Enfield Town FC

Report

Enfield Town 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur U21 

Town Run Spurs Close
Report by Andrew Warshaw

Considering the quality of opposition, this was an extremely encouraging start to Enfield Town’s pre-season schedule as we build towards our first ever Step 2 campaign.

Before kickoff, both teams gave our trophy-winning disability squads a guard of honour (pictured) and we are grateful to Spurs for agreeing to join in.

The visitors arrived as under-21 Premier League 2 champions but despite the gulf in status were given a real run for their money in the second half after racing into a three-goal lead.

In front of a crowd over 1,000, Gavin Macpherson fielded two separate elevens in each half,  a mixture of first-teamers and trialists followed by a more familiar line-up.

Sam Youngs, Ollie Knight and Lewis Taaffe were the only absentees, with all five of Town’s summer signings given some game time and midfielder Billy Leonard, Hendon’s player of the 2023-24 season , the pick of the bunch, stroking the ball around with eye-catching technique.

Several of the Spurs team had played some part in their under-21 title triumph and they were in front after 15 minutes when Calum Olusesi netted from close range.

We almost levelled after when Alex Solomon, on his return to the club, narrowly missed converting fellow newcomer Nana Owusu’s assist before Will Lankshear, last season’s Premier League 2 top scorer, converted Damola Ajayi’s cross on the stroke of halftime

Lankshear neatly tucked away his second four minutes after the break and almost completed a hattrick before Town, with a far stronger second-half line-up, staged a brave recovery.

Spurs keeper Josh Keeley saved superbly from Herson Alves at close range before  Marcus Wyllie raced through to reduce the deficit on 73 minutes.

Marcus was inches away from a second and Town proceeded to miss a couple more excellent chances, notably from yet another newcomer, Joash Nembard who somehow missed the target from a couple of yards out.

With nine minutes to go, however, Leonard took advantage of a rare mix-up in the Spurs defence and shot home sweetly.

“Overall very pleased with a lot of what I saw today against full-time professional players who are going to finish if you give them space,” said Gav.

“But after a deliberate first-half screening exercise, we gave the second-half team a bit more purchase to go after the ball and caused them a lot of problems.”

“We conceded three typical early pre-season goals and really should have taken the Herson and Joash chances, pre-season or not. But as I say really pleased in general.”

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First half XI: Connolly, Solomon, Trialist, Trialist, Trialist, Trialist, Adjei-Hersey, Owusu, Trialist, Beckles-Richards, Trialist.

Second half XI: Forster, Nembhard, McKenzie, Tanner, Parcell, Thomas, Smith, Payne, Leonard, Alves, Wyllie.