Eastbourne Borough 1 Enfield Town 0
Report by Andrew Warshaw
The tide surely has to turn soon following our sixth defeat in seven games yet one that deserved at least a point after arguably our most cohesive performance of the season to date.
Despite being throttled for 25 minutes by the speed and physicality of our full-time opponmets, we managed to restrict them to a single goal and controlled the second half without any reward.
Whilst there is a valid argument to suggest we need more quality in the final third, this was an altogether far more accomplished display than of late and one from which the team can heart with a mouth-watering home fixture on Saturday against Maidstone United.
Town were without the unavailable Sam Youngs while fit-again Mickey Parcell came into the back four in place of Bernie Tanner.
The Sports, without three or four regulars but with a squad of full-time players, swept out of the blocks with dazzling pace that ran us ragged.
Jaydon Davis and Siya Ligendza both went close in a lightning start before the breakthrough came on 16 minutes as a peach of a cross was swept into the net by Alfie Pavey.
It looked ominous for Town who were indebted to Alex Solomon for blocking Isaac Pitblado’s powerful header on the line.
But after showing the resilience not to fall further behind, Town started to grow into the game and a couple of half chances just before the break, notably Billy Leonard linking up with Hisham Kasimu, augured well for the second half.
H-T 0-1
Whatever was said at the interval, we were a very different proposition. On 56 minutes Fin Holter made a crucial save to deny Kasimu, then made an even better stop to keep out Ollie Knight’s low drive before Dan Quick’s last-ditch tackle prevented a certain equaliser.
With the crowd getting restless and nervous, venting their frustration at some of the refereeing (in truth it was the same for both sides), we looked more and more like gaining a point rather than conceding again as we had done in previous outings.
Yet despite another trademark flurry of subs and ending the game with three up front, it was not to be as the home defence, marshalled by Moussa Diarra, held firm, a classic example of an established Step 2 side’s ability to manage a game.
Despite us falling into the bottom three, Gavin was as upbeat as he could be after yet another opposition manager offered kind words about our performance, this time Eastbourne’s Adam Murray.
“The boys are absolutely gutted and crestfallen in the dressing room,” said Gavin afterwards. “I don’t think anyone could argue that the best team lost. Yes they ran us around at first but the last 15 minutes of the first half we matched them and the second half was complete domination.”
“I’m not used to losing football matches but we were playing against a well-drilled full-time team. When you have players at your disposal every day, you are bound to be fitter and stronger but I can’t ask any more from our boys apart from taking their chances. These boys are running their guts out. Slough was perhaps the only exception. We’re a small fish in a big pond now but we have to reverse this very quickly. The fans were there applauding us off again but we owe them one or two.”
Town: Forster; Payne, Nembhard, Solomon, Parcell; Leshabela (Folivi, 77), Thomas (Krasniqi 64); Knight (Adjei-Hersey, 79), Leonard, Peake; Kasimu (Beckles-Richards, 64)