Essex Senior League rivals continue to struggle

Stansted 2 Sporting Bengal 0

Basement boys Sporting Bengal suffered their sixth defeat in seven Essex Senior League outings at Hargrave Park to remain two points adrift.

Only seven minutes had been played when Jordan Wescott put the hosts ahead and they went close again when Theo Brown headed just over from a corner.

Stansted were then awarded a penalty, when Lewis Riches was fouled in the box, but Dwayne Esprit saved the spot-kick from Jack Isherwood.

The Airportmen did manage to double their advantage after the restart, though, as former Clapton man Luke Kanjor found the Barkingside net to bank the points for the hosts.

Imrul Gazi’s men will hope to end their poor run of results when they visit fellow strugglers Haringey & Waltham for a league fixture on Wednesday.

The north London club lost 5-2 at nearby Takeley, having gone down 7-1 against FC Romania a week earlier and also lost 5-0 at Stansted on November 12.

Sporting Bengal: Esprit, Wright, G Hossain, Z Hossain, Tandon, Shah, Cameron, Olone, Miah, Garcia, Siddik. Subs: Ahmed, Amadi, Makintosh.

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Tower Hamlets 0 Sawbridgeworth 5

Tower Hamlets suffered their sixth successive Essex Senior League defeat as Sawbridgeworth went nap at Mile End Stadium.

Ade Abayomi’s men had lost their previous four home matches, against Haringey & Waltham, Southend Manor, Barkingside and, most recently, Redbridge, but held firm during a goalless first half against the Robins.

The deadlock was broken, though, when birthday boy Gavin Cockman saw his header loop over the home keeper two minutes into the second half and Oliver Cleaver doubled the visitors lead just before the hour.

Former Barkingside player-manager Matt Frew made it 3-0 with a fine header on 70 minutes, before Toby Cleaver got in on the act with number four and Brad Harris completed the rout late on.

Hamlets hit the road next weekend to head to sixth-placed Hullbridge Sports.