Enfield Town played out an entertaining 2-2 draw with an Arsenal Academy team in a friendly arranged for reasons of both cash flow and match practice given we had been without a competitive game since Bath away.

Although the visitors dominated possession for long periods, Town succeeded in digging in and finding two equalisers to earn a highly creditable draw.

  The Arsenal starting line-up boasted several players with limited first-team experience and a goalkeeper with England Under-19 caps, and were quickly into their stride, causing Town numerous problems with some slick, pacy football.

They were in front after only nine minutes when skipper Louie Copley got behind the Town backline, and took advantage of an unlucky slip by Adi Connolly in the Town goal to roll the ball into an empty net.

  Town’s response was almost instant. Olly Davis made a penetrating run from midfield and slipped the ball to Billy Leonard on the right,  his shot taking a huge deflection to beat Gunners’ keeper Khari Ranson.

The rest of the half was dominated by the visitors, but an inspired display by Connolly kept the scores level, aided by two struck goalposts along the way.

 The second half followed a similar pattern, with Town drip-feeding substitutes onto the field; by the final whistle only Davis remained from the original starting eleven.

Connolly continued to defy the visitors’ efforts but eventually the dam was breached on 67 minutes, with Charles Sagoe Junior racing through a suspiciously large gap on the left side of Town’s defence.

Once again the Town response was almost instant. Avan Jones embarked on a meandering run out of defence, his shot from distance fumbled by Ranson into the path of Eli Ackason, who rammed in his first Town goal from close range.

There was still time for Ethan Cann to make a brilliant goal-line clearance to preserve parity.   

All in all a satisfactory evening for both sides’ bid for game time, in our case ahead our return to league action at Hornchurch on Saturday.

Team: Connolly, Kizzi, Thompson, Donaldson, Leonard, Bullas, Gallimore, Adom-Malaki, Davis, Wood, Triallist

 Subs: Jawonski, Jones, Benjamin, Hawkins, Knight, Ackason, Brown, Bates, Cann, Opoku

Martin Bentley