Dagenham and Redbridge manager Ben Strevens felt his side were full value for their FA Cup upset against AFC Wimbledon.
The Daggers, 15th in the National League, earned a 2-1 win over the League Two promotion hopefuls to book their place in the third round for the first time since 2016.
The visitors suffered a setback on the stroke of half-time when Dons striker Matty Stevens cancelled out Junior Morias’ opener, but they would not be denied and grabbed a 79th-minute winner through Josh Rees.
It was a second League Two scalp for the east London side after defeating Crewe 1-0 away from home in the first round, and a clearly delighted Strevens felt it was no more than they deserved.
He said: “We had a tough game at Crewe and we had to do the same thing tonight.
“I’ve been told their goal was offside so all in all the boys deserved it.”
Morias put Dagenham ahead in the 35th minute when his long-range strike flew into the bottom corner of the net but the Dons levelled deep into first-half stoppage time when Stevens controlled a James Furlong cross before stabbing home his 12th goal of the season.
Strevens said of that goal: “Being able to talk calmly to them at half-time and getting them back together is easier than if it’s on 60 minutes.
“It was amazing scenes at the end with the supporters, they really enjoyed it.”
Rees settled the contest 11 minutes from time when he bundled the ball in following a goalmouth scramble after Wimbledon failed to deal with a corner.
Wimbledon looked flat throughout, and manager Johnnie Jackson could not hide his disappointment after the final whistle.
He said: “We’re out of the cup, we obviously wanted to go through, we knew it was going to be a difficult game.
“They came up to frustrate, which they did and they did it well. They had two shots on target.
“They’re poor goals on our end, I thought we continued to push and dominated the ball but didn’t capitalise on those moments.”
