Barking defender Joe Bruce described his equaliser in the 80th minute against Witham Town as the goal of his career.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Joe Bruce's spectacular equaliser finds the Witham net (pic Terry Gilbert)Joe Bruce's spectacular equaliser finds the Witham net (pic Terry Gilbert) (Image: Archant)

The experienced centre-back found the back of the net with a stunning effort to cancel out Johnny Ashman’s goal in the 40th minute and earn the Blues a point at Spa Road.

“By far, I don’t score man, but definitely the best goal of my career so far,” Bruce said.

“I’ve been playing a long time but that’s the first time I’ve scored one from outside the box.”

The former Grays Athletic and Soham Town Rangers defender insisted the timing of the goal made it even better.

“We were chasing the game, so it was good to get back on level terms, it’s just a shame the referee got injured because we hopefully would have carried on to get three points instead of the point.

“We lost momentum when the referee got injured.”

Bruce says Barking are now looking to become more consistent by picking up more points to help them climb up the league table.

“We want to climb up the league, if we’re more consistent then we should do that, defensively as a whole everyone has done well but we must work on killing off games.

“We just either win or lose, we don’t draw many, apart from in the last few games, but before that it’s just by one odd goal.”

The defender has netted six times this term, three in the Bostik North, and three in cup competitions.

But he had plenty of praise for his fellow defenders including Ryan Cosson, Ricky Tarbard, Jack McQueen and Jordan Peart.

“All the defenders, whoever plays or comes in, have good partnerships.

“Myself and Ryan have a good partnership, I’ve played with young Jack McQueen as well and he does really well, when he comes in.

“He came in for myself when I was suspended and done brilliantly.

“Even when we play three at the back with Ricky filling in or Jack, it’s been good all round, and defensively we’ve been very good.

“That’s credit to all the boys, Jordan as well, as he’s gone into a new position and done really well at left-back.”

While, Bruce also revealed how moving to Barking to work under manager Justin Gardner made sense for him.

“I’ve known him for a long time from probably teenage years, we grew up in the same area, so we’ve always know each other.

“It’s my first time playing for him after all these years, and if someone is keen to sign you it definitely works in your favour, so it was silly not too come to Barking with the interest shown.

“We’ve had conversations about playing for him over the years, but the time was right.”