Miserable form continues with seventh straight defeat.

Barkingside’s miserable run of form in the Essex Senior League continued with two more defeats this week and boss Tony Fenn believes this season has been his most difficult in charge at Oakside.

His side have slipped to seven straight losses, their worst since the 2006/07 season, with a 4-1 defeat against Takeley at the weekend, despite taking the lead and a 3-0 loss at home to neighbours Barking on Monday night.

But despite the losses, Fenn believes the current squad will turn around their fortunes sooner rather than later.

“Against Takeley we only had 13 players and things looked positive after taking the lead early on, but that was as good as it got,” he said.

“Sloppy defending continued to let us down in both games and we were unable to take our chances at the other end. We dominated the second half, but Barking took their chances and got the win.

“This season has been the hardest and most awkward I have endured. The stop-start nature of the season and the different coaches hasn’t helped.

“But we are too good a side to continue the losing streak and we just need to keep persevering and plugging away.

“The only way we are going to get through this is by hard work and it is just about finishing the season with a smile on our face.”

Fenn puts the poor run of form down to their fixture backlog after enduring another tough season with the Oakside pitch. “All these games in such a small space of time has killed us,” he said.

“The confidence amongst the boys is low but it is just about picking them up and getting back to basics.”

But with 10 games left of the season, the Oakside boss is targeting a strong finish.

“Our slim chances of promotion went weeks ago,” said Fenn.

“But now it is just down to finishing the season on a high. In the last game of the season we have Stansted and it would be nice to go there and be the only side to beat them in the league this season.”