Enfield Town FC

Report

Ware 0-3 Enfield Town

Pre-Season Ends On A High
Report by Andrew Warshaw

Bolstered by four new signings, Enfield Town completed their pre-season campaign with a relatively straightforward win over Step 4 Ware yesterday but Gavin Macpherson concedes there is still an awful lot of work to do.

Following those two heavy defeats against Hendon and Billericay, Town couldn’t afford another morale-sapping setback in our final outing before the small matter of Torquay next Saturday and the players duly obliged with a far more cohesive performance and a goal from new striker Michael Folivi.

Whilst we are nowhere near where Gavin wants us to be, there were some eye-catching displays – not least from South African midfielder Khanya Leshabela whose vision and composure shone through and who looks destined to become a fans’ favourite.

Leshebela and fellow new recruit, 6-foot-4  Ernaldo Krasniqi, formed an encouraging partnership in front of what, for this encounter, was a back four.

With just three minutes on the clock, debutant Folivi forced a tip-over save from the Ware keeper before a Ware corner at the other end was shovelled to safety.

Ware’s lively right-winger wearing number seven  posed a serious threat but on 37 minutes we opened the score with a well-worked goal, the ball played through midfield before being fed out to Ollie Knight whose cross looped over the keeper and was tucked home by Folivi (pictured)

After an eye-catching 45 minutes from Leshabela that told us plenty about his potential, it was good to see Scott Thomas given a run-out to test his fitness but we started far too sluggishly and allowed our hosts to go close three times.

Krasniqi’s debut lasted until the hour mark when he, too, was substituted though he was already struggling having received lengthy treatment behind the Ware goal.

Cue a flurry of further substitutions before we doubled the lead on 72 minutes. Herson Alves’ corner was hacked up in the air and when the ball fell to a trialist wearing 19, he smacked it home impressively on the volley.

And it was the same player who got the last touch to another Alves corner seven minutes from time after Joash Nembhard’s brave diving header was cleared off the line.

“We looked comfortable until that period 10 minutes after the restart when we dropped off for some reason,” said Gavin who was still missing a number of key players including Billy Leonard and Jack Smith. “I brought Khanya and Ernaldo in for a reason and both keep the ball really well. There were a lot of plusses because I asked the boys to take a step in the right direction.”

“Having said that, a lot of them are trying to get up to speed and there’s lots of work to do during the week because this was more like a mid-pre season performance. To be honest, nothing is where I want it to be at the moment. I’ve got some tough decisions to make, some of which I may not like doing, but I have to get it right.”

Town: Forster; Parcell, Nembhard, Tanner; Oyenuga, Krasniqi, Leshabela, Knight, Payne; Youngs; Folivi

Subs: Cavedaschi, Adjei-Hersey, Thomas, Taaffe, Alves, Beckles-Richards, Trialist A, Trialist B