Biggleswade Town 1 Enfield Town 2

Report by andrew warshaw

A brace from Lyle Della-Verde sent us into the second round proper of the FA Trophy for the first time in the competition’s current guise.

Whilst it was never easy against determined fellow Step 3 opponents, no-one could argue that we thoroughly deserved our place in Monday’s eagerly awaited draw when National League north and south teams join the tournament.

In terms of chances, we dominated proceedings, in fact Nathan McDonald didn’t have a single save to make. But cup games can quickly turn against you and there was a palpable sense of relief when the full-time whistle went to the delight of a fantastic away following in the 397 crowd.

With Adam Cunnington ruled out through illness just before kickoff, the management team called up Matt Walsh but there was no time for him to make the journey up the A1 to join the subs bench.  Thankfully, it didn’t affect the result.

The first big chance of the game went the hosts’ way as Ronan Silva drove an effort inches past the post with McDonald beaten.

But two minutes later, Mo Faal thought he had opened the scoring for Town, finishing off a gorgeous move only to be ruled offside – wrongly according to almost everyone close to the action except the linesman.

Mo was a threat all afternoon but this was one occasion when time after time he fell foul of the offside flag.

By the midway point of the first half, we had moved into the ascendancy and it was no surprise when we went in front on 22 minutes. Biggleswade failed to clear a corner and Della-Verde hit a sweetly struck shot through a ruck of players and into the net.

He should have made it two moments later, heading over from four yards when unmarked after great combination play down our left.

Nathan had been largely untroubled since that early Biggleswade chance but calamity struck five minutes before the break. Helping out his defence, Lewis Taafe got the last touch from a corner (even though the goal was credited to Biggleswade defender Matt Hall) and the ball trickled over the line for the most fortuitous of equalisers.

H-T 1-1

Encouraged by their goal against the run of play, the hosts enjoyed a strong 10-minute spell at the start of the second period but we were soon back in control – creating chance after chance.

Della-Verde fired into the side netting from close range, then twice in quick succession rushed his shot and blasted over the bar. Then  it was Mo’s turn, pulling the trigger from 30 yards only for Jake Alley to make a flying save.

Lyle wasn’t to be denied, however. On 70 minutes with the home defence backing off, he kept his composure with an unstoppable effort to restore our lead.

Cue a double substitution one of which gave young Luke Cook his first taste of first-team action.   

Whilst we always looked capable of getting a third – not least when Mo was clean through but uncharacteristically took the wrong option — Biggleswade were still in the game. On more than one occasion we were forced to throw bodies in the way of home-team efforts, with Harold Joseph enjoying an especially eye-catching afternoon.

Late on, we switched to a back five to see the game out and all in all, another commendable team display despite being without a number of players. Now we wait to see who we pull out of the hat on Monday.

Town:

McDonald: Muleba, Joseph, Gyebi, Kirwan; Kiangebeni, Taafe (Smith 72), Maja, Della-Verde (Bray, 89); Faal, Coker (Cook, 72)

Our opponents in the FA Trophy First Round proper on Sat, Nov 13, are fellow Step 3 side Biggleswade Town, not to be confused with Biggleswade FC or Biggleswade United.

 Biggleswade Town play in Southern League Premier division Central at Langford Road, Biggleswade, SG18 9JT.

 If you intend to travel on the Club Coach you must book in advance by contacting Les Gold on 07979 72756 / lesgold@enfieldtownfootballclub.co.uk . The Coach departs the QEII Stadium at 11.30  

If you are making your own way you may find this information from the Biggleswade Town website helpful. 

https://www.pitchero.com/clubs/biggleswadetownfc/a/access-to-langford-road-52098.html

The Waders are currently 10th in the Southern Premier Central with 19 points from 15 games. They reached the Trophy first round by winning 2-0 at Wisbech Town with a couple of goals from Joe Neal. It promises to be another hard-fought fixture against a team who play at the same level as us but gives us a fantastic opportunity to progress.

No extra time or replays in the Trophy this season so straight to penalties if we are level at 90 minutes. The winners of Saturday’s game receive £3,000 in prize money, the losers £775. 

Enfield Town manager Andy Leese was a guest on “our local non-league” show on Wednesday and talked about a variety of subjects including the Corinthian Casuals victory, the Bedfont Sports defeat on penalties, Saturday’s upcoming Trophy game, the background to Mo’s signing and the challenge ahead.

Here is the link for those who haven’t yet seen it

Our AGM will be held via Zoom on Thursday 20 January 2022. You must be a member to attend but you can join now if you are not already a member.

You can join online at https://membermojo.co.uk/etfcs or by completing a membership form available at the Club Shop on match days.

Board Elections

We will very shortly be seeking nominations for the Board of Enfield Town FC . If this is something that interests you, you are welcome to speak to any member of the board about what this is likely to involve. To stand for election you must have been a member for one year and you will need 3 current members to support your nomination.

Enfield Town 1 Bedfont Sports 1 (Bedfont won 4-2 on penalties)

Enfield Town’s penalty curse struck again on Tuesday night as were knocked out of the Middlesex County Cup at the first time of asking by Step 4 Bedfont Sports, losing 4-2 on spotkicks after the game finished 1-1 over 90 minutes, writes Andrew Warshaw

The competition may not have been a priority but it was a disappointing end to a fixture we controlled for all but the last 20 minutes and should have won comfortably.

As expected, we fielded a number of fringe players so that the management team could have a look at those who don’t normally make the first-team squad.

But Bedfont’s team was also a far cry from their regular line-up. In fact it was virtually a youth team and included no fewer than six kids who had to get up for school the following morning, one of whom was their 16-year-old goalkeeper.

After the game, some Towners fans expressed their frustration on social media that it was too great a risk to have taken off our senior players at a time when we only winning 1-0 — and that we should first have made the game safe.

But the counter-argument is that we could  not have afforded any injuries to key members of the squad with so many crucial upcoming fixtures, starting with Saturday’s all-important trip to Biggleswade Town in the FA Trophy.

As for the game itself, we started with very much a mixture of youth and inexperience and bossed the first half in which the increasingly fit Ebramah Sawaneh looked particularly lively.

 Matt Walsh, who has been out on loan, led the line whilst the recently signed Luke Cook showed glimpses of what he can do and  Adi Connolly was solid in goal.

Apart from the occasional Bedfont raid, we dominated first-half proceedings, enjoying large swathes of possession and carving out a string of  corners and half-chances.

Cook arguably had the best of them, an overhead kick saved at the second attempt, but Bedfont somehow went in the level at the break

H-T 0-0

Only our final ball was lacking but it seemed a matter of time before we took the lead.  It duly came on the hour as Bedfont failed to clear a freekick and Nathan Smith lashed the ball home.

After a flurry of substitutions, Bedfont began to look threatening as they  grabbed hold of midfield.  It seemed as if it was too late for the Eagles but with five minutes to go, they equalised courtesy of the unmarked Lewis Pegg’s bullet header from a corner.  

And so to the dreaded penalties with Bedfont netting their first four but Cook and Andre Coker, the latter otherwise among our best players on the night, both squandering their kicks to hand our lower-league opponents a place in the next round.

Town: Connolly; Maluba, Smith, Bray, Chappell (Mohamed, 80); Sawaneh, Kiangebeni (kanbanba, 67), Taafe, Cook; Coker, Walsh (Desa, 65)

Following lengthy fruitful negotiations, we are delighted to announce that fans’ favourite Mo Faal has signed a contract, tying him to the club until the end of the season – a huge boost in helping us achieve our goal of reaching the playoffs and hopefully promotion, writes Andrew Warshaw

Despite being taken on by two higher-level clubs since his first spell with Town, Mo has always kept in touch and has forged an excellent relationship with the management and board as well as the fans.

Although at the start of the season Mo was unsure of his plans beyond Christmas, he has now decided to commit himself to us for the whole campaign.

“It’s been in the offing but I’m glad to have signed a new deal till end of the season,” said Mo. “The support and confidence shown from the Chairman, Gaffer, Mario, Ian and the staff as a whole has been amazing.

“They give me the love and confidence to do what I do best. It’s been a good start for us and myself personally but I’m excited to win more football games with this group and maximise our potential. We’ve got great togetherness, the club is on the up  and i couldn’t thank our amazing fans enough who’ve supported the team from the start. I’m sure with these group of lads we’ll reach those targets.”

Both manager Andy Leese and chairman Paul Reed summed up what retaining Mo’s services means for the club.

“We’ve had a very encouraging start to the campaign and Mo’s goals have been integral to this,” said Paul. “The deal gives both Mo and the club security for the rest of the season and hope demonstrates the boards commitment to support Andy and the management team build and retain the best possible squad”

Andy commented: “l am equally delighted to secure Mo. He’s been fantastic since he came back to us and loves being part of this club. We have a great working relationship and I’m delighted we have been able to agree a new deal. It has been a few weeks in the making but Mo has kept his head down and continued to deliver on the pitch. Huge credit goes to the chairman and the Board as well for making this happen.”

Corinthian Casuals 1 Enfield Town 2

Report by Martin Bentley

Another hard-fought win, this time over a spirited Corinthian Casuals side, kept Town in second place in the league as we came up with two late goals after the home side had taken a surprise lead.

We may not have been at our best but who knows how significant this victory might be come the end of the season.

Town replaced the holidaying Lee Chappell and Sam Youngs with Jon Muleba and Lewis Taaffe while Andre Coker started up front with Mo Faal.

The only charitable description of a goalless first half would be ‘shapeless’ as both teams struggled to string any coherent moves together, largely due to a stiff end-to-end breeze.

A string of injury breaks also disrupted the flow of the game, and resulted in almost four minutes of added time.

Town at least started on the front foot, forcing three early corners, the last of which was volleyed over the bar by Harold Joseph.

The game then settled into a lengthy period of disjointed skirmishing with too many passes blown off course by the wind and not a single shot on target from either side.

Only a couple of dangerous crosses from Keiron Cadogan threatened Nathan McDonald’s goal, while Town’s best chance came from a typical Mo Faal surge from the halfway line, but Enfield’s top scorer delayed his pass too long and was dispossessed.

H-T 0-0

Improvement at the start of the second half? Well, not really. More misplaced passes and overhit through balls, and, to be honest, the game had the words ‘goalless draw’ running through it like a stick of Blackpool Rock.

Casuals, however, weren’t reading that particular script. After 56 minutes, Emmanual Mensah found himself in far too much space on the right wing and the  home winger scooted into the box and buried a low shot into the far corner.

Things did not look good for the Town at that point though Taaffe managed our second on-target shot of the game that was well held by home keeper Danny Bracken.

Incisive football from either side was at a premium before we suddenly turned the game on its head.

With 16 minutes remaining, Mo tiptoed his way into a shooting position and his effort flew out of the keeper’s grasp, over his head and into the net for the equaliser.

Now Town pressed forward in search of a winner. The home side conceded a stream of free kicks as Ryan Kirwan and Lyle Della-Verde attacked down the left.

The winner came courtesy of a scorcher from Della-Verde whose freekick was played back into his path, his subsequent low drive finding the bottom left corner of Bracken’s net.

 Town saw out the remaining six minutes, and seemingly a week of added time, without undue difficulty, and a hard-won three points were secured, made even sweeter by the fact that of the other contenders in and around the top, only Worthing were victorious.

Town line-up: McDonald, Muleba, Kirwan, Maja, Gyebi, Joseph, Kiangebeni, Taaffe (Cunnington 62), Della-Verde, Faal, Coker (Bray 79) Unused subs: Sawaneh, Smith, Cook