Waltham Abbey 2 Enfield Town 3

Report By Andrew Warshaw

Entertaining passages of play mixed with defensive sloppiness. In other words, plenty of work still to do in the remaining two weeks before the big kick-off.

That was pretty much how sum up another tight pre-season win over Step 4 opposition on Saturday.

On a pitch that was a credit to our opponents, we were again missing a number of key players and Waltham Abbey presented more than a decent challenge, if anything enjoying the better of the second half.

While there was much to admire about some of our build-up play, there is still some concern about several aspects going into the final two friendlies, not least relinquishing possession when going forward and our new-look pressing game at times not working as instructed, leaving us too strung out on occasions.

We could not really have got off to a better start, however. With just 55 seconds on the clock, a Sam Youngs shot was blocked and Marcus Wyllie followed up to score.

Marcus is getting more and more confident and his second goal on 32 minutes was a joy to behold. A clever Sami Bessadi dummy from a right-wing cross fell to Mickey Parcell whose forward pass appeared to be cut out by a defender, only for Marcus to nick the ball away and finish deftly (pictured).

In between, Rhys Forster had to be on his toes to keep out a couple of home efforts whilst Abbey also hit our woodwork.

With halftime approaching, they reduced the deficit under farcical circumstances courtesy of an own goal, a dodgy back pass to Rhys hitting him in the stomach and rolling over the line despite him back-pedalling to try and keep it out.

But we quickly restored out two-goal lead, Sam Youngs burying a free header from a Jo Payne long throw.

The sight of Jake Cass leading the line with power and authority was a huge tonic for the management and all Towners fans. Jake almost scored with an audacious overhead kick, managing 45 minutes in his first pre-season outing as he improves his fitness.

H-T 1-3

We might well have been out of sight on chances but six minutes after halftime, Abbey cut the deficit again as a result of yet more defensive hesitation.

They then proceeded to have more of the ball as Gavin rang the changes though with three minutes left, we should have wrapped things up when triallist shot straight at the keeper with the goal at his mercy.

“If there was going to be a lull, it was probably this game because they’ve been going Tuesday, Thursday in training, then Saturday,” Gavin explained afterwards.

“Some of what I saw was very pleasing. On the other hand some players didn’t step up and take responsibility for certain things. And you can’t legislate for the goals which were two of the worst I’ve seen in a long time, and that can’t go on.”

“But they were a week, if not two,  ahead of us in terms of their pre-season and were therefore a little bit sharper.”

“There’s still work to do to get the players round to our way of thinking. We are transitioning from a certain style of football into another but we should hopefully  see a progression going forward by the time we play  Concord Rangers. Everyone needs to be singing from the same songsheet.”

Town starting lineup:

Forster; Parcell, Okotcha, Richmond, Payne; Thomas, Youngs, Bessadi, Becles-Richards; Cass, Wyllie

The draw for the 23-24 Fenix Trophy has been announced, with the 12 participating teams learning where they will travel across the continent.

Enfield Town have been drawn in Group A with Copenhagen-based side BK Skjold, the current colders of the tournament; and Welsh side Llantwit Major.

We are in discussions with both sides and will meet with players and management to schedule the fixtures. We will of course update you on any news if and when we get it.

Town make the short trip to Waltham Abbey tomorrow, Saturday, for the next assignment in our pre-season campaign, kickoff 3pm

Gavin Macpherson was distinctly displeased with Tuesday’s display and tomorrow should give an indication of how he intends to shape the group going forward.

Our Step 4 opponents, in the same division as Tuesday’s opponents Welwyn Garden City, finished last season mid-table but have won two and drawn two of their pre-season fixtures to date, scoring 14 goals in the process.

Waltham Abbey’s address is Capershotts, Sewardstone Road, Waltham Abbey EN9 1NX. See you there!

Sing it with us… We’re All Going On A European Tour!

We are thrilled to announce that Enfield Town have accepted an invitation to play in this season’s edition of the Fenix Trophy, a UEFA-approved European competition for non-professional clubs of exceptional social, historical, and cultural distinctiveness.

This is the third season of the tournament, with 12 teams taking part from right across the continent. Last season’s tournament was won by Copenhagen side BK Skjold, who beat Prague Raptors in the final in Milan.

We join these other sides in the competition:

– BK Skjold (Denmark)*
– Llantwit Major (Wales)
– Prague Raptors (Czechia)*
– Venus Bucuresti (Romania)
– FC United of Manchester (England)*  **
– Vinsky FC (France)
– KSK Beveren (Belgium)*
– Lewes FC (England)**
– Krakow Dragoons (Poland)
– Gilla FC (Finland)

*Seeded Teams
**Sides from the same nation are kept apart

There will be 4 groups of 3 teams, with 2 home and 2 away games. Each match will be streamed on the official Fenix Trophy YouTube channel. The draw is taking place this coming Saturday at 1pm – make sure your passports are up to date!

We will update you on when we arrange fixtures (these were after October in last year’s edition) as soon as we have news.

 Welwyn Garden City 1 Enfield Town 3

Report by Andrew Warshaw

Enfield Town ran out 3-1 winners at Step 4 Welywn Garden City on Tuesday, finally getting on the scoresheet after three pre-season outings without a goal.

Yet Gavin Macpherson was far from happy afterwards, describing  the performance as a step back  and hinting strongly that some tough decisions will have to be made.

After highly creditable displays against QPR  Development, Spurs Under-21 and Bracknell, our first-half showing at Welwyn – managed by former Town favourite Marc Weatherstone — was poor against lower-league opposition in terms of passing, composure and communication though Mickey Parcell put in another commanding eye-catching performance.

After Gavin and the management team made a series of halftime changes, ball retention improved considerably, leading to a couple of excellent strikes from Marcus Wyllie and Sami Bessadi.

Town’s opening pre-season goal came on 15 minutes from the penalty spot. Charlie Crowley made a superb save but in the ensuing melee, Zak Brown was adjudged to have handled and  Reece Beckles-Richards fired home though Crowley got a good hand to the ball.

Ten minutes before the break, the Citizens levelled, also from the spot. Louis Birch, playing out of position at central defence following the late withdrawal of Kyle Bailey, made a holding midfielder-type challenge on Bailey Stevenson who proceeded to get to his feet and fire home the equaliser.

Both sides made a number of halftime subs and ours fortunately proved decisive with the likes of Sam Youngs and Scott Thomas adding authority and stability.

On 68 minutes we regained the lead after the best move of the game ended with Marcus drilling a right-foot strike into the far corner.

Three minutes from time, not one, but two goalbound strikes were blocked by the Welwyn defence. But when the ball fell to Bessadi he made no mistake with the third attempt, thrashing the ball home with a composed finish.

In truth we should have had more but Welwyn also had their fair share of chances and Gavin was distinctly non-plussed with the overall display.

“We had a few established players missing tonight but I can’t say I was best pleased, especially at halftime,” he said.

“Even if we’d won 6-1, I didn’t see some of the things I wanted to see and I wrote a lot of things down with a view to going forward to training on Thursday.

“To be perfectly honest,  I’d been pleased with the first three games and although tonight we stuck the ball in the net, I expected more from some of the players. I’ve seen a lot of good things come out in training so far but in some respects this was a step backwards.”

With the business end of pre-season to come in the next three games, Gavin didn’t mince his words.

“A few have knocked on my door saying they should be more involved but unfortunately some of them came up short. We now have to have some conversations. A few who’ve been with us simply won’t be in training on Thursday,  that’s the grim reality. It’s hard but that’s being a manager!”

“On another level it’s the best game we could have had in terms of making some decisions. I have to go what I feel in terms of getting it down to a group.”

Town starting line-up:

Connolly; Parcell, Birch, Okotcha, Payne; Wilkes, triallist, triallist; Beckles-Richards, Wyllie, triallist

Second half subs included Youngs, Thomas, Richmond and several triallists

Enfield Town 0 Bracknell Town 0

Report By Martin Bentley

Enfield Town played out their second consecutive goalless draw in pre-season against Southern League Bracknell Town on Saturday, although this game was of a different nature to Tuesday’s stalemate with Tottenham Hotspur’s Development squad.

Against opponents of equal standing to us, Town were able to attack more, and were unlucky not to get on the scoresheet, particularly in the first half.

Playing a passing game aimed at getting behind the visitors’ defence, Town succeeded in fashioning several good scoring chances, with Reece Beckles-Richards (pictured left), twice, and Sami Bessadi all having one-on-ones saved by visiting keeper Michael Eacott.

In addition, Joe Payne’s clever free-kick was well saved and Oliver Knight’s cross from the left curled on to the top of a startled Eacott’s cross bar.

Bracknell’s main attacking threat came from their wingers Zidan Akers and a triallist, with the former’s shot hitting the side netting and the triallist’s effort being well saved by Rhys Forster.

The mass second half substitution did not come until 65 minutes had passed, and the game unsurprisingly became more disjointed at this point.

Town still fashioned a few half-chances, mostly from the triallists on show, as well as Kian Wilkes’ far post header that was grabbed by Eacott.

Encouragingly, the second string Town defence succeeded in protecting Adi Connolly from any direct second half threat.

All-in-all, Town’s performances continue to be encouraging. All we need now is a few goals!

“I was pleased with the way we played. There are new concepts being added as we develop and I’m seeing pretty much what I want to see for pre-season at Step 3,” said Gavin Macpherson.

“I am however fully aware that we all like to see some goals and from the number of clear chances we created we should win the game comfortably.  So the in-possession creativity is on schedule but we need to start taking responsibility in front of goal whilst continuing to look solid.”

First half line-up: Forster, Parcell, Payne, Thomas (c), Bailey, Richmond, Bessadi, Youngs, Beckles-Richards, Triallist, Knight

Subs at 65 minutes: Connolly, Birch, Wyllie, Wilkes + 7 Triallists

Our third pre-season fixture against Bracknell Town tomorrow, Saturday, is a very special occasion.

Dubbed Community Day, we welcome our Emergency Services to the stadium who will put on demonstrations for children and adults alike, including how to carry out CPR.

With the emphasis on youth, other activities in the build-up to kick-off will be a magician and live band.

Adults will be charged only £5 between noon and 1.30, with children entering for free.

Everyone is welcome to stay on afterwards for the game against Bracknell Town, an extremely strong Step 3 side who last season reached the first round of the FA Cup and lost in the final of the playoffs in Southern League Premier Division South.

“They’re a very good Step 3 side,” said manager Gavin Macpherson. “It’s a good opportunity almost at the halfway stage of pre-season to see where we’re at against a side at our level.”

Enfield Town 0 Tottenham U21 0

By Andrew Warshaw

Just what the doctor ordered is perhaps the best way to sum up Tuesday night’s prestige friendly against a Tottenham Under-21 side.

Gavin and his management team got just what they asked for in terms of concentrating on how we performed off the ball, with players covering for each other and not leaving too many gaps for the visitors to exploit.

The crowd of 1,125 was a revelation, some 300 more than for the same fixture last season, and whilst there were no goals, there was plenty of encouragement for the rest of the pre-season campaign when the focus will switch to seeing how we take the game to opposition from the same level as us, or lower.

It was inevitable that our visitors, many of whom  had trained with the Spurs senior team and won both the under-17 and under-18 Premier League Cup, would control the game and have almost all the possession.

But in truth, they didn’t carve out too many clearcut chances, the two best both saved — by Rhys Forster’s spectacular tip-over from Dante Cassanova in the first half (pictured) and Adi Connolly pushing Lyons-Foster’s deflected effort onto the upright in the second period.

Rio Kyerematen and Nile John missed further chances but although Tottenham’s pace and dribbling skills were there for all to see, we kept our shape throughout and closed off the spaces as best we could.

Just as against QPR on Saturday, Gavin fielded two separate elevens in each half, with five of our summer recruits playing the first 45 minutes and Reece Beckles-Richards making a promising Town debut when introduced after halftime.

Louis Birch’s lung-busting industry and Ollie Knight’s crossing ability will surely be huge assets and although he was still nursing an injury, it was encouraging to see Jake Cass do some light running on the touchline as he attempts to regain fitness.

“Very pleased with our night’s work,” said Gavin afterwards. “How often have we been broken down by two professional clubs, on Saturday and tonight? Not that often. Your out of possession work is worth a lot points.”

 “What we saw in the last two games is what we’ve been working on in training. We can now tick that box to an extent and move on to what we want to build with the ball.”

“That’ll take some time. I’m still seeing things I don’t particularly like such as going long too quickly. We’ve got different ideas and the players are having to adapt. Having said that, they are not going to meet teams at Step 3 as sharp as Spurs in terms of closing down your passing options.”

Next up Bracknell on Saturday. “They’re a very good Step 3 side,” said Gavin. “It’s a good opportunity almost at the halfway stage of pre-season to see where we’re at against a side at our level.”

Town

first half: Forster, Parcell (c), Payne, Birch, Trailist, Richmond, Bessadi, Youngs, Trialist, Wyllie, Knight.

Second half Connolly, Bailey, Trialist, Trialist, Trialist, Thomas (c), Taaffe, Trialist, Beckles-Richards, Trialist, Wilkes. Substitute: Trialist.

After Saturday’s promising opener against Queens Park Rangers, pre-season continues on Tuesday with our eagerly awaited traditional home fixture against a Tottenham Hotspur under-21 selection

This game always generates huge local interest and a bumper crowd is expected for the 7.30 kickoff with tickets available via the website or on the door.

Get there as soon as possible is the message for supporters ahead of what should be a cracking atmosphere against our prestigious near-neighbours.

By Andrew Warshaw

You can’t get much more local than Reece Beckles-Richards.

So when our exciting new forward, who has played for three of our local rivals, got a chance to join us from Cheshunt and move a few miles down the A10, he made up his mind pretty fast.

“There’s not a more local club I can play for and it didn’t take long for the gaffer to sell it to me,” said Reece who should be available for the Tottenham friendly on Tuesday.

“I’ve lived in the borough my whole life and now live literally five minutes from the ground. I could even walk there in 20 minutes.”

Still only 27, Reece brings bags of experience to the club not only from his three years at Cheshunt (his brief loan spell at Potters Bar last season consisted of one game – the Velocity final) but also at the likes of Farnborough, Hornchurch and, of course, Wingate and Finchley.

“I guess it does seem odd that I never played for Enfield before given where I was born and brought up. It nearly happened at one point but didn’t quite work out. A lot of my friends have played there, including Joe Payne, Mickey Parcell and Mo Faal and it’ll be great to meet up again with two of them.”

The stats might say Reece scored 23 goals in 83 goals for Cheshunt but he reckons it was more like 47 in all competitions. A natural marksman, he can’t wait to put on a blue and white shirt.

“Games against Enfield, whether when I was at Cheshunt or Wingate, were always tough,” says Reece who has the distinction of an international cap for Antigua and Barbuda back in 2015. “But now the boot is on the other foot, so to speak.”

Expanding on what it was about Gavin Macpherson that drew him to Town, Reece continued: “A lot of it was down to his honesty. I’m at an age now when I know instinctively  if a manager is telling me the truth rather than trying to spin things.”

“I had a few other Step 3 clubs interested in me but when it came about, it just made sense. I’m hoping to bring lots of goals as well as entertainment. I like to have fun. Obviously I want to win and the aim is to finish as high as possible. Promotion is obviously the ultimate goal but I understand that’s not always realistic.”

“What I will say is that whenever I’ve played against Enfield, I’ve always seen how amazing the fans are and this just seems the right fit at this stage of my career.”