Harborough Town 3 Enfield Town 0
Report by Andrew Warshaw
Ignore, if you can, the scoreline. On another day, with a stronger lineup, we would in all likelihood now be looking forward to another crack at the FA Trophy.
Despite almost everything that could go against us having gone against us, the feeling, as we waved goodbye to knockout football for another season, was one of frustration.
Frustration at what might have been had we had a full-strength side – or even a half-strength one — rather than a skeleton line-up and too many square pins in round holes.
For any cynics or dissenters out there – and there appear to be a small but vocal minority – this was nowhere a 3-0 scoreline in terms of ball possession, effort, application, desire and purpose.
To put that into perspective, we were able to field only three – repeat THREE – substitutes. And one of those was our 38-year-old goalkeeping coach! Any team at any level would have struggled with such depleted resources.
Yes we were well beaten in the end. Yes there was a lack of communication at times on the pitch. And yes Harborough made the most of capitalising on individual errors, a feature of our season generally.
But it would be unfair and misleading, given the fact we had TWELVE players missing, to compare this result with previous setbacks.
With so many disruptions – including two new injury setbacks after training Thursday and our new goalkeeper Tom Norcott being ruled out 24 hours before kick-off – all planning went out of the window.
Nevertheless, we started very much on the front foot against an unbeaten team who are top of their Step 3 league.
But as so often, after an encouraging opening spell, we fell behind courtesy of a self-inflicted blow. A dithering Nino Adam-Malaki was needlessly dispossessed and quick as a flash the ball was fed to Brady Hicky who fired low beyond Adi Connolly.
Adi, who it must be said could do nothing about any of the goals we conceded, had already made a reflex stop from Riley O’Sullivan but strange as it may seem, we were playing the ball far more on the ground than of late. Olly Davis almost pulled us level, curling a shot just outside of the post after a great touch from Eli Ackeson, only recently promoted from the academy but arguably our most effective player on the day.
H-T 0-1
For all the pre-match concerns about what Harborough might do to us, we were well in the game at this point, Davis and Ackeson showing skill and technique and the whole side running their hearts out.
But that, perhaps understandably in the circumstances, was not going to be enough against a side who have conceded just 18 goals in all competitions. When Town half-chances were created, there was no-one to complete them. When a succession of crosses did go into the box, there was no-one on hand to convert them.
The next goal, without extra time or a replay, was always going to be crucial and it went Harborough’s way. In another cheap giveaway, Mickey Parcell, returning to the side in an unfamiliar central defensive role, tried to find Ollie Knight, only for Harborough to intercept quickly with debutant David Kamara eventually converting at the back post.
Far from heads going down, Davis and Ackeson continued to probe while Avan Jones’ header from a superb Ollie Knight centre should have found the target from four yards out instead of ballooning over.
Halving the deficit then would have given Harborough plenty to think about. Instead, on 70 minutes, the Bees put the game to bed. Substitute Ben Stephens was unceremoniously hauled down by a tiring Bailey Brown and when the referee played the advantage instead of awarding a penalty and possibly sending Brown off, O’Sullivan chased the ball down to blast home.
It looked well offside but to no avail and it might have got even worse had Harborough not fluffed two more golden opportunities in quick succession.
To make matters worse, Jones became our 13th casualty with what looked like a groin strain but in the dying moments Ackeson thought he’d scored a deserved consolation, only for Elliott Taylor to pull off a blinding save when a Hayden Bullas drive came back off the post and rebounded to the teenager.
It summed up Town’s day and now comes the mother of all six-pointers against Farnborough next Saturday when thankfully at least four players should be returning.
“I think Harborough were a really good side and it was always going to be a tall order with a very young side. I’m immensely proud of the boys but losing matches through individual mistakes is happening too often,” said Gavin.
“Certainly we’d have given ourselves a better chance with players back. With the blows we keep being given, this is without a doubt the hardest time in my managerial career but I have to try pick them up and regroup.”
Town:
Connolly; Jones (Cann 76), Benjamin, Parcell, Adom-Malaki; Leonard, Bullas, Brown, Knight; Ackeson, Davis.