Report

Enfield Town 1-4 Maidstone United 

Stones Pile On More Misery
Report by Andrew Warshaw

Keep the faith. That’s the key message despite another chastening afternoon which has left us one place off the bottom of the table. It takes time, especially after getting promoted, for a new-look squad to gel. Plus, the fact that having perhaps over-achieved last season, the challenge of Step 2 is even greater than most of us might have anticipated. That’s not to underplay the disappointment of coming up short for the seventh time in eight outings, again largely due to defensive frailty.

But there were encouraging signs. At one point we were very much in the game and our three new signings gave glimpses of how they might improve us, Harry Ottaway’s heading ability and hold-up play particularly eye-catching when he came on.

Whilst Maidstone hadn’t exactly started the season with a flourish, it’s easy to lose sight of their pedigree and size as a football club. It certainly wasn’t a 4-1 scoreline in terms of overall play but the main issue is that the opposition at this level is not giving us many openings to exploit, unlike vice versa. So it was after 20 minutes when the Stones opened the score.  Having already fired narrowly wide and forced Rhys Forster into an excellent stop, it was third time lucky for Matt Bentley, flicking home a cross from the left. Until then we hadn’t been overly troubled apart from an early goalmouth scramble while at the other end, Lennon Peake forced Alexis Andre Jn into a low stop as he raced on to new signing Carl Mensah’s header out of defence. Just before half time, Billy Leonard’s well-drilled shot was bang on target until being intercepted by George Fowler and Town needed more of the same after the break.

Half Time: 0-1

Instead, six minutes after half time, Mensah misjudged a spinning ball and Aaron Blair was through on goal to double the visitors’ lead. Town needed a quick response and we were back in the game through Peake’s quick thinking as he darted into the box and smacked the ball home after great work by Hisham Kasimu. But just as we looked to move into the ascendancy, we were undone through two more Blair goals, the first finishing off some clever link-up play, the other capitalising on more defensive culpability as Mensah’s attempted back header sold Forster well short. Little goes for you when you are near the bottom and earlier in the half Gavin Macpherson was booked after the referee ignored a clear shirt pull on Ottaway that could have earned us a spot kick. And as the game moved into stoppage time our misery was complete as we were reduced to 10 men after another new boy, Harley Mills, was dismissed for a late challenge on Bivesh Gurung.

“I could regurgitate countless interviews but errors keep costing us,” Gavin said. “Having said that, we were up against another full-time team while we were unable to train fully on Thursday to try and work on things.”

“With regards to Carl, for the most part he did exactly why we brought him in. Obviously, he made a mistake but the other goal people might be referring to was a shanked clearance that spun up in their air and he couldn’t re-adjust.”

“Once again, there was hardly anything in the game but the result was the same. How do we address it? I have to go away and analyse things. Every one of us is accountable though I’m the one at the top of the tree. I’ve never shied away from anything in football and I’m not prepared to start now.”

Town: Forster; Parcell, Nembhard, Mensah, Mills; Thomas (Ottaway 55); Knight (Payne 67), Leshabela, Leonard, Peake; Kasimu

Video

Details

Date Time League Season
07/09/2024 3:00 pm Vanarama National League South 2024-25

Ground

Queen Elizabeth II Stadium
Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, Donkey Lane, Enfield EN1 3PL

Results

Club1st Half2nd HalfGoals
Enfield Town011
Maidstone United134