Enfield Town 0 AFC Whyteleafe 2
Report by Andrew Warshaw
(photo-Tom Scott)
Enfield Town paid the penalty for missed chances as we were knocked off our perch at the top of the table by opponents who defied their own league position and handed us our first league defeat since mid-September.
Having smashed 10 goals past Burgess Hill and Chatham in our previous two outings, we found Whyteleafe a much harder nut to crack on a day when paucity of composure in front of goal let us down while Whyteleafe continued their own rich vein of form of late.
The visitors certainly did their homework on Billy Holland’s normally free-flowing side who dominated proceedings early on but couldn’t take advantage and were ultimately undone by two superb strikes, a missed Sam Youngs penalty, excellent defending and counter-attacking by extremely well-organised opponents and a lack of our normally ruthless penetration and quick-thinking passing skills.
Before kickoff, two minutes’ silence was impeccably observed to mark Remembrance Sunday (pictured). Billy made two changes from the thrashing of Burgess Hill a week ago, Amrit Bansal-McNulty confined to the bench with a touch of flu and replaced by Jez Davies while Ayo Tanamowo gave way to Mackye Townsend-West.
With a week to prepare and virtually a full squad to choose from apart from the absent Adam Thompson, whose minutes are carefully managed, Town were in the perfect place on paper to continue their riproaring campaign.
We were certainly in the driving seat early doors as Declan Rydings pummelled a fierce drive just wide and al-Sadi – awarded the Vanderpump & Sykes player of the month award for October – had an effort cleared off the line.
Whyteleafe couldn’t get out of their half for the first 15 minutes but when they did, Town were given a scare as Palace Francis brought a fine one-handed stop from Dylan Thompson.
We didn’t heed the warning. Three minutes later, Francis wasn’t closed down and he fired across goal into the far corner to put us in the rare position of being behind.
As we responded, Tommy Avgoustidis and Billy Leonard both scooped over from close range, a looping goalbound Sam Youngs header was hooked to safety and Tariq was first to a ricochet but saw his shot whistle over.
H-T 0-1
This might sound as if the game was one-sided but the precision just wasn’t there and Whyteleafe improved after the break, cutting of the spaces and making us play narrower than we would have liked.
Daniel Bennett screwed a shot wide for the ‘Leaf but on 57 minutes we had a golden chance to restore parity. The referee spotted a handball in the area taking the pace off a Jez Davies effort and up stepped the normally reliable Youngs, only to have his penalty kept out by Slavomir Huk – the Slovak’s second spotkick save in a week.
As Town’s frustration grew, so a well-drilled Whyeleafe side grew in confidence and nullified our strengths.
And eight minutes from time, they completed an impressive away display when the division’s top scorer, Toby Aromolaren, broke clear from just inside the Town half, held off two defenders and drilled a superb finish beyond Thompson to inflict only our third league defeat of the season.
Luckily we can make amends sooner rather than later during what promises to be a mouth-watering batch of upcoming fixtures.
Fourth-placed Lewes are our visitors on Tuesday followed by an eagerly awaited FA Trophy tie against Step 2 Spalding though Tariq al-Sadi and Mackye Townsend West will miss both games due to international call-ups.
Then comes another six-pointer against Eastbourne, also at home, before the biggest one of all at Welling. Four hugely anticipated games before the end of November for us to re-impose our skillset and fully test our credentials.
Town:
Thompson; Parcell, Hart,Mensah, Townsend West (Taniwomo, 66); Rydings Kyei 73), Leonard, Davies (Bansal-McNulty 62); Al-Sadi, Youngs (Efobi 62), Avgoustidis (Davis 59)