East Londoners finally played their first match of the league campaign, but were missing first choice goalkeeper Dwayne Esprit

Sporting Bengal United boss Imrul Gazi felt Basildon United deserved their victory in the Essex Senior League on Saturday even if there wasn’t much between the two teams.

The east Londoners, still on a high after the FA Cup preliminary round exploits against Clapton on August 20, were brought back down to earth with a small bump at the Stuart Bingham Stadium.

Bees opened the scoring just before half time and added another late on to seal a 2-0 success following goals from Yaw Danso and Nathan Dewberry.

“Our goalkeeper Dwayne Esprit pulled out at the last minute through injury and we had to get Matheus Brito in,” said Gazi.

“He is only 18 and has been with us during pre-season, but our first choice has been a big part of us keeping so many clean sheets.

“We also had our usual left-back missing so two of the back five that have done so well were unavailable.

“It wasn’t an excuse, though, and the young goalkeeper did very well, he kept us in the game before we conceded just before half time in literally the last minute.

“Before that I had hoped to get us in and organise things as Basildon were better in the first half.”

Although it was Basildon who took the points and deservedly so, Gazi felt chances were few and far between during the clash in Essex.

Bengal’s manager also pondered what might have happened had Esprit been available for the match.

Gazi added: “Basildon are a well organised team, they are one of the favourites for the league and deserved to win.

“We didn’t create much, although they didn’t either and only scored the second when we were pushing to equalise late on.

“I think had Dwayne been available, I think we probably wouldn’t have conceded the goals we did.

“Matheus did very well and has lots of potential, though, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he progresses.”

Bengal will play their second league fixture of the season tomorrow (Wednesday) as they host local rivals Tower Hamlets at the Mile End Stadium.