Essex Senior League
Venue: Cricklefield
Attendance: 48
Date: Saturday 1st April 2017 3pm KO
Ilford : Blue & White Hooped Shirts, Blue Shorts, White Socks
Sporting Bengal Utd : Orange Shirts, Black Shorts, Black Socks
Scott W reporting (Follow me on Twitter: @ScottMHC14)
On a fairly nice afternoon at Cricklefield, Ilford took on Sporting Bengal Utd in an Essex Senior League encounter.
The match began with Ilford being on the front foot with forward Sipho Mytanda striking a free-kick that was comfortably saved by visiting ‘keeper Dwayne Espirit.
Bengal responded with experienced forward Steven Carvell curling a decent strike wide of the right-hand post on around 10 minutes. Bengal’s Chris Wright could have put the visitors in front just moments later but shot just wide from close range.
Ilford came back though as mid-way through the half, forward Karolis Atutis’s header passed the ‘keeper but not the post. Just the past hour, Wright could have given Imrul Gazi’s side the lead though his strike was cleared off the goal-line.
Both sides had chances to go ahead, though the first-half was still rather quiet and well, after half-time I was hoping for an improvement, to be honest.
Half-Time: Ilford 0 – 0 Sporting Bengal Utd
As it happens, that improvement came after the break. Ilford took advantage of a bright-ish start and took the lead through Luke Thomas curling drive from inside the area. Ilford kept the pressure firmly on as only a minute later, a speculative effort from 25 yards from Mytanda caught Espirit unawares and he couldn’t keep it out.
Ilford completed a three-goal salvo in less than 15 minutes when midfielder Isaac Nkosi robbed Espirit of possession and passed the ball calmly into the net. Credit to Bengal though as they didn’t give up and kept running, winger Codey Cameron made a couple of good runs down the flanks, as well as forward Carvell having a couple of chances from free-kicks and fellow forward David Tarawali effort was blocked, all late on.
Just before the final whistle, Mytanda nearly grabbed a second as a great free-kick heading into the top corner was tipped over by Espirit in the Bengal goal for a corner. Ilford’s back four had a good game, with Toib Adeyemi playing at centre-half and was strong throughout. Overall, this was a good win for Allan Fenn’s side and they rise to 5th in the ESL table, five points behind Takeley with a game in hand. Bengal stay 19th, still nine points clear of Tower Hamlets in 20th.
FT: Ilford 3 – 0 Sporting Bengal Utd
Thomas 51’, Mytanda 52’ Nkosi 62’
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Teams: |
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Ilford Manager: Allan Fenn |
Sporting Bengal Utd Manager: Imrul Gazi |
| 1 Chris Clark (GK) | 1 Dwayne Espirit (GK) |
| 2 Edas Valionis | 2 Josh Adeji |
| 3 Luke Thomas | 3 Shafi Noor |
| 4 Harry Matthews (Subbed 61’) | 4 Jack Lamb |
| 5 Toib Adeyemi | 5 Chris Wright (Subbed 61’) |
| 6 Luke McLeavy (C) | 6 Mark Wheeler (C) |
| 7 Ryan Ramsay | 7 Codey Cameron |
| 8 Isaac Nkosi | 8 Ashaan Siddik |
| 9 Carl Mullings (Subbed 81’) | 9 Lewis Francis (Subbed 68’) |
| 10 Karolis Atutis (Subbed 61’) | 10 Steven Carvell |
| 11 Sipho Mytanda | 11 David Tarawali |
| Substitutes: | |
| 12 Chris Stevens | 14 Troy Alexander (On 68’) |
| 14 Joe Killingback (On 61’) | 16 David Vaughan (On 61’) |
| 15 Alfie Bartram (On 61’) | 17 Oscar Mendes |
| 16 Jamie Hart (On 81’) | |
| 17 Andy Edmunds | |
| Booked: Mytanda, Killingback | Booked: None |
| Referee: | Adam Humphreys |
| Assistant Referees: | Tony King
Moraru Gheorghe |
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