Enfield Town 4 QPR Under-21 2
Report by Andrew Warshaw
(photo – Ram Ismail)
It may not be the most prestigious knockout competition but Enfield Town are into the last eight of the Middlesex Senior county cup after a 4-2 home win over a QPR development squad.
Saturday’s upcoming clash with Hanworth Villa in the FA Trophy is, of course, the real deal but Billy Holland was pleased with what he saw in the lesser tournament against visitors who may feel the scoreline was slightly flattering given the amount of possession they had.
For the first ever competitive fixture between the two clubs, Billy fielded a strong line-up of established first-team players whilst at the same time giving some of our big hitters like Amrit Bansul McNulty – himself a product of the QPR academy — Tariq Al-Sadi and Jez Davies the night off.
In all, six changes were made from the 3-3 draw with Three Bridges, Luke Deslandes making a welcome return after a lengthy injury lay-off and Mackye Townsend-West making his first start. It was also heartwarming to see Shiloh Remy and Olly Davis warming up beforehand.
Town were quickly into their stride after kickoff was delayed for half an hour due to QPR’s traffic-induced late arrival and took the lead on nine minutes with a trademark Sam Youngs penalty after Billy Leonard was felled.
In a persistent drizzle we doubled our advantage when Luke May-Parrott got the last touch to a 32nd-minute corner.
However as half-time approached, after Darren Foran had pulled off a terrific save from Gabriel Oluwabusola, the deficit was halved by Oluwabusola’s bullet header.
H-T 2-1
Not for long. Shortly after the break, our two-goal lead was restored in bizarre fashion when Kasey Taylor in QPR’s goal saw his clearance strike May-Parrott, who was pressing him, and ricochet back over his head for 3-1.
An even more catastrophic goalkeeping error then ensued at the other end when Town substitute Matty Setters inexplicably kicked the ball straight at Oluwabusola who lashed it home.
Only a timely intervention by Sonny Hart prevented a certain equaliser though to be fair Town had a couple of one-on-ones to extend their lead but couldn’t make them count.
On 88 minutes Oluwabusola had a great chance to take the tie to penalties but screwed his shot wide. He was made to pay in stoppage time when Town countered quickly and May-Parrott, with loads of time and space to complete his hat-trick, unselfishly fed academy prospect Kobi Efobi for a tap-in.
After a thoroughly entertaining workout against a side who have in the past loaned us the likes of Alfie Tuck and Cian Dillon, Billy commented: “We knew QPR would be quick and sharp and I wanted to see how we fared without the ball because in most games this season it’s us who will mainly have the ball.”
“I wanted the boys to see, whenever we got dragged over the pitch, whether we could look after certain areas. I think we did that.”
Now on to hosting Hanworth on Saturday. “It’s an important cup and we will prioritise it as much as the league,” said Billy who confirmed that Junior Velazquez has moved on.
“Junior ideally wanted to stay but wanted more game time. The door is open if it doesn’t work out for him.”
Town:
Doran (Setters 55); Tarima, Hart, Mensah, Townshend-West; Rydings (Kyei 65), Leonard, Deslandes (Parcell 55); Avgoustidis (Watson 65), May-Parrott, Youngs (Efobi 55)