Enfield Town 3 Cray Wanderers 2
Report by Paul Manel
Photo: Tom Scott
The Towners delivered another highly entertaining victory to send the majority of the 843 crowd home happy on the club’s ‘Whole Club Day’. Before the match the first team squad and coaching staff posed for a photo with all of the club’s various boys and girls age group teams. Several stores around the ground, were selling a variety of different goodies and the club shop was doing a roaring trade. It was Amrit Bansal-McNulty who scored the winner to secure three points in this thriller against a positive and physical Cray Wanderers side.
Town came into this game riding high on top of the league and having secured their place in the FA cup second qualifying round. Towners boss Billy Holland made four changes from the side that was victorious at Frenford. Ayo Tanimowo came in for Frankie Domi, Sam Youngs for Luke May-Parrott and Adam Thompson, back from injury was in for Sonny Hart. Finlay Corrigan made his full Towners debut replacing the injured Declan Rydings.
Town’s opponents from south London started brightly. On three minutes the visitors’ Ola Ogunwamide beat Tanimowo on the Cray right but his cross eluded everyone in the box. The battle between the muscular number Cray11 and Town’s number 24 was an intriguing one to watch. Town started to exert their influence as the half went on and started to play the fluent passing game which has thrilled fans so far this season.
Twenty-two minutes was the starting point of a bitter-sweet nine-minute spell for Tanimowo. Tommy Avgoustidis fed Ayo who cut in from the right, dropped a shoulder and beat the defender. This provided him with the space to coolly slot the ball beyond Cray ‘keeper Henry Molyneux. On thirty-one minutes, Ogunwamide broke into the Town area, Taminowo caught him and the referee pointed to the spot. Ade Yusuf slotted the ball to Dylan Thompson’s left to draw the Wanderers level.
Towners should probably have taken the lead again before the break when following a swashbuckling run by Town skipper Mickey Parcell, he fed Avgoustidis who’s deflected shot fell to Shiloh Remy who could only hit the side-netting from about seven yards out.
HT 1-1
Towners made a slow start to the second half. On 48 minutes Avgoustidis was robbed of the ball inside his own half and Soul Kader took advantage by driving forward before finishing well into the bottom corner. Town now had to show strength and resilience to go with their undoubted skill.
Substitutes were the answer! Towners fans got their first look at new signing Jez Davies. The ex-Peterborough Sports man added power to the Town midfield. Town started to pressurise the Cray back line. Parcell fed the ever lively Tanimowo who made a good run on the Towners’ left and was caught just inside the area. Sam Youngs confidently dispatched the second spot kick of the afternoon.
A minute later, enter stage left, Mr Olly Davis. Olly had marked his Towners comeback with a goal when he came on at Frenford last week. This week he gave the Cray right wing-back a torrid last twenty -six minutes or so. In commentary, Ram Ismail compared his cameo to Ronaldo. Post match Billy Holland went for Chris Waddle. The Towners winger seemed to beat his opponents at will. On 69 minutes super-sub-Olly won the ball back on Towners’ left. He ran at the Wanderers’ defence, beat two defenders and cut the ball back for Amrit Bansal-McNulty and his shot (pictured) went under the body of the Cray keeper.
The visitors launched a spirited riposte to going behind. At times it seemed like Adam Thompson was a one-man defensive shield, blocking, heading and clearing the ball away.
The final whistle brought news that results elsewhere meant that Town are now three points clear at the top of the IPL. After the game, Billy Holland, was keen to emphasise that it is early days, but he is delighted with his squad of players who are all hungry to play. Squad depth may be tested this week with a top of the table clash with Dartford to look forward to on Tuesday night before the eagerly awaited FA cup trip to Billericay. EJ Mensah, Mickey Parcell and Olly Davis seemed to pick up knocks on Saturday. Hopefully they’re not too serious.
Town’s winning run is now six games in all competitions. A wonderful ‘Whole Club Day’ with Amrit the match winning hero!
Town: D Thompson; Parcell (Domi 67), Mensah (Hart 53), A Thompson, Tanimowo; Corrigan ( Davies 51), Leonard, Bansal-McNulty (May-Parrott 75); Remy (Davis 64), Avgoustidis, Youngs