home soil this season but despite The Daggers occupying bottom spot in the Football League he is convinced that the club has enough to complete a survival mission.

He said buoyantly: “We have been doing alright away from home. I was talking to a few of the lads the other day and we think that if we can put together 6 or 7 wins between now and the end of the season, we will give ourselves the best possible chance of pulling clear.

“Since I joined the club our performances have been okay and the games have been tight but we now need to start winning some games.”

Working with Daggers boss John Still is something that Worrall is thoroughly enjoying down at Victoria Road and the youngster speaks highly of his temporary gaffer.

He continued: “He has been really good with me and learning from him has been great. He has kept teams up in this league before and is keen for us not to get too down about our current form.”

Mansfield Town are a team that Joe knows a fair bit about given his Nottinghamshire roots and he returns to the East Midlands tomorrow with three points firmly in his sights.

He added: “We go into the game believing that we can get three points. In any game of football the pressure tends to be on the home team, so hopefully we can go there, make life difficult for them and leave with all three on Saturday.”