Chelmsford City 1 Enfield Town 2
Report by Andrew Warshaw
Without tempting fate, we’re almost there! Rock bottom at New Year, Enfield Town stretched their unbeaten run to seven games with arguably one of our most impressive displays of the season as we came from behind to open up a six-point gap above the drop zone.
With both St Albans and Salisbury going down, the latter suprisingly to relegated Aveley, it was almost the perfect day as goals from Bailey Brown and Jack Bates cancelled out Chelmsford’s opener as we took a giant step towards safety, leapfrogging Salisbury into 19th place as well as distancing ourselves further from St Albans.
Gavin Macpherson’s pre-match comments about momentum being all-important could not have been better exemplified as we dominated most of the game and got our reward, celebrated wildly by a large away following who knew the significance of the result and cheered Gavin’s name to the rafters.
Despite once again missing Adam Thompson, Town were as solid at the back as they have been in recent weeks, the only change being Jack Bates for Anointed Chukwu with Sam Youngs playing alongside the tenacious Cian Dillon up top.
After a three-minute delay while one of the nets was repaired, Town immediately grabbed the initiative as Youngs, showing great control, saw Ted Collins off his line and volleyed just wide.
Xavier Benjamin then found Dillon with a superb pass through the lines, only for no-one to keep pace to convert the latter’s pullback.
A clearance off the line after a Collins spill kept Chelmsford in it but Town continued to pose the greater threat until, on 28 minutes, we went behind against the run of play.
Joe Wright rushed off his line to clear a one-on-one with his knees but only succeeded in losing out to Kane Crichlow whose ball to Charlie Ruff was swept into the net despite the efforts of two Town defenders to keep it out.
As Town responded, Youngs and Brown both went close while Ruff blazed over at the end of a half that in no way reflected the scoreline.
H-T 0-1
Carrying where we left off, Town took just five minutes to restore parity as Brown latched on to Mickey Parcell’s chipped ball and equalised with a superb finish across goal (pictured).
It was no less than we deserved but every team has its spell in nearly every game and Chelmsford, briefly, now had theirs.
But they were unable to find a way through as two magnificent sliding tackles – first by Parcell, then Henry Hawkins – said everything about our resilience of late.
It was just the incentive we needed to go on and win the game. Bates’ rising snapshot was tipped over by Collins but Jack wasn’t finished yet. On 75 minutes, he burst through on goal and slotted the ball through Collins’ legs, sending the sizeable Town end, who outsung the home fans throughout, into raptures.
Ex-Towner favourite Ryan Blackman came off the Chelmsford bench but fortunately didn’t affect proceedings. Nor did two disallowed late goals. Chelmsford thought they’d equalised, only for Crichlow’s 85th minute effort to be ruled narrowly offside. Then Town sub Hisham Kasimu’s close-range effort was also chalked off for a high kick by Hawkins.
Now attention turns to the mother of all local derbies on Good Friday when victory over St. Albans will preserve our National League South status while even a draw will keep us in the box seat for the Great Escape.
Before discussing that, Gavin was quick to pay his respects to Clarets boss Robbie Simpson who missed the game through a family bereavement.
“He’s gone through something very similar to what I went through and we need to share a thought for that because some things are miles bigger than football,” said Gav.
Turning to St Albans and our last three games, Gavin urged caution until the job is finally done.
“We haven’t yet achieved our goal and we now reset for St Albans. We thoroughly deserved the result today after a travesty of a halftime score. Chelmsford are a really good side but our performance today was above the level we showed at Hemel and this time, we found the net twice.”
“We’ve taken a huge step forward but I’ve said to the players they have to re-programme quickly. There musn’t be any talk of we’ve done it – until we have.”
Town
Wright; Bates (Sidwell 86’), Benjamin, Peake (Kasimu 83), Youngs, Dillon (Oyenuga 83), Leonard, Brown, Hawkins, Stallard, Parcell