Enfield Town FC

Report

Town’s barren run continues

Worthing 3 Enfield Town 2

Enfield Town entered a nine-day break until Boxing Day with four straight December defeats under their belts after another disastrous start to a match saw them trail by two goals after ten minutes.

Firstly, in the fifth minute, a long range effort from Jesse Starkey was only parried by Nathan McDonald and Reece Myles-Meekums was on hand to net the rebound at the second attempt. Bad became worse five minutes later when, after Marc Weatherstone had brought down Myles-Meekums and there had been a home discussion about who was going to take the consequent free kick, Ollie Pearce, disappointingly from a Town perspective, blasted the ball through the wall and past McDonald to give the visitors the proverbial mountain to climb.

Junior Mubiayi might have done better on 11 minutes when he lashed the ball over the top from close range and then home custodian Carl Rushworth got down well to keep out a shot from Muhammadu Faal. Alex Parsons fed Callum Kealy to shoot wide in the 17^th minute before Town were thrown a potential lifeline with a penalty award from referee Barrie Small after Faal, in the inside left channel, had twisted and turned before he was impeded by Dylan Jelley when about to shoot. And it was Faal himself who slotted home the spot-kick low to Rushworth’s right.

Looking buoyed by this, Mubiayi, Faal and Billy Bricknell all drew subsequent saves out of Rushworth as Town ended the half on the front foot.

Half-time: Worthing 2 Enfield Town 1

It looked anyone’s game as the sides returned after the break with Town in the ascendancy, and the impressive Faal was soon in action again squeezing a low shot inches wide of the far post. Faal then ran clear of the hosts’ back line before he was tackled in the nick of time by Joel Colbran. Another Mubiayi shot went wide but then Town’s heartening efforts finally bore fruit when Sam Youngs flicked the ball into Faal’s path, and the tall Town striker controlled it with a touch before side footing home with aplomb.

Suitably stung, Worthing then came back into the game and Kealy struck a post via a deflection, Alfie Young had a shot blocked and then Kealy and substitute Darren Budd got in each other’s way a few moments later. Budd was then inches away from connecting with a dangerous cross from Starkey as the clock ticked down.

With Town looking as though their admirable recovery efforts had been enough to earn a deserved point, with six minutes remaining a Starkey corner fell to Colbran via McDonald’s mistimed punch, and the midfielder squeezed the ball home through a crowded box via a couple of inadvertent deflections.  In injury time the ball fell to Bricknell in a central position, but he dragged his shot agonisingly wide to compound the visitors’ acute disappointment.

Worthing: Carl Rushworth, Joel Colbran, Cameron Tutt (Lloyd Dawes 75), Alfie Young, Dylan Jelley (Aarran Raccine 57), Reece Myles-Meekums, Ricky Aguiar, Alex Parsons, Callum Kealy, Ollie Pearce (Darren Budd 58), Jesse Starkey. Unused subs: Thomas Chalaye, Fin Stevens.

Enfield Town: Nathan McDonald, Sam Hatton, Joe Payne, Scott Thomas, Marc Weatherstone, Glenn Wilson, Junior Mubiayi (Samson Esan 86), Sam Youngs, Billy Bricknell, Muhammadu Faal, Charles Brown (Bobson Bawling 75). Unused subs: Mario Noto, Lewis King, Kyle Lynch. Booked: Weatherstone.

Attendance: 486.