Enfield Town 3 Spurs u21 0
Report by Andrew Warshaw
What a way to finish! Enfield Town’s final pre-season outing resulted in an emphatic victory in the annual friendly against a Spurs u21 side, with all the damage done inside 10 blistering first-half minutes.
As preparations go for the start of the season on Saturday, it couldn’t have turned out much better, racheting up the anticipation ahead of Saturday’s eagerly awaited trip to Lewes.
A few hours earlier, 18-year-old Spurs keeper Dylan Thompson committed himself to Town on a loan basis and made a couple of wonderful saves against his parent club which certainly augurs well for the weeks ahead.
By then, Town had virtually wrapped up victory courtesy of Ayo Tanimowo’s opener, followed by two Amrit Bansal-McNulty goals.
Wayne Burnett’s under-21 team haven’t had the best of pre-seasons themselves but when you consider that his team included the likes of Alfie Dorrington – not so long ago a cup winner with Aberdeen – and a couple of England youth internationals and you get some idea of how impressive Town’s performance was.
Before kickoff and with members of his family in attendance, there was a minute’s applause as a tribute to the late Les Gold. When the action got under way, the deadlock was broken as early as the 12th minute when Tom Avgoustides found Bansal-McNulty and when the flag stayed down, Amrit’s assist to Ayo Tanimowo was swept home by the fullback via a deflection.
Three minutes later we doubled our lead when Tottenham were again made to pay for slow thinking. Frankie Domi, another of our exciting new signings, played a beautiful ball into the path of Bansal-McNulty who still had plenty to do but lifted a delicious chip over the advancing Sam Archer (pictured celebrating, courtesy of Bob Sharman).
Town fans were already in raptures and had to pinch themselves when the game was put to bed with 22 minutes on the clock. Billy Leonard pounced on a mistake and Bansal-McNulty provided a close-range finish despite a Spurs defender desperately trying to get to the ball first.
There was a worrying sight when Bansal-McNulty – surely destined to become a Town favourite – limped off but first-team coach Charlie Gregory later confirmed it was precautionary (see his post-match interview on social media).
Town had at least two more decent chances before Thompson brilliantly clawed away Maxwell Adedeji’s snapshot. On the verge of halftime, Thompson was on hand again to foil Ronny Moncur though Avgoustides could have made it 4-0 with virtually the last action of the half but took the wrong option and allowed Archer to save with his legs.
Understandably the excitement waned after the break as we changed 10 players – including, notably, the newly signed Adam Thompson.
Spurs largely controlled possession, firing wide on three occasions. But Town supporters among the bumper 1,100-plus crowd still saw plenty to enthuse about, especially quick balls through midfield for runners to burst forward and collect.
It augurs well for the big kickoff on Saturday but we all know pre-season success means little unless you can follow it up when points are at stake.
Town
Team D Thompson (Setters), Tanimowo (Trialist B), Trialist A (May-Parrott), Domi (Moses), Mensah (A Thompson), Leonard (Corrigan), Rydings (Kyei), Bansal-McNulty (Parcell), Youngs (c) (Watson), Avgoustides (Ackeson), Deslandes (Remi