Garland blasts Bengal blackout - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

SPORTING BENGAL UNITED 1-1 GREENWICH BOROUGH
(Abandoned after 36 minutes - floodlight failure)
Kent League
Wednesday 30^th August 2006
Stephen McCartney reports from the Mile End Stadium

Tonight’s Kent League fixture at the Mile End Stadium plunged into farce as the game was abandoned after just 36 minutes.

The game between pointless Sporting Bengal United, who lost their last game 10-3 at Thamesmead Town on Saturday, and Greenwich Borough, who needed a win to climb seven places into fourth, was abandoned by Maidstone referee Mr Simon Finnegan after he deemed the dark conditions “too dangerous.”

The game kicked off at 7:30pm and without any of the 16 floodlight pylons around the eight-lane athletics track lit.

But following requests from Mr Finnegan, only four pylons came on, and it was difficult to see what was going on.

Greenwich Borough goalkeeper Michael Holder did, however, pull off the save of the season after just four minutes.

Diving full stretch to his left, he somehow clawed out Prince Pipim’s glancing header from eight yards, preventing it finding it’s destination into the top right hand corner.

But Holder had no chance with Pipim’s tenth minute wonder goal, volleying Benjamin Manning’s far post cross into the corner from six-yards.

Shell-shocked Borough, meanwhile, saved face with an equaliser six minutes later.

Top scorer with two goals, Dave Hassett played a low cross from the right for his strike partner Meshach Nugent, who was left unmarked, and he stroked home from ten-yards to score, what he thought was his first goal of the season.

Borough were reduced to ten men after 34 minutes when Hassett received his second yellow card of the night, and although the game was abandoned his red card will still stand.

Mr Finnegan explained why he brought proceeding’s to an end at 8:25pm - after a 15 minute “cooling off period”.

“All I can do is actually just clarify why I’ve abandoned the game,” he EXCLUSIVELY  told www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards.

“It was quite clear to anyone who was here why I abandoned the game.

“We started the game at half past seven when it was still light and at that time there was enough light to continue the game.

“But at that time it was light and I requested that the other lights be switched on.

“After another couple of requests with the home club the lights didn’t come on, at which point after 32 minutes of the game, it was clear it was too dark down in the far corner and that I felt the players safety was actually in danger there.

“Therefore I took the decision to take the players of the field of play, allow 15 minutes for the lights to come on.

“I discussed this with the home club and also the people who actually run the facility here and it was clear the lights would actually need 90 minutes to cool down before they could be switched on.

“Therefore I was left with no alternative other than to abandon the game because I felt the conditions wasn’t safe to continue.”

Mr Finnegan discussed the situation in a professional manner with officials of both clubs during the fifteen minute stoppage in the players’ “tunnel” and instructed the home club to make an announcement over the public address system, which incidentally didn’t announce the team line-ups prior to kick off.

But Peter Garland, the caretaker manager of visitors Greenwich Borough, admitted he was “disappointed” that his side made a wasted journey.

His club have made strides during the summer months to improve their facilities at Harrow Meadow, and feels the east London club should be “reprimanded” by the Kent League.

Speaking in an EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with www.kentishfootball.co.uk afterwards, the 35-year-old said: “Quite disappointing. Got out there and to have the lights not come on is really a joke.

“They know there’s midweek games and they’ve got to make sure things are right.

“I thought the pitch was in a bad state - I think that’s why they never put the lights on, so it didn’t show up the pitch.

“I wasn’t happy really with the pitch. Our goalie was shouting out after twenty minutes that he couldn’t see the ball.”

Garland, whose played for Charlton Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United, has voiced his disapproval of having the east Londoners playing Kent League football.

He said: “It’s the Kent League and you’re going across the other side of the water to have a game.

“I know you’ve got Croydon in the league now but there ground’s virtually in Beckenham but I think they’ve got to be reprimanded because they know there’s night fixtures and they’ve got to make sure that the facilities are right.

“I honestly think the league’s got to really come down on them a bit because we’ve travelled over here, the boys have left work early, and after 25 minutes its pitch black and the light’s aren’t coming on.

“If they were all on and it was a power failure then yes, ok, fair enough, but you can’t just have a few lights on and not the whole lot.”

But Mr Suroth Miah, the chairman of Sporting Bengal United, defended his club, but refused to take responsibility for the embarrassing abandonment.

“What’s it got to do with the club?” he blasted.

“We’ve played at Mile End Stadium for over eight years and it’s the first time it’s happened.

“We don’t manage the site, we just rent it off a management company which runs it.

“We didn’t know until we spotted that some of the lights were not on. We spoke to the grounds people and they said that “they don’t seem to be working” and they tried to get someone down and it didn’t work, but they didn’t actually inform us before the game.”