BY: Media Officer Foday Jatta

Real de Banjul returned to a much needed winning form after Sunday’s narrow victory over BK Milan at the Live Your Dream Sports Academy (LYDSA) in Basori.

Winger Modou Lamin Demba’s header gave The Whites all three points that takes them to third, six points behind Fortune FC and on the same points with the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA), who are second on the table thanks to their three goals difference from Ebou Jarra’s boys.

Real De Banjul could have blown BK Milan away after dominating them for most of the encounter and creating many goal scoring openings but couldn’t capitalize, with Mamadi Ngum, Salifu Colley, Modou Lamin Demba, to name a few went close to scoring with midfielder Abdoulie Bah also missing a penalty.

Real deservedly took the lead at the 74th minute after a Gregory Sambou header that came off the woodwork was headed home by winger Modou Lamin Demba from close range to hand the depleted City Boys a deserved win over the Bakau-based club.

Head coach Ebou Jarra and his Captain Ebrima Jarju reacted to the hard-fought victory with Jarra saying: “We knew that BK Milan are on a run, they had some good games, I can’t remember the last time I heard them losing. We lost not so long ago, we knew that we had to step and try to grind in and get the three points. That was all that mattered today.”

Jarra added: “I hope this a good sign that we started this month by winning. Obviously, it is very important to win a home, so, this is where the points will matter towards the end of the season and we are glad that we won this game today. I should be the least frustrated with the boys (struggling in front of goal) because I am the first person who has trust in them and pick them in the starting eleven or the twenty-man squad. Let’s remember that, as of today, we are missing ten key players. Ebrima Jatta is on suspension after picking his third yellow card, Abdoulie Kah is on suspension, Serigne Babou Cham had a groin injury and countless others.”

The gaffer added: “These players probably wouldn’t have been injured, but it could have been that they’re in the transfer market, so still we will have to play without them, so we played without them, no excuses we won and got the three points. The win over BK Milan is important because we couldn’t go two games in a row without winning apart from the opening of the season that was against Tallinding United and Gamtel FC. So, now we won against Hawks and beat BK Milan; I am not talking about the title race now, all that we are doing is accumulating points and see where we get to, in April/May.”

For his part, goalkeeper Ebrima Jarju said: “Thanks to my teammates we played good, and we expect Real de Banjul to play like this, but I told you at the Independence Stadium that we are ready fight. It’s not easy but we can push to close the gap. Right now we have to stand strong because we are the big players, they (people) always expect us to play top, so we always concentrate to work hard to be top always. I have belief in the (forwards), they are spoiling (chances) but we have to motivate them to score. We always have to motivate the offensive players to score, they’re good offensive players, we have a lot of injuries but we managed in this condition.”

He added: “I am very happy for it (keeping clean-sheets) because I work for it, these days I used to play train with Real in the morning and in the afternoon I train hard because I know I have a lot of defenders with injury so I don’t use to sleep, so I train hard to have these clean-sheets. Maybe people will be surprised with the clean sheets but it doesn’t surprise me because I work hard for it!”

“I always tell my teammates that we have stand strong because we have a lot of challenges in front, we have to stand to fight that challenge. InShaAllah (God willing) I have the believe, we will win the league. You see our fans, they are very happy today, and it is very important to win here (at home), if we go away and have a draw is good but we always try to win here, that’s the mentality. We lost against GPA here and it was very hard for us, we can manage to accept that defeat but we stand strong to come and fight again, we will not accept that again,” the captain said.

A number of key players missing out could also count to Real’s inconsistent form in the league this season. Evidently, midfield anchor Bubacarr Camara (Jah boy), Gregory Sambou, Kajally Drammeh, Modou Manneh, Lamin Saidy, Essa Jallow, Makaira Tambedou, David Sambou, Abdoulie Kah, Ebrima Jatta, Babou Cham and Babucarr Jallow were all missing from the squad.

Jarra and his charges will hope to continue their winning run when they welcome rivals Wallidan FC at the LYDSA on Monday.