Huge congratulations to our assistant manager, Mario Noto, who completed Sunday’s London Marathon in a time of four hours, 16 minutes, writes Andrew Warshaw.

Mario has managed to raise over £5,000 including a healthy donation from those who attended our league game against Corinthian Casuals.

The money will be split between the Royal Papworth hospital and Haven House Children’s Hospice, the former having performed a life-saving heart transplant operation on his godfather.

Mario, who had trained for the race since July, hit the notorious pain wall around the 15-mile mark when his calf started to cramp up but he was determined to continue.

“I may have torn it but I just gritted my teeth and kept going,” he explained. “I wanted the time to be a bit quicker but it was an amazing experience so I can’t be too down on myself.”

“I had all my family there and even saw a few people I knew during the race including one lad I even used to coach. Everyone got behind everyone else regardless of gender, race or anything else. There was a proper community feel about it with so many people coming out to support.

“It’ll probably take me around a week to feel my body is back to normal but I’d definitely do it again.”

Well done Maz from everyone at Enfield Town FC

Scandinavian  football fans are renowned for flying over to the UK to watch Premier League fixtures at the weekend, writes Andrew Warshaw.

But it isn’t every day they opt exclusively for the non-league game instead.

It was therefore both a surprise and a pleasure to welcome seven Danish fans and 17 Swedes for our recent 2-0 home win over with Corinthian Casuals.

Both trips were organised entirely separately and provided an international feel to the game which was also attended by two Italian supporters. Enfield Town’s reach is obviously stretching far and wide!

All the Swedish fans were members of a so-called “brothers in sport” society and supporters of first division club IFK Norrköping .

They chose to come and watch us as the first in a three-match weekend itinerary and afterwards both clubs exchanged pennants.

Gunnar Hagberg, who helped organise the Swedish trip, explained: “We go to England on a regular basis to watch football but we always tend to go to clubs like Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal.”

“This time we wanted to look for the roots of the game, to find football’s true soul, something we think has been lost in top-division football.”

Luckily for Gunnar and his friends, we just happened to be playing on a Friday night since they had already made arrangements for Saturday and Sunday.

“I checked through the fixture list and saw Enfield were playing on Friday. We couldn’t miss that instead of going out somewhere in London,” said Gunnar. “We had a brilliant time. The rain was perfect for football! We really enjoyed it and everyone was so friendly. It’s been a real treat.”

Needless to say, both the bar and the club shop did a roaring trade among our Scandinavian guests!

Although we are in step 7 of the national pyramid, Gunnar (pictured with another Swedish fan) says we could hold our own much higher up in Sweden. “I was talking to some of our coaches who came with us and they reckon Enfield Town would be the equivalent of the Swedish third division.”

“They were surprised and impressed how intense the game was.  We will definitely be spreading the word!”

Enfield Town 2 Corinthian Casuals 0

Report by Andrew Warshaw

If ever the expression “job done” was appropriate, this was it.

Any club in any division would look a trifle leggy after having to play three games in six days so huge credit to the players for grinding out another three points that have pushed us to within striking distance of the top.

Players and management now deservedly have a week’s rest before the eagerly awaited FA trophy tie with Chesham, basking in the knowledge that they have responded superbly to the FA Cup debacle at Canvey Island with three straight wins and an increasingly healthy competition for places.

 This fixture was originally due to take place on Saturday at Casuals but was reversed to Friday at QEII as a result of a tree falling on the Casuals clubhouse.  As a result, Enfield played in light blue because the only kit Casuals could muster was one with white shirts.

The swirling rain hampered ball control but Town’s opener on 38 minutes defied the conditions, recent  signing Wraynel Hercules, who had missed two earlier chances,  unleashing a stunning strike (pictured) that dipped markedly at the last moment.

The goal was as spectacular as it was unexpected given what had gone before which wasn’t very much as both teams defended in depth and tried to hit the opposition on the break. A timely clearance by Ruben Carvalho prevented Adam Cunnington pouncing on a whipped-in Andre Coker cross while a trademark Joe Payne long throw was almost turned in.

As for the visitors, Elijah Simpson fired just wide while Rian Bray’s interception prevented Mohamed Diallo from getting in a shot.

H-T 1-0

 Soon after the break, Casuals appeared to have a decent penalty shout waved away, only to concede a spotkick themsleves on the hour. Coker was bundled over by Benjamin Checklit and got up to confidently double our lead.

Andre almost made it three, spooning over the bar from six yards, while substitute Lyle della-Verde’s run and shot whistled past the post.

At the other end Dequane Wilson-Brathwaite brilliantly cleared of the line as Casuals tried to respond while Mohamed Diallo’s bullet header whistled narrowly wide.

The visitors will rue a string of crosses being dealt with efficiently by Town’s defence which was arguably the best part of our game on the night.

“Not the best of games but they’re the sort of fixtures you just have to dig out,” said Andy Leese. “Especially in our position – three games in six days effectively. We weren’t at our best tonight but we’ve done what mattered. And kept a clean sheet.”

Town:

McDonald; Spencer, Wilson-Braithwaite, Bray, Payne; Hercules (Sayoud, 68), Thomas, Youngs, Dayton (Della-Verde, 75); Coker (Wyllie), Cunnington