Enfield Town FC

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Marc rescues a point

Enfield Town 1 Lewes 1

This was a tough encounter against a determined Lewes outfit under new management who were fighting for their Isthmian Premier Division lives.  On another night the visitors may have claimed three points rather than one but, to Town’s credit, they rolled their sleeves up and battled their way back to parity in the first rearranged fixture of a congested-looking March schedule.

Andy Leese kept faith with the starting XI from the previous game at Merstham, while Lewes gave debuts to on-loan striker Brandon Diau and, from the bench, winger Nicki Dembele. After Nathan Stroomberg in the Rooks’ goal had collected a deflected Lewis Taaffe effort in relative comfort early on, at the opposite end Aaron Cosgrave flashed a low diagonal effort past an upright in the tenth minute for the first of a number of warnings to come.

But Town were creating chances and a cross from Sam Youngs was headed downwards by Ken Charles. As the ball bounced upwards it looked destined to cross the visitors’ line until Stroomberg threw himself acrobatically to his right to palm it behind.

Billy Medlock was denied by Nathan McDonald, but the offside flag had been raised. Another deflected effort, this time from Youngs following Urquhart’s square pass, was gathered by Stroomberg, while McDonald was off his line quickly to thwart Cosgrave.

In the 39^th minute Lyle Della-Verde lost possession high up the pitch on the right, and Ronnie Conlon played a defence-splitting pass to the pacy Cosgrave, who took a touch to get around McDonald and slot home.  Stroomberg then made another vital save to deny Youngs again as the half time whistle sounded.

Half-time: Enfield Town 0 Lewes 1

If anything, the early stages of the second period saw more Lewes possession and Town just couldn’t really get going. After Shaun Okojie had replaced the limping Lewis Taaffe, there was an almighty scramble in the home box, and a number of Lewes players were convinced they had scored a second goal but McDonald, off balance, somehow clawed the ball away with one hand from the goalline, with the woodwork also possibly coming into play.

Suitably relieved, Town got their act together and Della-Verde and Billy Bricknell both had shots saved. But Lewes were still posing problems on the counter, primarily down the right through Tom Day, and another Diau effort was blocked off for a corner.

With the working clock increasingly against home efforts, Dembele needlessly fouled Sam Hatton in a dangerous position on the Town right and, sure enough, Hatton’s precise free kick to the back post was headed home powerfully by Marc Weatherstone.  Ken Charles then cut inside and had a shot saved as Town looked to press for maximum points. Okojie blazed over having done well to fashion a shooting opportunity on the edge of the box and man of the match Youngs drew Stroomberg into action again. The final action of the match saw Youngs hit over the top following the keeper’s stray punch and, for the visitors, Medlock fired way off target from distance.

Enfield Town: Nathan McDonald, Sam Hatton, Josh Urquhart, Scott Thomas, Marc Weatherstone, Jon Muleba, Lewis Taaffe (Shaun Okojie 51), Sam Youngs, Billy Bricknell, Ken Charles, Lyle Della-Verde (Ryan Blackman 68) Unused subs: Junior Mubiayi, Joe Payne, Glenn Wilson. Booked: Bricknell, Youngs.

Lewes: Nathan Stroomberg, Tom Day, Leon Redwood, Tegan Freeman, Frankie Chappell, Christian Frimpong, Billy Medlock, James Hammond, Aaron Cosgrave (Olu Olusemo 90), Brandon Diau, Ronnie Conlon (Nicki Dembele 70). Unused subs: Nic D’Arienzo, Tony Halsey, Alex Malins. Booked: Medlock.

Attendance: 307.