SHINY new changing rooms at Victoria Road, fit for Championship teams, sum up the rising status of Dagenham & Redbridge FC.

It means no shocks for a club such as Norwich City, ahead of the friendly match at the Daggers’ east London home tonight (Thursday).

The Carnaries will surely be relieved when they are not ushered into a poorly-lit boiler room ahead of kick-off this evening.

The Championship-spec changing facilities are located inside the bowels of the new 1,200 capacity stand which looms over the pitch from behind the goal at Victoria Road.

It must surely be the most expensive new asset at the club. The loan which built it remains an ongoing cost.

Boss John Still would surely baulk at the thought of borrowing a stack of cash to buy a new player.

The manager has carved out his reputation by finding players who he can polish and then mould into an over-achieving unit.

An estimated wage bill of a very economical £800,000 attests to Still’s careful stewardship of team affairs.

So perhaps his ethos even helped to make it that bit easier to acquire the credit necessary to build the new stand.

Now hopes are high that bumper crowds in this historic season will fill it up and make the stand a cash cow which pays for itself quickly.

League One teams such as Charlton Athletic, Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday have the quantities of fans to have it heaving.

What a contrast that would be to the numbers brought by the likes of Macclesfield Town and Accrington Stanley in League Two, last season.

There is a neat rule which makes it forbidden for travelling fans to stand up during the game in the stand, except for obvious reasons.

This should puncture the effect which 1,200 Yorkshiremen could make when they are all stuffed into the stand.

This should be a boon while Daggers have attendances which are among the very lowest in the Football League.

In fact, if every single one of the 13,000 fans who saw Daggers triumph at Wembley in May did attend Victoria Road, they would have to watch from surrounding roof-tops.

But not all preparations for the upcoming season are to deal with influxes of people coming to the Daggers’ unfashionable corner of east London.

The club and the supporters’ club expect to lay on double the number of coaches to ferry fans to stadiums, starting with a trip to Hillsbrough, home of Sheffield Wednesday, on August 7.

Victory tonight against Norwich would be the perfect filip.

Admission tonight is £10 standing and £14 seated. Kick off is 7.45pm.