If the home game on Easter Monday against Haringey was our biggest game of the season until then, this Saturday is now even more important with just two fixtures left.

If we can cause an upset at  league leaders Bishop’s Stortford and/or Cray Wanderers plus those just below us slip up, then a playoff place is very much back in play.

The title will in all likelihood be won by Saturday’s  opponents or Hornchurch or Canvey Island  but of  more concern to us is the five-horse race for fifth  place and the final play-off spot between ourselves, Cray, Lewes, Horsham and Hastings United.

Cray may be favourites on paper but it may well go to the last day of the season on April 22.

The challenge for us, one point behind Cray, couldn’t be much greater.  Runners-up last season, then beaten in the playoffs like we were, Stortford have won their last five games without conceding a goal and could clinch the title and win automatic promotion on Saturday if results go in their favour.

Of course we don’t want to give them that luxury at our expense and are well capable of stopping them in their tracks if we reproduce our best form which we may need to do to stay in the hunt. Our chances will certainly be boosted by a strong following in our final away game of the regular season.

Directions to the ground:

Meanwhile, congratulations to our Under-12 Side who won an international tournament in Italy over the Easter weekend beating Posilipo Santa Maria 4-0 in the final. We will be inviting them as our special guests to the Aveley fixture so we can all show our appreciation of their efforts.

Enfield Town Player of The Season

If you have not done so already vote for your Enfield Town player of the season using the link below.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for our right-back Juevan Spencer who hasn’t been able to walk freely, work or play football since suffering a terrible ACL injury playing for Town at Billericay in February.

Andre Coker has set up the page for Jueven who was in fantastic form at the time of his injury and has been a significant loss to the squad.

Jueven risks being out of action for up to two years unless funds are made available for him to receive treatment privately.

Andre explains:  “After waiting on the scan results, Juevan has been told he would need two operations to rectify his injuries.

“Due to the current circumstances in the NHS, he was advised he faced a minimum of 10 months on the waiting list with an additional 9-12 months for full rehabilitation and recovery. Essentially, Juevan could be looking at 2 years of not being able to walk freely, work or play football.”

“Our aim, hopefully with the support from family, friends, the club, and the football community, we hope we can come together to raise enough money so that Juevan is able to receive private treatment and care and reduce the time he is waiting by half.”

“Not only is football a huge part of Juevan’s life but it is also a source of income for him and his family and the thing he loved doing the most. We appreciate times are hard but we would be grateful for any help and support to get Juevan back fit again.

Please donate to Juevan’s GoFundMe page if you are in a position to do so:

Horsham 3 Enfield Town 1

Report by Martin Bentley

Enfield Town’s play-off hopes took a major hit at the Camping World Community Stadium as defensive errors, as well as a brilliantly executed freekick, saw a disciplined Horsham side take the three points.

 Town are still clinging on to fifth but are now just one point ahead of the chasing pack fronted by Cray, with three daunting-looking final games remaining.

Town welcomed back skipper Scott Thomas to the starting line-up, with Josh Okotcha replacing an ill Lewis Knight at the centre of the defence.

The game started with a bang with both sides squandering a good chance in the opening five minutes, Jake Cass for Town, and Jack Mazzone for the home side.

Apart from Mazzone’s 16^th minute deflected effort that was gathered by Nathan McDonald, the main feature of the ensuing period were yellow cards for Andre Coker and Horsham’s Chris Sessegnon for a goalmouth dust-up, and one for Cass, following an incident involving Town’s centre forward and the home keeper Taylor Seymour’s water bottle.

Five minutes before half time though, the home side got their noses in front. Joe Payne pulled back Tom Kavanagh as he raced into the box, and Mazzone sent McDonald the wrong way from the penalty spot.

The second half saw Town introduce Adam Cunnington in place of Coker, and they got themselves back on level terms after eight minutes, Cass volleying in Payne’s right wing corner.

Five minutes later though, Town found themselves behind once again. Okotcha conceded a freekick 25 yards from goal, and home skipper Kavanagh proceeded to whip an unstoppable effort over the wall and past a helpless McDonald.

Once again Town chased an equaliser, their best opportunity falling to Cass, whose effort was well saved by Seymour.

Andy Leese introduced Khale da Costa and debutant Michael Bakare up front late on, but the home side made the game safe ten minutes from time, James Richmond’s miskick presenting Charlie Hester-Cook with an unmissable opportunity from ten yards.

 It was a frustrating end to a disappointing Town performance, and immediate improvement is required to cement that final play-off place, starting with arguably our most crucial game of the season at home to Haringey Borough on Monday.

“Defensively today we weren’t good enough,” said Andy afterwards. “Bitterly disappointing and it’s made it harder for us. It’s still in our hands but we’re going to have to be a lot better than we were today.”

Town: McDonald, Renee, Payne, Thomas (Bakare 76), Okotcha, Richmond, Taaffe, (da Costa 76) Youngs, Cass, Dayton, Coker (Cunnington 45).

Saturday’s trip to Horsham marks the first in an eagerly anticipated Easter double header for Town as we bid to hold on to fifth spot and potentially climb even higher, with Haringey Borough to visit us 48 hours later on Easter Monday.

Eighth in the league and still in with an outside chance of a playoff position themselves, Horsham can be a tough nut to crack as last weekend’s surprise win over Hornchurch illustrates.

Horsham were trailing 2-1 with less than 10 minutes to go when Hornchurch had a a goal disallowed for offside. Video footage suggests there was nothing wrong with the goal and Horsham scored twice more in the last  seven minutes.

Nearly 1,300 were at the game and a similar attendance is expected this weekend with a significant Town contingent.

The crowd is expected to be boosted by a kids go free for Easter policy.

In midweek, Horsham’s last chance of silverware vanished when the Hornets crashed to a 4-1 loss at Hastings to exit the Sussex Senior Cup at the quarter-final stage. 

But that should perhaps be viewed in isolation given their league position.

For any Towners planning to travel on Saturday, there is a supporters’ coach leaving at 11am prompt.

Departure Point: QE II Stadium, Donkey Lane, Enfield, EN1 3PL

Departure Time: Leave 11.00.a.m. PROMPT

Cost: £18.00.

For Bookings please contact Les Gold on 07979727563

or lesgold@enfieldtownfootballclub.co.uk

For those travelling independently, use the following link.

Enfield Town 1 Cray Wanderers 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

If you can’t beat one of your nearest rivals, make sure you don’t lose.

So it was against Cray on Saturday though there was a sense of frustration at conceding an equaliser late on.

Cray, riding a four-game winning streak, will feel they did enough to deserve a point and the neutrals may agree with them. But nothing changes as far as the playoff places are concerned, meaning we remain in the box seat.

After the battle of fifth versus sixth, we still have a four-point gap in front of Cray and Lewes – who also drew – with four games left, every one of them a cup final.

With so much at stake for both sides it was a niggly, fragmented affair with several mini flare-ups off the ball, not helped by a heavy pitch, which passed a morning inspection.

Neither side could muster much rhythm in a war of attrition but the flow of the game wasn’t helped either by a spate of unnecessary stoppages caused in part by a referee making his Step 3 debut who was clearly out of his depth.

It wasn’t only the fact that he brandished a series of highly questionable bookings – five of them to Town and almost all them soft, yet now resulting in a financial sanction.

He also waved away at least two possible penalties and possibly a couple of red cards.

As for the game itself we got off to the perfect start on six minutes when visiting keeper Shaun Rowley, after making a superb double save moments earlier, proceeded to fumble a routine corner and Adam Cunnington pounced.

Cunns then appeared to get an elbow in the face, for which nothing was given, while a decent penalty shout for a Cray handball was waved away.

In a stop-start game of few clearcut chances, Town, unchanged from the impressive display against Hornchurch in midweek, might have been further ahead at the break.

The Wands offered little in the opening period and Freddie Carter was fortunate to only receive a caution for a late lunge on James Dayton.

Cray worked themselves back into the game in the final  minutes of the first half but there was little at halftime to suggest we couldn’t go on and win the game.

H-T 1-0

Perhaps it was inevitable, however, that we would drop off given the heavy pitch and that fact that Tuesday sapped a lot of our energy.

Whatever the reason, Cray started to move the ball quicker and commit more men forward.

Cue a timely double substitution by the management to try and help us get over the line.

It very nearly worked, only for the visitors to grab an 81^st minute equaliser.  A goalbound Dan Bassett volley was blocked and when Cray kept the ball alive, Harrison Sodje followed up to unleash a sublime low effort into the corner from 25 yards.

James Richmond, who put in another excellent shift, came to our rescue by getting his body in the way of a Destiny Oladipo effort from eight yards but in the last 10 minutes we came again and so nearly snatched a winner.

Rowley tipped away a goalbound inswinging corner, then did even better in a goalmouth scramble to pull off a terrific close-range save from Khale da Costa who in the ensuing ruck of players appeared to be impeded.

Andy Leese rued the late equaliser. “Nothing changes in terms of the table but it’s still incredibly  frustrating,” said Andy. “I didn’t think we were going to concede. The lads tell me it was a foul on Khale at the end but we didn’t get beaten and now we go again in the last four games.”

Town:

McDonald; Renee, Knight, Richmond; Payne, Dayton (Isaac, 60), Taaffe (Della-Verde, 86), Youngs; Cass, Coker (De Costa, 60), Cunnington:

Having put on a superb display in the 1-1 draw against Hornchurch in midweek, Enfield Town go into the final three weeks of the regular season with arguably an even more important six-pointer against Cray Wanderers tomorrow (kickoff 3pm)

In what is the crunch game of the day, fifth meets sixth separated by just four points — weather permitting, it has to be stressed.

Last Saturday’s 5-3 win over Horsham made it four wins out of four for free-scoring Cray, an indication of just how tough the encounter will be at QE11.

Cray are level with Lewes on 63 points with the Wands having a slightly better goal difference but any team down to Carshalton in 10^th still have a realistic chance of making the play-offs.

 In the reverse fixture in October, we drew 1-1 with Cray, Marcus Wyllie netting for the Town, and although a similar result would keep our noses in front, a win would give us a terrific boost and keep us in pole position going into the final four games of the campaign.

Usually games with Cray have tended to be high scoring affairs and with plenty of fire power in both sides, Saturday promises to be a mightily significant as well as entertaining affair.

Every game now is like a cup final for us and your support will once again be invaluable as we edge nearer to achieving our goal.

There will be a pitch inspection at 10:30 AM on Saturday morning because of the rain we have been experiencing.

In the event the game is postponed it could be arranged for Tuesday 4 April.

We are pleased to confirm that we have signed two players to help us negotiate a tough run-in to the season in our quest for a playoff place.

Hugely experienced forward Michael Bakare, whose international clearance didn’t come through in time to him to play against Hornchurch, has played for a plethora of clubs, most recently Helsinki IFK.

“We felt that was an area of the pitch where we needed to have more options,” Andy Leese said in the Hornchurch match programme.

We have also secured the services of Carlos Velasco, a Spanish rightback who has been training with us and has gone to Welwyn Garden City on a dual registration.

Welcome, gentlemen!

Enfield Town 1 Hornchurch 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

What a fine advertisement this was for Step 3 football.  Two teams going for it, individual battles all over the pitch, Town brave on the ball and in the end the points shared.

In terms of our run-in, it was extremely heartening, the only slight frustration being we couldn’t quite get the win against the league leaders.

The game plan, however, worked extremely well with two holding midfielders to close down space that might otherwise have been exploited by Hornchurch, combined with a counter-attacking system in which Andre Coker, especially, excelled.

Controlling the tempo of the game and matching our high-flying opponents augers well for what is in a sense an even bigger game on Saturday against Cray, the nearest play-off challengers below us who are now four points behind.

In what was effectively our game in hand – twice previously postponed due to the big freeze and county cup games – the rain that lashed down prior to kick-off thankfully survived a pitch inspection.

Town rewarded James Dayton for his excellent display against Herne Bay with a place in the starting line-up while Adam Cunnington was selected up top alongside Jake Cass.

Town started on the front foot and Tom Wraight was booked for a late challenge on Sam Youngs. After 11 minutes, a 25-yard Joe Payne freekick couldn’t have got much closer as it skimmed the top of the bar.

Payne was then called into action at the other end as he somehow cut out Liam Nash’s first-time shot.

Next came a chance for the visitors’ Jordan Clark who found space on the edge of the box but thankfully placed his shot too close to Nathan McDonald.

As the end to end action continued, McDonald dropped on the ball in a goalmouth scramble whilst for the Town James Richmond saw his goalbound header cleared away.

 James Dayton went into the book for a foul on Sam Higgins but on 37 minutes Coker produced a moment of magic, turning inside his marker before lashing a shot goalwards, only for Joe Wright – one of three ex-Towners in a red shirt – to turn it aside.

Hornchurch appeals for a Lewis Knight handball went unheeded and as half time approached, so both goals came – within 30 seconds of each other.  

First, Nash converted a Clark cross from the left but before Hornchurch could celebrate, we equalised straight from the restart.

Johnville Renee, who spent most of the evening looking after chief dangerman Ade Youssef,  made a rare foray forward, exchanged passes with Coker and fired home (Pictured).

H-T 1-1.

Not surprisingly, given the frantic pace of a breathless opening 45 minutes, there was a quieter start to the second period which brought two more yellow cards, firstly for former Towner Mickey Parcell and then Lewis Knight.

Urged on by the 600-plus crowd, we kept probing and midway through the half Coker broke clear but was stopped by a fine Rickie Hayles tackle. At the other end Richmond did brilliantly to fend off Yusuff.

With 15 minutes left, we made a double change – Khale Da Costa replacing James Dayton and Lyle Della-Verde for the tiring Coker.

Della-Verde was quickly involved with a pair of freekicks centrally placed just outside the area.

Against most opponents, at least one of them would have gone in. But Hornchurch had done their homework and both efforts were  headed off the line by another former Towner, Remi Sutton, though from the second one – in the final minute of normal time — Cunnington so nearly converted the rebound to win the game, Joe Wright coming to the rescue.

Seven minutes earlier, Hornchurch themselves might have snatched a late advantage when Higgins, taking advantage of the offside flag inexplicably staying down, shot towards the far corner, only for McDonald to thankfully save with an outstretched leg.

It was that kind of game but the fact that we had double the shots on target says much about how we performed and Andy Leese was delighted.

“I thought we were excellent,” said Andy. “Probably a spell in the first half where we lost our way a little but the second half I thought we dominated. Really heartened by today’s performance: disciplined, battling. We just lacked a little bit of quality at times but generally really pleased.”

Town:

McDonald; Renee, Knight, Richmond, Payne; Taaffe, Youngs, Dayton (Da Costa, 74), Coker (Della Verde, 74); Cunnington, Cass

It’s finally come round and promises to be a cracker.

Tuesday night we entertain league leaders Hornchurch  (kickoff 7.45) at the start of a tough six-game run-in that will determine where we end up in the league.

It’s a game we have all been waiting for, with three ex-Towners possibly in their starting line-up, and has been given extra spice by the fact that the Urchins lost at the weekend while our confidence has been boosted with back-to-back away wins.

Victory tomorrow night in what is effectively our game in hand will put us just two points behind Canvey and Aveley, who are third and fourth, and we are expecting a bumper crowd, probably our biggest of the season.

Hornchurch’s shock 3-2 home defeat to Margate on Saturday after being two goals in front was their first in the league for 12 games stretching back to the end of January.

In the corresponding match against us at the start of the season, we narrowly lost 3-2 at their place. We all know about their fire power but on our day we are a match for anyone and will be out to avenge that result as well as the heartbreaking playoff semifinal loss at the end of last season.

With sixth-placed Cray Wanderers to come at the weekend – another massive six-pointer – it’s all about maintaining our resolve during what promises to be a nail-biting finale over the next month when we play four of the top six.

COYT!