Enfield Town 1 Salisbury 2

Report by Andrew Warshaw

Same old failings, broken record, call it what you will. Gavin Macpherson was certainly making no excuses as he cut a disconsolate figure after Enfield Town’s fifth straight league defeat – and our sixth in seven games.

But when everything conspires to kick you in the proverbials during one of the worst losing streaks of recent seasons, maintaining belief and keeping the faith is paramount.

With so many players either injured or unavailable (it’ll get even worse at Harborough in the Trophy on Saturday), Town simply have to get through the current crisis, hope further damage can be limited and look forward with optimism once bodies are recovered. Only then can players and management be judged accordingly.

Having lost Cian Dillion to international call-up only a few hours before kick-off, Gavin ended up being without six available first-team players and even a couple of those on the bench were not fit to play a part. No wonder he said afterwards he had never seen anything like it.

Having said all that, there is little question we again shot ourselves in the foot on the night in what was at  times a scrappy encounter. Whilst there were perhaps mitigating circumstances at Dover, falling four points adrift of the safety zone was certainly not what the doctor ordered though there is, let’s remember, plenty of time to recover.

Not for the first time, our final ball was too rushed and it was the visitors who had the better of the first-half chances, such as they were, former Towner Josh Keeya notably blazing just over.

As we grew into the half, we forced a number of corners in the wind and rain and were just beginning to threaten the Salisbury goal when we fell behind.

Adam Thompson was penalised for a foul and we were caught cold by the resultant quick freekick,  Matt Briggs squaring for Matty Taylor to tap in as we switched off completely.

It was a horrible goal to concede and while Bailey Brown got his head to a hanging ball just before the interval, we were void of the proverbial cutting edge.

H-T 0-1

We needed a quick response but didn’t get it. Instead, after  Taylor was denied his second goal by the linesman, we fell further behind. On 56 minutes, we didn’t deal with a corner despite a small-ish Salisbury front line and an unmarked Briggs converted a click-on.

Only now, in familiar fashion, did we up the tempo. Two penalty shouts – one when Tommo appeared to be elbowed, the other more far obvious when substitute Eli Ackeson was clearly tripped – went unheeded.

As we pushed up, so Salisbury could have added a third on the breakaway but for two smart saves from our new keeper Tom Norcott and a last-ditch hook away from danger by Xav Benjamin.

With eight minutes left, however, the deficit was halved. Ackeson, showing commendable youthful awareness, found Hayden Bullas who smashed the ball home.

Salisbury were now on the ropes but it was too, little late for all our endeavour to take a point.  On the positive front, Ackeson’s minutes on the pitch having recently stepped from the academy was hugely encouraging as was the performance of Olle Davis (pictured) while Bullas never stopped running and Ruaridh Donaldson was an authoritative figure in front of the defence.

Rudridh, sadly, now misses the Trophy trip to Harborough because of suspension, as does Tommo – making eight players potentially unavailable.

“Personnel is sparse and we are running on bare bones but I was confident this team could have beaten Salisbury and if they’d done things differently they might have,” said Gavin. “The first goal, for instance, was unforgivable from a defensive standpoint. At the other end I thought we let them off the hook though we didn’t have anywhere near our regular forward line.”

“Whichever way you look at things at the moment it stops with me. The only way I know is to get back on and work hard.”

Norcott; Benjamin, Thompson, Hawkins; Adom-Malaki, Donaldson, Brown (Knight 70), Bullas, Leonard; Wood (Ackeson 66), Davis