Essex Senior League: Imrul Gazi and Sporting Bengal United staying positive even after late loss to Barkingside
PUBLISHED: 15:00 23 January 2017
Barkingside's David Laird looks to get past a Sporting Bengal United defender (pic: Tim Edwards).
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Mile End Stadium club dominated second half against their local rivals, but failed to clear their lines and were punished
A Sporting Bengal United forward fires wide under pressure from two Barkingside defenders (pic: Tim Edwards).Sporting Bengal United boss Imrul Gazi is focusing on the positives despite suffering a 3-2 defeat to Barkingside in the Essex Senior League at the weekend.
Goals from Raul Da Silver and David Vaughan cancelled out David Laird’s brace for the visitors at Mile End Stadium with full time approaching.
But Side had the final say when Laird completed his hat-trick in the final exchanges of the match to take home the spoils.
“If you ask anybody from Barkingside about the game, they’ll tell you it was one-way traffic in the second half,” said Gazi.
“We had chance after chance and just couldn’t take them and it is not the first time this has happened at home.
“But I’m confident sooner rather than later we’ll take these opportunities like we did against Waltham Forest (5-0 win).”
Four of the five goals at Mile End occurred during the first 45 with Bengal well on top after the break.
They couldn’t turn their dominance into goals, however, and were made to pay by their east London rivals.
Gazi added: “Barkingside’s chairman Jimmy (Flanaghan) said we deserved to win so Saturday was hard to take.
“I say before every game I want us to get something and with three minutes left I was happy with a point.
“Even though we had missed a lot of chances, in the back of my mind I was thinking if they get an opportunity they’ll score.
“On three or four occasions this season we have dominated and then conceded late on to lose or draw the game.
“It happened again and that’s how it is going for us, but I’m remaining positive because we’re creating chances.”
Bengal’s manager was full of praise for hat-trick hero Laird, who produced a stunning goal to win Barkingside the game.
However, the defending from the hosts left Gazi scratching his head and he knows they must improve at the back.
“When you are down the bottom every game is important and I think we were a bit naïve on Saturday,” he said.
“Before Barkingside scored the winner we had three opportunities to clear the ball and didn’t take it.
“I think sometimes we need to be more pragmatic and just get rid of it in situations like that, so Saturday was another big learning curve for us.
“Full credit to their number 10 (Laird) because it was a brilliant strike and there was no chance of our goalkeeper saving it.”
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