Essex Senior League: Hackney Wick owner Bobby Kasanga delighted to secure new home for next season

The Wickers will play at the London Marathon Community Track from next season

Despite their misfortunes on the field, Hackney Wick have finally received some good news off the pitch.

The Wickers will be playing their football at the London Marathon Community Track, having beaten off competition from Sporting Hackney FC amongst others.

Wick will be ground-sharing with Altis FC from the Senior Two North League, who currently play there.

Talking about how the move came about, owner Bobby Kasanga said: “As you know we’ve been ground-sharing at the Old Spotted Dog for a while and Hackney the borough has never had it’s own ground.

“There’s no place to play football at a competitive level and that’s why I started this football club.

“I’m trying to put pressure on the council to say this needs to happen, we’ve had conversations with the council but nothing materialised.

“One of the players who signed for us recently asked me if I knew about the ground (the London Marathon Community Track) and I asked ‘what ground?’.

“He said there’s a ground in Hackney Wick and I went there the same day and had a look.

“Within a couple of days they were in contact with us, and we said we wanted the ground. It’s technically in the borough of Newham.”

Despite heavy competitions and financial restrictions Wick were successful.

Kasanga added: “The council said there’s someone there at the moment, and it’s competitive as a lot of people want it.

“We said we can’t afford to pay ridiculous amounts, however if you look at what we do, we’re a community football club, were local and we want to take this.

“We received the good news last Friday that we secured tenancy.”