Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy: Witham Town 1 Bethnal Green United 0

Bethnal Green United boss Kirk Whitelock was left ruing his side’s luck once again as the Greens suffered their second consecutive 1-0 defeat to Essex Senior League leaders Witham Town in the space of three days.

On Saturday, Whitelock’s men welcomed Witham to Mile End, and despite matching the visitors for the majority of the game, conceded an 85th minute goal.

And then on Tuesday night in the Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy, the Greens travelled up the A12 to take on the league leaders, but returned with the same narrow scoreline.

Despite the results, Whitelock remains positive and cannot believe that his side did not take something from each of the games.

“I honestly cannot believe our luck at the moment,” he said.

“We simply haven’t had any. The past five games we have dominated possession and chances but we just can’t score at the moment and it is so frustrating.

“On Saturday at Mile End, the game was fairly even until right at the end and Witham showed a bit of quality to score a late winner, which was harsh on us.

“And then on Tuesday night we go up to their place and honestly we should have won 5-1, but we concede a goal from a counter attack.

“Their chairman spoke to me after the game and said that he didn’t think Witham would win the Trophy as they had used all of their luck up against us.”

However, Whitelock was able to pick out some positives from his side’s two performances against the promotion favourites.

“We have brought in two new centre-backs in Jamie Lyndon and Jay Knight, who are playing very well at the moment,” he said.

“They haven’t played together a lot, but they are developing an understanding, which is good and when they are both playing we don’t look like we are going to concede.

“However, having said that, our problem doesn’t lie in defence, where we are relatively strong, it is higher up the pitch where we are struggling at the moment.

“We are in desperate need of a pacy striker that knows where the back of the net is as we just cannot afford to keep on missing chances.

“I was close to signing a striker last week, but he wanted paying so he went to Southend Manor where there is a bit of cash, so good luck to him.

“But I am still in the market for a decent goalscorer as that is all that we are missing at the moment.

“And we are learning the hard way at the moment that if you don’t score goals then you don’t win matches.”

This weekend, the Greens have the opportunity to bounce back to winning ways with a tough trip to Enfield 1893, and Whitelock reveals that team morale remains upbeat.

“The spirit in the camp is good and the lads just want to play,” he said.

“We need to keep our heads up, keeping working hard and the results will come and we will get out of this rut that we seem to be in.

“I just know that we are going to smash someone soon and hopefully that will be this weekend at Enfield.

“It is a tough place to go to, but we fear no-one and we remain confident that we can go there and turn them over.”