Enfield Town FC

Report

North Greenford United 3-2 Enfield Town 

Town Stunned By Middlesex Exit
Report by Martin Bentley

Maybe it was the water. Or ley lines. Or Mercury rising in Uranus.

No-one has managed to come up with a better explanation for Enfield Town’s inexplicable late, late capitulation to Step 5 North Greenford in the Middlesex Senior Cup on Tuesday night that saw a two-goal lead wiped out in 12 mad minutes.

This, unfortunately, has been a regular occurrence in so-called minor cup matches over the last few years, so it was particularly worrying to see a Gavin Macpherson side continue the trend in what was our first appearance in this season’s competition.

It had all started so well. Town fielded a much-changed line-up to give fringe players game time as well as a couple of experimental selections in Mickey Parcell in central midfield and Ollie Knight at left back. Academy prospect Ebraima Davies was given a start, with new signing Leo Donnellan on the bench.

We were immediately on the front foot, and rocketed into a two-goal lead in the fist 18 minutes, Lewis Taaffe finishing well from Parcell’s through ball, then adding a well-taken penalty after Josh Keeya had been tripped.

For the remainder of the half, the term “training game” was being used,  Town completely dominating possession and the visitors struggling to retain the ball for more than a few seconds.

How that changed after halftime as slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, Town managed to lose control of the game.

One by one players started to vanish as though someone was punching buttons on a control panel though Town had a George Sykes effort disallowed and an Obi Onyeagwara shot was headed off the line.

The remarkable turnaround began on 82 minutes when  a swift breakout saw left back Rashid Springer’s cross turned in by right back Sam Brown.

By then, the ball was hardly leaving Town’s half, the hosts having started to play as if they were Cray Valley PM, and the equaliser duly followed on 92 minutes, Ryan Ewhare netting in a goalmouth scramble. Three minutes later and even deeper into stoppage time, Joe Mills won the game with a deflected effort to Adi Connolly’s left.

Cue wild celebrations by the home side and fans, shell-shocked congratulations offered by the bewildered travelling faithful, and a general feeling of “what the **** just happened?”

A truly odd and, as I say, worrying night with only one domestic knockout competition, the Velocity Trophy, left for Town to make a mark.

Town: Connolly, Bailey, Knight, Okotcha, Coker, Keeya, Onyeagwara (Adjei-Hersey 85), Parcell (Donnellan 45), Sykes, Taaffe, Davies