Enfield Town FC

By Andrew Warshaw

 

Pre-season preparations took a hugely encouraging turn on Wednesday evening with an impressive 2-0 win over a Tottenham development squad that was settled by first-half goals from Billy Bricknell and Joe Payne.

The Spurs starting line-up, many still in their teens, included striker and captain Kazaiah Sterling who has played Champions League and FA Cup football. But despite being highly skillful on the ball throughout, with the diminutive blue-booted Armando Shashoua pulling the strings, the visitors lacked cutting edge in front of goal and were physically second best to a Town side who will take great heart from a strong performance.

On the same night as the Spurs first team were playing Bayern Munich in their own pre-season friendly, Andy Leese started a Trialist up front against the under-23s but it was Bricknell who opened the score on 12 minutes when he fired low and hard across goal following a throw-in.

Enfield lost this encounter this time last year but with man-of-the-match and skipper Marc Weatherstone marshalling things at the back, Tottenham struggled to find a way through and on 24 minutes, Town doubled their lead. Sam Hatton fed the ball out wide and Payne, his fellow fullback, smashed an unstoppable volley beyond Brandon Austin.

Town’s lead was then kept in tact by Nathan McDonald who pulled off an incredible point-blank save from Elliott Thorpe and although the Spurs side controlled possession they couldn’t apply the finishing touch.

Halftime Enfield Town 2, Spurs Development 0

The same pattern continued after the break. Sterling twice went close before Thorpe missed a golden opportunity when he beat the offside trap only to miss the target with the goal at his mercy. Town responded with a chance of their own when Sam Bantick fired over.

Both sides made a string of second-half substitutions and as we tired late on with Spurs probing, McDonald again came to the rescue with another super save to protect the lead, this time from Dane Scamette after more trickery from the livewire Shashoua.

All in all, a confidence-boosting display from Town, with Royston to come at Donkey Lane on Saturday in the final pre-season outing.