Chippenham Town 1 Enfield Town 0
Report by Andrew Warshaw

Enfield Town suffered a damaging setback in their quest to cling on to Step 2 status as they became the latest team to fall victim to a single goal defeat at Chippenham.

A tight game of few clearcut chances was decided after 55 minutes when Town fell asleep at the back post and allowed an unmarked Caine Bradbury to volley home a Rashawn Scott centre, deepening the gloom as only goal difference now keeps us off the bottom of the table.

Two points out of nine against three of our fellow strugglers represents a meagre return and Town need to put wins on the board quickly to give themselves a fighting chance of staying up.

With Lamar Reynolds and Corie Andrews rested, Gavin Macpherson gave 17-year-old Eli Ackason his first start up top while Billy Leonard and Bailey Brown were also drafted in; Yacou Traore joining Reynolds and Andrews on the bench as he was fasting during Ramadan.

Town had much the better of the first half in terms of possession but couldn’t make it count. Ackason showed glimpses of his precocious skill but was largely shackled by the Bluebirds’ well-organised backline.

Mickey Parcell fired wide from the edge of the box, then forced a save out of  Will Henry, while at the other end former Towner Anointed Chukwu, who was  generally dealt with comfortably by Henry Hawkins and Paul Appiah, tested Joe Wright with an angled strike.

H-T 0-0

With defences on top and the middle of the pitch highly congested, one goal always seemed likely to settle it and just like in their three previous home games, it went to Chippenham who until then had seen most of their forward passes go astray but in Scott had the most dangerous player on the pitch.

Released by Ollie Knight, Ackason had a chance to quickly level but fired over after expertly turning his man but perhaps the biggest letdown from a Town standpoint is that despite getting into a number of promising positions, we failed to create sufficient openings, let down by poor delivery from the flanks and largely toothless.

Even when we fell behind, there was a surprising lack of penetration in terms of a reaction despite a couple of attack-minded substitutions. If anything the hosts, who leapfrogged Town in the table with their win, looked even more of a threat once they had broken the deadlock.

Not surprisingly, Gavin kept his players in the dressing room for a good 30 minutes, dishing out “a few home truths”, as he put it, relating to the standards he expected of them.

Those standards will have to be met sooner rather than later and Town now need to take advantage of a rare midweek break to regroup and prepare for the visit of Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday in front of the DAZN television cameras.

It’s getting tougher with every passing fixture but there are still 33 points to play for and a  couple of wins could change the whole picture.

Town: Wright; Adom-Malaki, Appiah (Benjamin, 90), Hawkins, Parcell; Bullas, Knight, Brown, Leonard (Andrews 81); Youngs, Ackason (Reynolds 65)