Enfield Town 2 AFC Wimbledon 4
Report by Andrew Warshaw
Not much should be read into this scoreline. There were loads of positives to take from our first pre-season outing of the season, not least the fact that with our strongest available side we took a 2-0 lead against League One opposition before the management team sent out a heap of young trialists for the entire second half.
The visiting Dons squad, promoted in last season’s playoffs, was packed with first-team members but in that opening half you wouldn’t have guessed they were three divisions above us.
Even with the likes of Bailey Brown and a couple of new signings unavailable (Lamar Reynolds was watching from the stands), Town’s first-half performance was highly encouraging, notably a back four that included promising new recruit Evan Jones. We wait to see whether that will be Gavin Macpherson’s preferred formation when the season proper gets under way.
Before kickoff, the mayor of Enfield, Cllr Margaret Greer, officially opened our new stand by cutting the proverbial ribbon (pictured with ETFC chairman and vice-chairman Paul Reed and Paul Millington), a landmark occasion.
Then it was down to the action on the pitch which was in superb condition thanks to the hard work of Neil, Jack and their team.
The Wimbledon starting eleven included a familiar face in Harry Sidwell who had such an impressive loan spell with us marked by that scorcher against Truro. The Dons also fielded Matty Stevens, their 21-goal marksman last season.
But Town started like a train and so nearly grabbed the lead on five minutes when Ollie Knight was sent clear by Sam Youngs, only to see his superb left-foot strike bettered by a terrific one-handed stop from Joe Mcdonnal.
But it wasn’t long before we broke the deadlock courtesy of Tommy Wood, our new striker who quickly endeared himself to Town fans with two quickfire goals. First his movement in the box created space for him to head home Billy Leonard’s corner and within a minute he struck again, starting and finishing an excellent move by converting Ollie’s fizzed-in cross.
Stevens duly halved the deficit and should have levelled just before the interval when he put a free header wide but we were good value for our lead.
H-T 2-1
Both teams changed their lineups for the second period, the difference being that our visitors still paraded first-team squad members whereas Gavin threw on a heap of untried trialists.
It was perhaps inevitable therefore that Wimbledon – who had left three on the pitch — took the game away from us given the gap in quality and the fact we were now fielding an entire relatively inexperienced line-up who had never played together.
Now it was the Dons’ turn to hit two in a minute after 73 and 74 minutes through an Alistair Smith side-foot and an Osman Foyo strike that beat Adi Connolly at his near post. Foyo then doubled his tally as he smashed in a fourth off the underside of the bar.
“In the first half we played a relatively familiar team though with a few still missing but even in the second half really pleased with the effort even though I kind of expected it may go that way,” said Gavin.
“Obviously their fitness levels were going to be miles better but the important thing is we got out of it what we wanted. For our first pre-season it was as much as I could have asked for. There may have been a few doubters about Tommy but I’ve got great faith in him. If he’s fit and focussed and has found a home, all of a sudden you’re getting a very good player.”
Next up Canvey Island on Saturday and a likely similar scenario of two different elevens. “It’ll be 45s again,” said Gavin. “It’s about avoiding injuries and building towards that first game of the season. Which we know is going to be extremely tough!”
Town’s first half line-up:
Forster; Jones, Hawkins, Thompson, Benjamin; Leonard Youngs, Parcell, Knight; trialist, Wood