Chniba hoping for strong finish to Blues’ season

Following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Wokingham & Emmbrook, Firas

Chniba admitted there isn’t much left for Burnham to play for this season but says it would be nice to see out their last three games unbeaten.

Chniba had fired the Blues in front at Emmbrook Sports and Social Club with an instinctive finish but was largely finding the encounter difficult due to his commitment to fasting for the religious month of Ramadan.

Disappointingly for manager Ben Murray and his men, the Sumas levelled affairs almost immediately after when substitute James Clark won a penalty and Jack Mullan was able to coolly dispatch from the spot.

As a result, Burnham slip to 13th in the Combined Counties Premier Division North, on 34 points, and will face Southall this weekend before travelling to St Panteleimon (April 13) and Reading City (April 23).

“The boys were definitely upset with the result,” Chniba said. “We should have won. That’s it, the season is basically over now. We have three games left to go and we’re not going to get promotion or relegation.

“There’s not much to play for but the manager (Murray) will still want us to go out and perform in the next few matches and, yeah, it would be nice to go unbeaten. He wants us to show everyone in the league what we can do, especially this Saturday against Southall.

“We scored first, and it was around the 70th minute I got my goal. I found it hard though as I was fasting at the weekend. I played the whole match with no food and no water. It was tough so I was happy to score. We conceded a penalty not long after that which wasn’t great, but we’re a very young team aren’t we? We’re still understanding the game.

“The manager put a lot of faith in me because he knew I was fasting. I thought I would be on the bench, but he played me the whole 90 minutes and I was happy to repay him.

“That day, I woke up at 4am just to get some food and water into my system before the match. I see a lot of big players fast like Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and Paul Pogba so it inspires me to do it.”