Adayomi aiming for Sporting success

Tower Hamlets boss Ade Abayomi wants his side to build on their superb FA Cup win at the weekend when they meet Sporting Bengal in the Mile End Stadium derby this weekend.

Omar Rowe hit a nine-minute hat-trick, with Yusuf Ali and Inesh Sumitharan on target in the second half to seal a convincing 5-1 win at Wivenhoe in the extra preliminary round.

That earned the club £1,500 in prize money a trip to Cockfosters next weekend, but Abayomi now has Sporting in his sights.

He said: “My chairman is not letting me rest on that! It’s just another game for me, because I have to keep their heads down and not let them get too much in the emotion part of the game.

“If they can do what we have been doing this season then we have a good chance, but I know they’re going to be ready for it.

“It’s a derby match, both sides want to win badly. I will let my boys know what it means to the club and the chairman and we’ll give it our best shot.”

Abayomi’s young side played Wivenhoe off the park with an impressive display of possession football that bodes well for their Essex Senior League campaign.

And the manager is hoping the youngsters can restore a feel-good factor at the club after a difficult 2014/15, when they were suspended for part of the campaign, and ended up in a lowly position.

He added; “Everybody knows what the club went through last season. The chairman has made a decision that we’re going to go with the youths.

“He took my advice on that and I’m very happy to see that it’s starting to work because you’ve got a lot of kids who have ambitions to play the game who are level-headed and if we can keep them for a while, who knows what might happen.

“We had a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old (at Wivenhoe), an average age of 21 out there. I’m really pleased with how we’ve done this season.

“Most of them have been with me for a long time, they know the way I think about the game, that’s the way I love the game to be played.

“Keeping the ball is very important and the technical aspect of the game will show more when you do that.

“There are a lot of talented players and young boys out there. We can only keep nurturing them and hopefully people will enjoy the way they play the game.”

For anyone who might be toying with the idea of going along to watch Hamlets in action, Abayomi promised: “You’re going to see good football. That one we can promise. Lose, win or draw, there will always be good football.

“Even the first game (at Takeley) when we lost we played really well. The more they keep doing that and creating chances, I can’t ask for more.”

And as for the trip to Cockfosters, who were 4-0 winners over Burnham at the weekend, Abayomi said: “We’re looking forward to it. We’re not going to get carried away, like I always say to them it’s one game at a time.

“We want to remain in the FA Cup as long as we can and hopefully if we show a good account of ourselves again we can snatch another result.”