Peterborough United made it six successive away league victories to break a 20-year-old club record as George Boyd, Craig Mackail-Smith and Aaron Mclean fired Darren Ferguson's men back to the top of League Two after a 3-2 victory at Dagenham and Redbridge.

Posh named an unchanged line-up for the clash against Dagenham and Redbridge and former Dagger Craig Mackail-Smith was inches away from breaking the deadlock inside 20 seconds, but his fierce drive rolled just past the post.

George Boyd and Jamie Day both saw efforts well blocked as the visitors made a positive start to the game between the division's form sides. Goalkeeper Joe Lewis was fortunate to stop Jon Nurse from breaking the deadlock on 12 minutes after Chris Westwood had miss-read the bouncing ball.

Leading scorer Ben Strevens hooked a volley wide of the target from close-range after Lewis failed to get to the ball quick enough for a corner and Uddin looped his header goal-wards. At the other end, Mackail-Smith struck a shot straight at the veteran Tony Roberts after a long ball caught out the Daggers defence.

Day fired into the side-netting with his right foot after the best piece of passing football from the visitors on 23 minutes but the pitch was causing plenty of concerns as it was extremely bobbly and not providing any real fluency to the game.

Scott Griffiths fired a shot wide of the far post after a poor clearance from Claude Gnakpa moments later. Tony Roberts produced a superb save to deny Mackail-Smith a fairytale goal at his former club after the striker had tricked his way past Mark Arber.

A foul on Aaron Mclean on the edge of the area was penalised on 38 minutes as Arber hacked him down and after treatment, the top scorer was back up on his feet. Craig Morgan stepped up to take the free-kick but fired it straight in the wall.

Two minutes of added time was signalled by the fourth official and Posh won a corner kick after good persistence from Whelpdale but the flag-kick was taken short and it was cleared. The half-time whistle was greeted with muted applause from both sets of supporters but with Hereford leading Accrington at the break, Darren Ferguson's men would need to step it up in the second period.

Glenn Southam saw a shot deflected wide of the target on 48 minutes after a quick break from the Daggers which began following a poor pass from Keates. The pressure was now beginning to mount with Posh finally getting on top and Roberts did superbly well to push a Keates shot around the post with Mackail-Smith denied by the goalkeeper after the resulting corner was cleared.

Keates then fired over with the aid of a blatant deflection on 54 minutes after a long throw from Whelpdale fell kindly on the edge of the area for the in-form midfielder. The deadlock was broken on 57 minutes as a superb take and pass from Mclean picked out the onrushing BOYD and he fired home past the despairing dive of Roberts.

Lewis was having a few worrying moments from set-pieces as he failed to get a hand to two successive corner kicks, although the blustery wind may have a contribution to make on why he was misjudging the set-pieces.

Rainford dragged a shot wide of the target from 25-yards on 69 minutes and as Lewis again miss-read the flight of the ball, Keates headed away from under his own crossbar as Posh struggled to get out from Boardman's knock back.

Posh doubled their advantage on 72 minutes and it was MACKAIL-SMITH who was on target against his former club as he bagged his 17th goal of the campaign and end his seven-match goal drought as he fired home from close-range after Mclean's cross.

Roberts then made a superb save to deny Mackail-Smith a second and as the ball rolled towards the goal-line Griffiths ran back and hacked the ball off the line. The home side were given a chance to reduce the arrears after a foul by Westwood on Hall inside the area and RAINFORD coolly dispatched the spot-kick past Lewis.

The Daggers introduced Chris Moore from the substitutes bench as they piled the strikers forward in the hope of snatching an equaliser. However, Posh soon restored their two-goal advantage as Lee headed on to MCLEAN who beat the offside trap to fire home his 28th goal of the season.

Boyd nearly added a fourth following a skidding left-foot drive, but Roberts pushed the effort around the post for a corner. Keates then saw a shot blocked by Roberts before Boyd showed his neat touches by flicking the ball around the corner to Hyde.

Substitute Ryan HALL did pull a goal back deep into stoppage time after racing clear, firing the rebound into the empty net after a good save from Lewis initially.

Final Score: Daggers 2-3 Peterborough United

Referee: Mr S Mathieson (Cheshire)
Attendance: 3,130 (1,032 Posh fans)