Barkingside boss Martin Walther believes the return of key players was crucial to his side’s first win in nine games at the weekend.

Walther’s men ran out 5-1 winners at Burham Ramblers on Saturday as his team climbed out of the bottom four in the Essex Senior League.

A brace from Roddy Lemba as well as strikes from Ryan Imbert and Matheus Santos and an own goal helped Barkingside to a convincing win at Leslie Field.

And Walther highlighted the return of certain players as the reason for his teams turn in fortunes.

He said: “We had some players available for Saturday that were not available in the run-up to Christmas. So when you have more players available – your main players available – you will get a better performance.

“When you put in guys that have hardly had any games at this kind of level, that’s when you don’t really know performance-wise what were going to get.”

It’s a short turn around for the Essex Senior League club as they face Basildon United in a Challenge Cup tie tonight (Monday).

Unfortunately for Walther, though, he will be without key players once again.

“Well this is the trouble,” he added.

“We’ve got four boys who played on Saturday who aren’t available tonight. So we are just hoping the ones who come in can produce a similar performance against a Basildon team which will be very strong.”

The Blues boss is aware that despite inconsistent results, his young side will continue to improve with experience.

“The start of the season we had no players left from the previous season so we have had to start from scratch,” he said.

“We now have a young side that is gradually developing week by week. There is going to be some good results and there is going to be some bad ones.

“It is part of establishing a squad and a team for Barkingside to go forward. And not just for this season but next season as well.”

Barkingside will host Woodford Town in their next league match on Saturday as they look to make it two league wins on the bounce.