Barking's Ssam Dennis (3) and Sean Crossley (6) challenge for the ball in Saturday's 3-3 draw with Bowers & Pitsea. Pic: Terry Gilbert

Essex SDenior League Cup: Barking 1 Barkingside 3

Barking complete a frenetic phase when they welcome their bogey side Clapton to the Old Spotted Dog Ground in the Essex Senior League Premier Division on Saturday.

The crunch clash against Clapton is Barking’s third game in eight days in what has been a frustrating period for manager Alan Dickens’ side.

A 3-3 draw in the league last Saturday against Bowers & Pitsea was followed by a disappointing 3-1 loss to Barkingside in the first leg of their quarter-final of the Essex Senior League Cup on Tuesday night.

The results were poor by Barking’s recent standards, having won four and drawn one of the previous six games.

Yet they are taking nothing for granted when they travel to the Old Spotted Dog Ground on Saturday to play rock-bottom Clapton in the Essex Senior League Premier Division.

“Clapton drew with London Bari last weekend, their coach in known to us and they are a bit of a bogey side for us,” said club chairman Rob O’Brien ahead of Barking’s home loss to Barkingside.

“We are hopeful that we can get a result against Clapton on Saturday.

“But the Old Spotted Dog ground is not our favourite place as we often struggle there.

“Our standard of performance has been continuing to improve and while it was disappointing to concede the late goal against Bowers & Pitsea on Saturday, the results have been much more consistent in recent weeks and there are better things to come.

“We have started to get consistency in team selection.

“It is about getting the lads around us and we have benefitted form being able to have a bit of consistency in the team.”

The Mayesbrook Park outfit will need to make an immediate improvement on Tuesday night’s frustrating performance in their cup match against Barkingside.

The home side made a dream start when they took the lead on 23 minutes with a goal from Ben Jones who returned to the side last Saturday having been sidelined with a knee injury.

The hosts kept up the good work and surely had hopes of taking their slender advantage into the second qualifying round on November 19 when they still led 1-0 after 60 minutes, only to concede to a goal from Dom Asamboa five minutes later.

The goal buoyed the visiting side and they took the lead for the first time in the match when Mark Steadman scored seven minutes later.

Barking were left with a mountain to climb in the second leg when they conceded a penalty two minutes from time that was slotted by Reece Cosson.