VETERAN striker Jamie Cureton bagged a brace as York City went down 2-0 at home to fellow strugglers Dagenham & Redbridge.

Cureton produced two quality finishes to sink City, who have now netted just once in six games and are still searching for their first win in 2015.

Former Minstermen midfielder Andre Boucaud drove the first chance of the afternoon wide from 20 yards for the visitors and Alex Jubiak also missed the target from a similar position.

Josh Carson, meanwhile, fired a weak free kick at Daggers keeper Mark Cousins before the visitors forged in front on 19 minutes.

Ex-Norwich striker Cureton raced on to a Billy Bingham pass and, after riding a Keith Lowe challenge, curled a composed ten-yard finish into Bobby Olejnik’s bottom left-hand corner.

Lowe and John McCombe had further half-chances that amounted to little at the other end of the pitch, while Wes Fletcher’s low shot was pushed around his right-hand upright by Cousins.

But City might have trailed 2-0 at the break had Malvind Benning not executed an excellent last-ditch tackle to thwart Jakubiak as he bore down on Olejnik’s goal after escaping Brad Halliday’s attentions.

Dagenham did go on to double their lead on 53 minutes when City lost the ball from Benning’s short throw-in and Cureton sprung the Minstermen’s offside trap to latch on to centre-back Ayo Obileye’s lofted ball forward.

The wily striker then produced another quality finish to lob an exposed Olejnik.

After McCombe had volleyed over from a corner, Olejnik then saved in a one-on-one situation with Jakubiak and Ashley Hemmings drove wide from 25 yards In response, City strikers Emile Sinclair and Fletcher both headed well off target and Halliday saw a left-footed, edge-of-the-box effort saved.

Russell Penn also volleyed over from 20 yards and Sinclair blazed off target from an acute angle.

Substitute Jake Hyde went on to see a header cleared off the line and fellow replacement Carlton Morris shot wide from eight yards but the Minstermen ended proceedings with just one goal now from their last six matches.

City: Olejnik ; Halliday , Lowe , McCombe , Benning ; Coulson , Penn , Montrose (Hyde, 56), Carson ; Fletcher (Morris, 73), Sinclair . Subs not used: Meikle, Platt, McCoy, Ingham, Zubar.

Dagenham: Cousins; Ogogo, Doe, Obileye, Widdowson; Howell, Boucaud, Bingham, Hemmings; Jakubiak (Carr, 82), Curteon (Chambers, 90). Subs not used: O’Brien, Batt, Saah, Labadie, Yusuff.    

Attendance: 2,958 (134 away).