Familiar Failings Sink Town

Farnborough 4 Enfield Town 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

For just over 40 minutes yesterday, it was as accomplished an away performance as the management team could have wished for against strong opponents.

Organisation, shape, discipline, a willingness to be positive on the ball – and a goal up to boot.

The game plan was working a treat. Suddenly, all that hard work went belly up in a disastrous 14-minute spell in what has become a depressingly familiar scenario of Town caving in once the opposition gain a foothold in the game.

Okay there were one or two mitigating circumstances, Xavier Benjamin having to be replaced at halftime because of concussion being one them. Missing Alfie Tuck and Sam Youngs in midfield was another.

But Gavin Macpherson was making no excuses after another game in which once the opposition scored, too many players went missing and we couldn’t regain our composure.

It’s perhaps no coincidence that all our three wins this season have come with clean sheets. In other words, when we concede we tend to lose concentration.

And yet, after the game had to be delayed by 30 minutes because of horrendous traffic jams on the approach roads, there was little to choose between the two sides in the opening half.

Richard Chin missed a sitter for the hosts as we were indebted to Rhys Forster, despite suffering from illness, for pulling off an excellent save but on 14 minutes we were in front courtesy of a dreadful blunder at the other end.

Home keeper Jack Turner miskicked straight to Jake Hutchinson and although Jake’s subsequent shot was parried, Harry Ottaway was on hand to tap in.

Forster’s fumble at a freekick almost led to an immediate equaliser but although Farnborough looked quick and lively, they weren’t at this point creating much of a goal threat and we might well have doubled our lead when Harley Mills rifled over.

It was important that we remained in front and Forster tipped over an Olly Pendlebury drive. But on 41 minutes, a quick throw-in, some neat interplay and the hosts were level through Millar Matthews-Lewis slick finish.

The same player should have given Farnborough the lead after being slipped in by Holmes. Suddenly we were on the back foot and there was no doubt which team were more relieved to hear the halftime whistle

H-T 1-1

It should have given us the chance to regroup. Instead the Yellows burst out of the traps against a defence which now included Joash Nembhard for Benjamin, concussed whilst bravely clearing a Farnborough raid.

Within just two minutes of the restart we were behind as we fluffed several chances to clear the ball and Chin took advantage with a close-range header from a Holmes assist.

In the blink of an eye, the game was snatched from our grasp as Reggie Young produced a curling finish from just inside the box.  No Town player got close to him and that was sadly the story of the second half.

The unwell Forster, who had an up-and-down day, dropped another cross that wasn’t punished before our misery was complete. Somehow we allowed Young to run unchallenged through the middle of the pitch and although Rhys did well to keep his effort out, Matthews-Lewis almost burst the net with the follow-up.

With the goal at his mercy Holmes should have added a fifth but took the wrong option and chipped over the bar and although we had a decent spell late on, there was now only pride to play for.

“Making the change at halftime hurt us and we struggled to adjust,” said Gavin. “But there are fundamental reasons why we are losing matches.”

“We cost ourselves either side of halftime which has become a theme. Maybe it’s a mental thing. Farnborough are a good team, make no mistake, but it’s in keeping with this level that if you switch off, you get punished. The next two games against Aveley and Welling are probably closer to where we live right now and are absolutely crucial.”

Forster; Payne, Parcell, Benjamin (Nemhard, 46); Asjei-Hersey(Oyenuga, 70), Leshabela, Peake, Leonard (Smith, 55), Mills (Beckles-Richards, 78); Ottaway (Knight, 70), Hutchinson