Bethnal Green won last night’s dress rehearsal.
Bethnal Green United v Sporting Bengal United
The FA Carlsberg Vase
Third Round Proper
3pm, Saturday 3 December 2011
Mile End Stadium
Winning clubs receive £1500 from The FA's prize fund
Click here for fixtures
Two clubs who share the same ground in east London will play each other in the Third Round Proper of The FA Carlsberg Vase on Saturday. Those clubs, Bethnal Green United and Sporting Bengal United, met in an Essex Senior League fixture at impressive Mile End Stadium last night and it was Bethnal Green who edged a tense affair 2-1 with the clincher coming two minutes from time.
Both clubs have short but interesting histories.
Mohammed Nurul Hoque, Bethnal Green’s chairman, wrote in last night’s programme that the Club “was created (in 2000) to give young people from Bethnal Green a sense of identity, promote community cohesion, develop mutual understanding between young people from different backgrounds and (give them) an opportunity to excel in a sport that they love”.
In the Club’s early years they played in the Canary Wharf Summer League, Inner London League and London Intermediate League. Progress has been swift in the last three seasons. BGU won the Middlesex County League Premier Division title in 2009 to achieve senior status and a place in the Essex Senior League. A year later it was celebrating an Essex Senior League Cup and Gordon Brasted Trophy ‘Double’.
Sporting Bengal United FC’s story began with a tour to Bangladesh in 1996 by a group of the best Bangladeshi players in London. It was agreed that they should form themselves into a team to make use of all that talent. The Club won the Asian League three years in succession before joining the London Intermediate League. They were granted senior status in 2003 and joined the Kent League.
Both Bethnal Green United and Sporting Bengal United now play in the Essex Senior League and were in mid-table positions before last night’s clash that attracted more than a hundred fans to Mile End. SBU had the better of a goalless first half before the match turned on an incident eight minutes into the second period. A BGU corner from the right, curling in on the wind, was handled on the line by a defender and he was shown the inevitable red card. A perfect spot-kick from skipper Ainsley Gasper set BGU up for ultimate victory.
BGU first entered The Vase in 2009, SBU five years earlier, and one of them will be in the Fourth Round Proper for the first time after Saturday’s tie. Mile End Stadium is a few minutes’ walk from Mile End tube station.
