The scrapping of all FA Cup replays from the first round proper, starting next season, is perhaps the starkest and most damaging example yet of how the game’s lesser lights are being marginalised by the elite.

As the country’s first fan-owned club, the board at Enfield Town FC deplore this short-sighted approach which is hugely detrimental to the development of and, in some cases, survival of non-league teams.

The FA Cup is the world’s oldest domestic knockout competition and every year hundreds of non-league teams throughout the pyramid dream of reaching the Holy Grail of the first round proper and beyond. Horsham, in our own division, are a classic example, having taken League One Barnsley to a first-round replay this season.

Scrapping cup replays has served only to wreck those dreams, seemingly without any consultation with grassroots clubs.

Replays have long been ingrained in a competition that is is over 150 years old and have provided some of the tournament’s greatest and most iconic moments.

This self-serving, ill-conceived decision has, in one fell swoop, severely undermined the magic of the cup as well as the chance of a once-in-a-lifetime financial windfall.

The trade-off, we are told, is that there will be a significant increase in funding to lower leagues and grassroots football. Where is the evidence for this? The damage this rash, ill-advised move will cause is far greater than the effect of some token payment.

If concerns about a congested calendar for Premier League clubs really is that much of an issue, we fail to understand the thinking behind getting rid of replays in the first and second rounds when neither of the two top divisions take part.

We at Enfield Town FC join scores of our colleagues in urging the FA and Premier League to think again, protect the integrity of the FA Cup and respect the hopes and aspirations of non-league clubs whose underdog status represents the very essence of the competition and for whom cup replays are often their very lifeblood.

The celebrations may be on hold but a single point in Sussex tomorrow will guarantee Enfield Town’s playoff place after a hugely impressive campaign that has seen players and management alike constantly rise to the occasion.

Even a defeat at the Pilot Field  would be enough if Billericay fail to win at Carshalton but the emphasis is very much on trying to make it 13 league games unbeaten as we head into final week of the season hoping to secure that all-important home semifinal draw.

Hastings’ own playoff hopes were dashed by last weekend’s home defeat to Whitehawk despite the hosts missing a string of excellent chances. The U’s will be all out to give their fans a performance to remember in what is their final home game of the campaign.

Finishing sixth would be Hastings’ highest ever final league placing – and seventh the joint best – which means they still have plenty to play for.  Their players will also be  looking  for a starting spot in the Sussex Senior Cup final against Horsham.

“Obviously there will be a quiet satisfaction tomorrow if we make it,” said Gavin Macpherson. “But I wont be running around punching the air.”

“We have to acknowledge that we still have work to do. The aim at the start of the season was to give ourselves a chance of promotion but I’m not one of the those managers who goes jumping for joy in the crowd.”

“Hastings are an excellent footballing side, another one of those teams who can cause you problems. Just because they can’t make the playoffs, they’ll still want to finish as high as they can and go out on a high.”

Third-placed Town, as we know, will definitely be without the injured Ollie Knight and the suspended Mickey Parcell – both hugely influential – as well as long-term injury victim James Richmond.

With a couple of others also doubtful the squad could be significantly stretched, meaning a juggling act is potentially on the cards for the management team though Joe Payne is available again.

“It looks like we’re going to have to do it the hard way,” said Gavin. “We’ll have to see who we have available and go from there.”

AW

Enfield Town 3 Potters Bar Town 1

Report by Andrew warshaw

Third-placed Town stretched their unbeaten league record to 12 games but the latest  maximum haul in the final derby of the season came at a heavy cost.

All thoughts go to Ollie Knight who collapsed at halftime and was later taken to hospital by ambulance after suffering what appeared to be a serious shoulder injury.

Losing a player of Ollie’s ability at such a crucial stage cannot be over-estimated and we wish Ollie, who has had a terrific season with his wing-play and assists, all the very best in his recovery as we push on towards guaranteeing a playoff place.

Marcus Wyllie’s brace took his league tally to 30 at the top of the division’s scoring charts but we ended up finishing the game with nine men.

With the Scholars compressing midfield, this was never going to be a classic. Indeed Sam Youngs had one of his quieter games but Town’s superior fire power was the all-important difference.

With both teams short on enterprise, the first half was a somewhat untidy affair. Taylor Mckenzie’s superb early intervention thwarted Temi Bababola while at the other end Dylan Adjei-Hersey fired just wide.

The deadlock was broken on 26 minutes when Marcus ran on to a superb Jake Cass headed assist and tucked the ball home.

The roles were then reversed when Marcus played in Jake who could only shoot tamely with three players around him while at the other end Brandon Adams blasted wildly over.

As halftime approached, Bar’s assistant boss and former Town favourite Liam Hope was yellow-carded for what can only be assumed were some choice verbals, followed by Lateef Adaja screwing a shot wide for the visitors.

H-T 1-0

Town emerged for the second period without the luckless Ollie Knight, replaced by namesake Ollie Turner, but Marcus’ lethal presence in front of goal soon came to the fore once again as he notched his 30^th league goal of the campaign, a remarkable tally.

On 63 minutes he kept his composure to bury a fine assist from Reece Beckles-Richards, the latter’s first touch off the bench (both pictured celebrating).

Beckles-Richards then put the game to bed with a sublime shot and turn before Mickey Parcell was shown a straight red card for going through Temi Bababola and will now miss our final three regular league games.

Luckily we were already virtually out of sight but Mickey’s dismissal handed momentum to the Scholars who had three decent chances against 10 men, Lewis Taaffe preventing one of them by heading off the line.

Babalola eventually reduced the deficit with 10 minutes left but for all their late possession and another huge chance for Babalola, Bar couldn’t make further inroads despite seven added minutes and Town finishing with a limping Taylor McKenzie off the pitch with a dead leg.

“It looks like an expensive day,” bemoaned Gavin Macpherson. “All our thoughts are with Ollie who we will of course miss badly.”

“On the pitch we were a poor version of what we normally are. I can’t really condone what Mickey did and now I’ve lost the right side of our defence for three games. We’ll have to see how Taylor is over the next week. They’re big hits obviously but we can only do what we can do. I can’t influence what goes on elsewhere.”

Town:

Forster; Parcell, McKenzie, Tanner; Adjei-Hersey, Thomas (Harvest 87), Youngs, Taaffe, Knight (Turner 46); Wyllie, Cass (Beckles-Richards,60)

At today’s game versus Potters Bar, Noah’s Ark Charity will be carrying out a collection

The club are proud to support Noah’s Ark Childrens Hospice. They provide essential support to children and families in the local area and beyond. Please give generously to this fantastic charity.

www.noahsarkhospice.org.uk

We are excited to announce details of the Fenix Trophy Final Four which will be over the weekend of the 10^th to 12^th May.

The semifinals (yet to be drawn) will be played on the Friday 10th (first game is at 6.30pm and the second at 9.30pm). A third-place decider between the two losing semifinalists will be held on Sunday 12th at 2pm with the final at 4.30pm.

All games will be played at the Stadio Tre Stelle in Desenzano del Garda on the banks of Lake Garda.

For those wishing to travel and support the Town at what will be a great celebration of football, the nearest airports are Verona or Milan Bergamo. Ryanair fly direct from Stansted to both. Alternatives are Easyjet or British Airways (Verona only) from Gatwick.

Desenzano del Garda is then approximately 30 minutes journey time by train from Verona and one and a half hours from Bergamo. Details of train times and fares can be found here – EN – Trenitalia

Accommodation packages are being provided by Fenix. There is a range of options and all include tickets for matches. If you do book one of these packages please ensure you highlight Enfield Town as your club as we will receive a commission on each booking made by our supporters. Details and Registration is here – registration.fenixtrophy2024.com

See you in Italy!

Our penultimate home league game of the regular season takes place tomorrow with the focus very much on trying to cement our play-off place as well as seeking that all-important home semifinal draw.

Visitors Potters Bar may have played both Tuesday and Thursday this week but derbies are always unpredictable affairs and Max Mitchell’s Scholars will be in no mood to give us anything in front of what will hopefully be another bumper attendance.

An 11-game unbeaten league run has put us in a fantastic position to dream of Step 2 football next season after what can only be described as a miraculous campaign.

Two wins out of four will get us over the line in terms of a definite playoff place while four points might well be enough. But dreams are often shattered and Gavin and his management team will be at pains to stress that even though we are third, nothing has been achieved yet with three more extremely tough fixtures on paper after tomorrow, two of them against playoff-chasing rivals.

With a good number of players left at home on Tuesday rather than travel to Wales for our Fenix Cup game, fitness should not be a problem but this is when everyone has to pull together to keep the momentum going.

“I’m not sure that Potters Bar playing twice this week will give us that much of an advantage,” said Gavin.

“They’re a young energetic side and are capable of beating anybody if opponents are not on it. We’ll have to be mindful of that. I know they’ve lost a couple in a row but not so long ago they  went and put together five or six on the spin.”

“They’ve got some pace in the side, some willing runners and hungry players. But we’re looking forward to it.”

“I can’t look too far ahead in terms of where we finish. The main thing right now is making sure we get there as quickly as we can mathematically. If you’re not in there, you can’t get promoted. Then you start thinking about home advantage.”

AW

No-one attending Dave Bryant’s funeral on Thursday can fail to have been moved by the sheer outpouring of love and affection for the man who was, quite simply, “Mr Enfield Town.”

The fact that there was standing room only at Enfield Crematorium, with everyone and everything bedecked in blue and white,  said everything about Dave’s popularity — not only among those connected with the club but also his former colleagues at Unison and, most of all, his family and friends.

Whilst an incredibly sad and emotional occasion, the service covering Dave’s remarkable life was full of heart-warming tributes about how he always had time for everyone as well as several humour-tinged anecdotes about his obsession not only with ETFC but also his other great passion, fishing.

Dave, as we all know, was a pioneer of non-league clubs and without his vision and determination, there would be no Enfield Town FC.

Before the service, the hearse went on a lap of honour around the pitch at the Dave Bryant stadium watched by close family and friends, a fitting tribute to our founding chairman.

The final address at the ceremony itself was made by Dave’s great friend, current ETFC vice-chairman Paul Millington, who described him as “simply the nicest guy I’ve known” as he recalled Dave’s relentless “positivity towards everything in life”,   sense of fair play and the “fantastic legacy” he left by creating the country’s first fan-owned club.

After the service, a celebration of Dave’s life was continued at Butler’s Bar, where glasses were raised aplenty in memory of the great man and his unique contribution in so many ways.

RIP Dave

AW

Llantwit Major 1 Enfield Town 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

In a howling wind and on a pudding of a pitch that made passing and control nigh impossible, Enfield Town secured the point they needed to guarantee a trip to Lake Garda next month for the Fenix Trophy Final Four.

In conditions more akin to a Sunday league parks game, Town fortunately came away from Wales unscathed from our final group fixture and can now concentrate fully on cementing our league playoff place before thinking about the climax of our European tour.

Perhaps the only downside was that having fielded  somewhat of an experimental scratch side, Gavin Macpherson was forced to throw on the big guns to up the pace and avoid defeat.

But that’s, of course, exactly why the likes of Marcus Wyllie and Sam Youngs were on the bench in the first place and the risk in the end proved fully justified.

In front of a crowd of 456 – roughly double their usual attendance and including a healthy Town following  – Llantwit made things awkward for us in the opening half as we played into a ferocious gale-force wind that blew even some of the most well-intentioned passes back over our heads.

That, nevertheless, was not entirely fair on our hosts who, in their final home game of a generally disappointing league season in the second tier of Welsh football, played the conditions on their own patch far better than us.

Llantwit’s Matthew Kimmins headed over from three yards out when the offside flag stayed down but on 16 minutes, the hosts took a shock lead with what can only be described as a speculative worldie, Sean Kelly almost bursting the net with a 30-yard, wind-assisted screamer.

On the spongy, bobbly surface, we found it hard to respond and almost went further behind when Adi Connolly spilled a freekick, only for the rebound to be  put over the bar.

Jonathan Hippolyte almost restored parity but the conditions were proving a great leveller at the break.

H-T 0-1

Gavin wasted no time in introducing Youngs and Bernie Tanner and moving defender Sam Robbins – signed on a dual registration with Bishop’s Stortford —  from left to right as we reverted to a back three.

With the wind now behind us, Connolly was virtually a spectator in goal as the chances began to come our way.

It took until the 70^th minute, however, to get back on level terms. Wyllie, who had just come on, saw his shot parried but not held and when it seemed harder to miss, Hippolyte just managed to squeeze the ball over the line off the post (pictured).

Despite players on both sides struggling to find their footing as the pitch cut up even more, in the final stages we could easily have gone on to win it before everyone retreated to the bar for some friendly exchanges with our hospitable hosts amid several renditions of  “Que Sera Sera…We’re Going to Italy.”.

“It was tricky to navigate for so many reasons,” said Gavin after we topped our group with 10 points from four games. “You’re leaving half your squad at home and then you have to factor in the pitch which was as bad as I’ve ever seen.”

“We had a team thrown together so you expect it to be a bit disjointed. But we completely changed things at halftime knowing they would have to contend with the same conditions. We didn’t really have our shooting boots on but where I’m coming from is that we’re home and dry and now we can now put this competition to bed until May.”

Town:

Connolly; Filho (Tanner, 45), Okotcha, Adeoye (Youngs, 45), Robbins; Adjei-Hersey, Soulya-Osekanonko (Thomas, 85), Turner, Onyeagwara (Wyllie 65); Hippolyte (Davies, 90), Alves.

 Enfield Town’s final group game in the Fenix Trophy takes place tomorrow as we head to Wales to face Llantwit Major (kickoff 5pm) needing to avoid defeat to guarantee a place in the eagerly anticipated “Final Four” on Lake Garda in May.

Whilst we are virtually qualified anyway following our 3-2 win in the corresponding fixture, giving us maximum points from three games and a healthy goal difference, mathematically we still need to get something on Tuesday to avoid the group going down to the last match between the Welsh club and already eliminated BK Skjold at the end of the month.

With our all-important playoff place in the league taking priority, Gavin Macpherson seems likely to go deep into the squad  whilst at the same time fielding a side to get us over the line.

Town’s visit represents Llantwit’s final home game of the season with two away league fixtures to come as they battle for survival in Cymru south, the second tier of Welsh football.

With the competition having generated huge publicity for us in the national as well as local media, qualifying for Italy would be a wonderful way to cap off the season. But first we have to make sure.

“Some of our bigger players are not available Tuesday so there are bound to be changes,” said Gav. “Based upon our position in the league, it’s a massively difficult fixture now to navigate and I’m going to have to try and piece things together.  I’ve got to look at it really carefully.”

AW

Our founding Chairman Dave Bryant will be laid to rest this Thursday 11th April following his recent passing on the 17th March.

Dave’s family have asked for donations to be made to the Enfield Town FC Community Sports Development, which is a Charity very close to Dave’s heart, in lieu of flowers.

We have set up a Just Giving page for this purpose.

Thank you in advance

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/davebryant?fbclid=IwAR3U77uNt1fPWTsKe5JdEYqHufVbE9eYefURauXnGqtpmP6rSHWYo9m9tt0_aem_AWpLAd1o6Bv-m6_I-ov__LQlfqjX2QPvdy0YJyqwbq0BQTZHx5HmQp8fv24_sftsBO2vVh1i0Carlm37HJ1gO3Ft

For the live stream of the service, please see below:

Name	DAVID RICHARD BRYANT
Location	Enfield Crematorium – South Chapel
Date & Time	Thursday 11/04/2024 11:30
Requester	Roya Collins – Roya Collins, Celebrant (A Way With Words)

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