Enfield Town 1 Orient 4

Report by Andrew Warshaw

Once again, forget the scoreline. Billy Holland deliberately chose this quality of opposition  for our first home pre-season friendly to check on how Town would fare without the ball.

And in the main, it worked well as League One Orient, four divisions higher and fielding a significant chunk of their first-team squad, put us to the test by enjoying large swathes of possession on a sweltering evening.

At least that was the story of the second half. In the first we more than matched our lofty opponents and if anything had the better chances as Billy once again selected an almost totally different eleven in each half as he continued to monitor our development.

Watched by a crowd of over 700 – our next game is not for another 10 days – Town actually went ahead within the first 20 minutes with a typically clever Sam Youngs header, getting on the end of a left-wing cross and re-directing the ball across goal.

For the second game in a row, Luke May-Parrott, if somewhat light in stature, showed why he could be a significant goal threat once he has built up his sharpness. He could and should have put Town further ahead when clean through, only to be thwarted in a one-on-one by the Orient keeper, and had a couple of other half-chances.

It was also encouraging to witness Town’s movement on and off the ball as well as their use of both flanks as several of the triallists did their chances no harm at all.

Orient equalised through Armando Dobra heading into the break and as expected totally dominated the second period after also making wholesale changes.

Charlie Wellens, son of the manager, put them in front, Phil Chinedu extended the lead with an unstoppable drive and with the very last kick of the game, Orient completed the scoring from the penalty spot.

With Mickey Parcell out with a slight knock, Eli Ackeson not required on the day, the goalkeeping position still to be decided and and the much-touted Junior Moses yet to make his Town debut, there are plenty of positive signs.

Talking of which, some home supporters clearly identified one of the trialists as a certain quality centreback from our Step 2 campaign. Nuff said, except to reveal that whether or not he re-joins the club, having originally mooted at retirement, will hopefully be decided in the next few days. Boy, that would be some coup. Watch this space!

Billy’s post-match interview can be seen on the following link:

youtube.com/watch?v=4M-CiTP2qcE&fbclid=IwY2xjawS-9YFleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBrQUMxM3MzSlVGQ1ZnTk5sc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHnYa6vU8dl33Ybg0wrEZpJU6sLcqw827cdNgwEjdZYmnf0DrWBjaDpYZE6Kq_aem_mga6hurZV9CyzLefPInBxA