Enfield Town FC

Report

Town Sparkle in Worthing Draw

Enfield Town 1  Worthing 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw
Image: Keith Drew

It’s still a work in progress but the fact that Town looked the team two divisions higher in our latest pre-season fixture – at least for the most part – augurs extremely well as we continue to prepare for our return to Step 3.

By a remarkable coincidence, the game was played exactly 25 years to the day since the club’s first-ever fixture – also a pre-season friendly against their landlords at the time, Brimsdown Rovers.

Equally remarkable was that the scoreline was identical but enough of the history.

This was by far our most watchable pre-season outing as the players sparkled in the evening sun, made all the more entertaining and enjoyable by over 50 German fans who had flown to London to watch their beloved Hansa Rostock face Watford but decided to take in a non-league game 24 hours beforehand, making their presence felt and apparently drinking Butler’s Bar dry!

Billy Holland has made it clear how he wants to play when the real business starts and this was arguably the most refreshing illustration so far, a mixture of short, crisp passing to feet and playing it long when necessary.

Building from the back, pressing the opposition high up the pitch and pace on both flanks made for a highly encouraging all-round display with several eye-catching individual performances from the likes of winger Thomas Avgoustidis, the trialist at leftback, midfielder Amrit Bansal-McNulty and Nana Kyei, who scored our 67^th minute equaliser (pictured) when he smashed home a Billy Leonard cross, cancelling out Worthing’s early opener. Bansal-McNulty also produced an audacious 40-yard chip when he spotted the keeper off his line, only to see his effort clawed away.

A word on Billy Leonard who is clearly enjoying his new responsibities and occupied not one, not two but three different positions during the evening while Sam Youngs led the line.

After Worthing controlled the opening 20 minutes, during which they took the lead, any concerns they might press home their Step 1 status were soon dispelled. By the end, believe it or not, the woodwork had come to their rescue no fewer than three times with plenty of further chances for the hosts.

Let’s not get carried away just yet, however. We are not the complete package, striker and goalkeeper being the most obvious missing pieces of the jigsaw. Of the former, George Nunn has already been released  while Luke May-Parrott is nursing an injury. On the keeper front, teenager Dylan Thompson was a late call up to Tottenham’s tour of Australia and New Zealand will have therefore have to be replaced for the remainder of the friendlies, as he was last night by a giant of a trialist.

 Meanwhile, the highly promising Junior Moses, chased by a handful of clubs and who we managed to acquire from Cockfosters down the road, has been quickly plucked away for a trial by no lesser light than Peterborough United.

While we await developments on Junior, none of that should detract from an evening of free-flowing promise, with Hornchurch next up on Tuesday.

Town: Trialist A; Tanimowo, Trialist c, trialist d, trialist b;  Rydings, Leonard, Bansal-McNulty; Deslandes, Youngs, Avgoustidis