United boss hopes team continue to impress in knockout football

Manager Imrul Gazi wants Sporting Bengal United’s historic FA Cup run earlier this season to inspire them in the FA Vase this weekend.

After beating West Essex for their first win of the season last weekend, Bengal entertain Essex Senior League rivals Sawbridgeworth Town in the second qualifying round of the Vase on Saturday.

And Gazi, who saw his team reach the first qualifying round of the FA Cup earlier this season, is hopeful of another long run in knockout football.

“My boys seem to save their best performances for the cup this year,” said Gazi.

“People need to understand we’re still a work in progress, so judge us in six weeks rather than where we are now.

“I’m still not sure of my best XI, so there is still lots of work to do to ensure we can get the mix right. Most of our players came from community football and I’m a rookie boss, so we are all still learning.”

The teams last met in the league on September 14, with Sawbridgeworth running out 5-1 winners at Mile End Stadium, having been 3-0 up at half time.

Rokun Choudhury scored the only goal for Bengal in reply, but Gazi is confident his team will put up a better fight this time around.

After that loss, we want to put in a much-improved display against Sawbridgeworth and show that we are a lott different than last week,” he added.

“Hopefully we can catch them by surprise, and we expect to give them much more of a game because we cannot afford to play like we did last week.”