Remember the performance a few weeks ago when we beat Ebbsfleet comfortably? Town were superb that night but didn’t win another game until last Saturday.

No-one is under any illusions that we simply musn’t follow the same pattern after our magnificent win over Farnborough.

Gavin Macpherson knows that, so do his backroom staff (Jon Underwood said as much after our 5-1 demolition of Farnborough) and so do the players.

Which makes tonight’s visit of Maidstone to the Dave Bryant stadium (ko 7.45) that much more significant.

“The firm aim now is to find an answer on how we push forward with consistency,” said Gavin as he looked ahead. “Maidstone will be a massively tough test of where we are but push forward we must.”

One of the most dangerous teams in the division on their day with an illustrious history, the Stones may have lost 3-1 at Dorking on Saturday but some of their other recent results illustrate just how they can turn on the style– the 2-0 away win over Torquay the previous Saturday being a particular case in point.

One thing’s for sure. Maidstone, one of Lemar Reynolds’ former clubs of course, promise to be much tougher opponent that Farnborough.

But with Bath away to come on Saturday, we need to build on that confidence-boosting Farnborough result to try and climb out of the bottom four and kick on.

Enfield Town 5 Farnborough Town 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

What better time to end our five-match losing streak in the league but who’d have imagined it would be achieved in such spectacular fashion!

 On our annual Whole Club Day, Enfield Town defied the atrocious conditions to run riot with our best performance of the season and in doing so, crucially, narrow the gap at the bottom.

After so many recent setbacks and injuries, this was a day when everything came together  as Town put on a show of ruthlessness, hunger, interplay and fluidity that had the majority of the 900-plus attendance purring with admiration.

Shorn of no fewer than 13 players a week ago and in danger of falling further adrift of safety, the management team welcomed back a good number as well as adding new loan signings, goalkeeper George Barrett and defender Joe Kizzi, to the starting line-up, both having only joined at lunchtime.

 In truth, we would have taken any kind of victory to arrest our worrying slump. Instead we put Farnborough to the sword, the first time since we gained Step 2 status that we have scored more than three goals.

The first came after just six minutes. So often this season we have been caught cold but for once the boot was on the other foot – literally. A quick ball forward by Mickey Parcell – playing his 300^th game for Town – was met by Cian Dillon who squared for Lemar Reynolds to finish.

Farnborough had hardly got out of their half but they have dangerous players in forward positions. And with their first serious threat, a darting run by Amir Hadi found Dominic Poleon who finished cooly to restore parity.

Not for long. Five minutes later and we were back in front. After great work by T-Sharne Gallimore, who had arguably his best display in a Town shirt, Lemar seemed to have missed his kick as the rain lashed down but quickly regained his footing to fire into the corner.

Cian and Lemar had never played together but you would never have known it. With two up top, Town were a constant threat, boosted by another tweak in formation that saw Hayden Bullas pushed into a virtual number 10 position with Gallimore and Parcell behind.

It worked a treat and soon we were on the scoresheet again. An outrageous piece of skill by Lemar took out two Farnborough players, his assist finding Cian who looked at first like he had made too much of an angle before shooting into the far corner.

H-T 3-1

A two-goal halftime lead was no less than we deserved. Farnborough responded by making four halftime subs but before any of them could influence the game, we put matters to bed – albeit with a stroke of good fortune.

Billy Leonard’s cross-shot to the back post looked all the world like a slightly miscued effort but left goalkeeper Jack Turner floundering as it nestled in the top corner.

Dillon nearly made five with a beautiful turn of pace that saw him clip the top of the bar but it wasn’t long before Lemar – at times unplayable on the day – completed his hat-trick after cutting in from the left, the linesman flagging his shot had crossed the line despite desperate efforts to keep it out.

With our collective feet understandably taken off the gas, our visitors had their best period of the game without reducing the deficit, in part due to Barratt making three smart saves, the best of them in stoppage time with an excellent one-handed tip-over.

“A fantastic performance from start to finish all over the pitch and the lads deserve a lot of credit after the run we’ve been on,” said Jon Underwood, stepping in for Gavin. “We’ve come a long way in a week – I’ve never known anything like the injury crisis. We’ve had to patch a few up and it wasn’t perfect preparation but it was good to see some depth in quality on the bench at last.”

Now, of course, we to make sure we keep the momentum going, starting with Maidstone on Tuesday.

“We had a great win against Ebbsfleet here, then went on a terrible run so we can’t get carried away and have to back it up,” said Unders. “We’re in a battle, we know that, but the table has bunched up a bit near the bottom and that’s what we needed so as not to get cast adrift.”

Town (3-5-2)

Barrett; Benjamin; Thompson, Kizzi; Adom-Malaki, Bullas, Parcell (Donaldson, 62), Gallimore (Davis 81), Leonard; Dillon (Ackason 68), Reynolds (Youngs 68)

We are pleased to announce two loan signings  ahead of today’s fixture against Farnborough Town.

With Tom Norcott out for several weeks, a deal has been struck for Ipswich Town under-21 keeper George Barrett (pictured) to join on a month’s loan.

 George, 19, was most recently on loan at Canvey Island and will be with us until Dec 20.

Experienced defender Joe Kizzi, 32, joins on a short-term loan from Barnet where he made 13 appearances early on during their National League title-winning season.

For Joe, who can play either as a central defender or rightback, the move marks a return to Town where he began his career over a decade ago and who still lives in the area.

Welcome to them both!

Gavin Macpherson has never liked the phrase six-pointer but there’s no getting away from the fact that tomorrow’s clash with Farnborough is arguably our biggest league game of the season.

Slough’s victory over Farnborough in midweek heaped even more pressure on Town who now find themselves second to bottom of the table — three points behind the Rebels and four behind our visitors from Hampshire in the quest for safety.

That gives you some idea of the urgency of trying to narrow the gap on what is an eagerly anticipated day for Town off the field as well as on it, being Whole Club Day with all manner of special pre-match activities and entertainment. ETFC bracelets will once again be on sale, the Ladies section will have a stall and Krispy Kreme, one of our new sponsors, will be selling their doughnuts at a discounted rate.

The club will also have a stall from where raffle tickets will be sold with a range of prizes including signed Spurs and ETFC shirts, 2 free entry tickets to Hertfordshire zoo, two hours free work on your garden donated by GP Garden Services, a 15% discount voucher off of a meal at Judges restaurant and a case of Blind Poet beer. Raffle tickets will be £2.00 per strip or 6 strips for £10.00 and your support will be greatly appreciated.

On the pitch, such is the precarious position the club find themselves in – five straight league defeats — that Gavin gathered his management team together for a brainstorming session at a hotel near Heathrow on Tuesday.

“We had a long chat about where we need to be, something of a reprogramming discussion if you like,” Gav disclosed. “I wouldn’t call it a crisis meeting. A few good words were expressed across the table because we all felt a bit of fine-tuning was needed.”

“We were well adrift at New Year last season and eventually just got out of it but it’s vital we pick up enough points in November and December not to be in that situation again. It’s ridiculous using words like six-pointers in November but I can understand why this game tomorrow is being built up, it’s massively important.”

“The fact is, however, it wouldn’t matter who we were playing, we need a win. Farnborough signed some massive players in the summer and certainly have the ability, particularly the forward end of the pitch. They are in a false position in my opinion. Remember, they beat Chelmsford away the other week.”

In terms of the injury list, Gav revealed good news and not so good. The four players suspended or away on international duty have all returned while Lemar Reynolds should also be available for selection and Mickey Parcell could make his 300^th appearance for the club. Sam Youngs, who didn’t train Thursday having been abroad for some warm weather rehab, will be assessed late on.

Definitely out still are Henry Hawkins and goalkeeper Tom Norcott who is likely to be absent for longer than anticipated. They are joined on the sidelines by Avan Jones and Tommy Wood.

“As far as Tom is concerned, we could be looking at the best part of a month rather than 10 days which is hardly ideal having just released Rhys,” said Gavin. “It’s terrible timing. Put it like this: we are reviewing our options on that one. Normally having four or five out would be considered a crisis but compared to how we were a week ago at Harborough when we had 13 out, it feels in a way like Christmas has come early.”

Now we have to make sure we don’t give Farnborough any presents.

AW

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 13^th 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.

The club can confirm that after initial agreements to dual register, it is with great sadness that we can announce the permanent departure of goalkeeper Rhys Forster.

After signing in the summer of 2023, Rhys appeared 107 times for the club and played a pivotal role in securing promotion to National League South. We will be eternally grateful for Rhys’ efforts and commitment to the club, and wish him the best for the future.

“The initial conversations was for him to stay with us,” explained Gavin Macpherson. “But his view was that it was probably the right time for a fresh break. I have to respect that.”

“Rhys has been with me for a long time as many people know and it was very difficult to have the conversation. I want to place on record what Rhys has done for the club, he was a big part of getting us promoted and seeing us through last season. We have to wish him all the very best for whatever he does in the future.”

It never rains…unless it pours. Enfield Town face the nightmare scenario of being without new fewer than ELEVEN players for our FA Trophy tie at high-flying Harborough tomorrow – described by both manager and assistant manager as the worst crisis either of them has ever seen in all their years in football.

Two more senior players have now joined the list of casualties which, added to suspensions and international call-ups, stretches us to the barest of bones with a number of academy kids potentially having to be drafted in.

A free midweek next Tuesday cannot come soon enough in order to try and recover some of the walking wounded. Four of the current absentees – those suspended and on international duty – will thankfully be available again for our Whole Club Day next weekend against Farnborough when we try and arrest a slump that has seen us lose five league games on the spin. But that  will still leave a crippling injury list which has now lengthened to include two more crucial and hugely experienced players ruled out after Thursday’s training session.

Before training, Gavin Macpherson was talking of nine absentees rather than 11 but bullish about at least putting a competitive team on the pitch against unbeaten Harborough, top of Southern League Premier Central with games in hand.

The fixture would have been tough enough anyway even with one or two sidelined. But when a non-league side is  shorn of a whole first team of experienced individuals for an important cup tie on a plastic pitch with not enough time to draft in emergency loanees, you could be forgiven for concluding the footballing gods have got it in for us.

“There’s a bit of bad luck going our way but we have to take it on the chin,” Gavin conceded. “It’s very rare for all this to happen at the same time but there’s no doom and gloom about the place.”

“The FA Trophy is a really important competition that clubs at our level  have done well in,” said Gavin. “Harborough need no introduction in terms of where they are. You don’t stay unbeaten into November without being a very solid outfit. I acknowledge they are geared up to be at our level and it’s probably like playing another Step 2 side. But we’ll go there with a plan despite all the absentees.”

If the match is drawn over 90 minutes there will be a penalty shootout with no extra time. Let’s hope, given our record, it doesn’t come down to pens!

For  fans still wishing to travel, there are match tickets and places on the coach available on the following link:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/market-harborough/harborough-town-football-club/harborough-town-fc-vs-enfield-town-fa-trophy-second-round-away-fans/2025-11-15/15:00/t-qmvezpq

Coach: £30 – text 07493 425359 to reserve your seat. Leaving at 10:30am

AW

Enfield Town 1 Salisbury 2

Report by Andrew Warshaw

Same old failings, broken record, call it what you will. Gavin Macpherson was certainly making no excuses as he cut a disconsolate figure after Enfield Town’s fifth straight league defeat – and our sixth in seven games.

But when everything conspires to kick you in the proverbials during one of the worst losing streaks of recent seasons, maintaining belief and keeping the faith is paramount.

With so many players either injured or unavailable (it’ll get even worse at Harborough in the Trophy on Saturday), Town simply have to get through the current crisis, hope further damage can be limited and look forward with optimism once bodies are recovered. Only then can players and management be judged accordingly.

Having lost Cian Dillion to international call-up only a few hours before kick-off, Gavin ended up being without six available first-team players and even a couple of those on the bench were not fit to play a part. No wonder he said afterwards he had never seen anything like it.

Having said all that, there is little question we again shot ourselves in the foot on the night in what was at  times a scrappy encounter. Whilst there were perhaps mitigating circumstances at Dover, falling four points adrift of the safety zone was certainly not what the doctor ordered though there is, let’s remember, plenty of time to recover.

Not for the first time, our final ball was too rushed and it was the visitors who had the better of the first-half chances, such as they were, former Towner Josh Keeya notably blazing just over.

As we grew into the half, we forced a number of corners in the wind and rain and were just beginning to threaten the Salisbury goal when we fell behind.

Adam Thompson was penalised for a foul and we were caught cold by the resultant quick freekick,  Matt Briggs squaring for Matty Taylor to tap in as we switched off completely.

It was a horrible goal to concede and while Bailey Brown got his head to a hanging ball just before the interval, we were void of the proverbial cutting edge.

H-T 0-1

We needed a quick response but didn’t get it. Instead, after  Taylor was denied his second goal by the linesman, we fell further behind. On 56 minutes, we didn’t deal with a corner despite a small-ish Salisbury front line and an unmarked Briggs converted a click-on.

Only now, in familiar fashion, did we up the tempo. Two penalty shouts – one when Tommo appeared to be elbowed, the other more far obvious when substitute Eli Ackeson was clearly tripped – went unheeded.

As we pushed up, so Salisbury could have added a third on the breakaway but for two smart saves from our new keeper Tom Norcott and a last-ditch hook away from danger by Xav Benjamin.

With eight minutes left, however, the deficit was halved. Ackeson, showing commendable youthful awareness, found Hayden Bullas who smashed the ball home.

Salisbury were now on the ropes but it was too, little late for all our endeavour to take a point.  On the positive front, Ackeson’s minutes on the pitch having recently stepped from the academy was hugely encouraging as was the performance of Olle Davis (pictured) while Bullas never stopped running and Ruaridh Donaldson was an authoritative figure in front of the defence.

Rudridh, sadly, now misses the Trophy trip to Harborough because of suspension, as does Tommo – making eight players potentially unavailable.

“Personnel is sparse and we are running on bare bones but I was confident this team could have beaten Salisbury and if they’d done things differently they might have,” said Gavin. “The first goal, for instance, was unforgivable from a defensive standpoint. At the other end I thought we let them off the hook though we didn’t have anywhere near our regular forward line.”

“Whichever way you look at things at the moment it stops with me. The only way I know is to get back on and work hard.”

Norcott; Benjamin, Thompson, Hawkins; Adom-Malaki, Donaldson, Brown (Knight 70), Bullas, Leonard; Wood (Ackeson 66), Davis

We are delighted to announce the signing on a three-month loan of 20-year-old Tom Norcott who made his Town debut in last night’s defeat to Salisbury.

Tom has been released to us by Reading after a loan spell at Step 1 Woking where he made six appearances — and immediately proved his worth by pulling off a couple of excellent saves against Salisbury

“Tom comes highly recommended from a number of people and we are thankful to Reading and delighted to bring him into the squad,” said Gavin Macpherson.

During his post-match interview, Gavin explained the rationale behind the decision to change keepers and how he had an “adult conversation”  with Rhys Forster with whom he has worked for many years.

Welcome Tom

Allow us to offer you the opportunity to sponsor Enfield Town FC for a period of 16 months – January 2026 to April 2027, from either £1.65 or £2.06 per day!

ETFC is a very special club.

June 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of its birth as the UK’s first fans owned club.

Born out of the demise of Enfield FC, the club’s most prominent team is the Saturday 1st team playing in National League South – just two steps away from the Football League!

But there are many other facets to ETFC – a football academy, Ladies teams, flourishing boys’ and girls’ sections, walking football, disability football and a Saturday soccer school, truly making it fully immersed in the Borough.

So why not link your name to the biggest non-League club in the area, with a strong community feel?

We have designed two new sponsorship packages for this special offer:

Package 1 – a pitch side banner (including production) and a half page match day programme advertisement @ £50.00 per month = £800.00 for 16 months

Package 2 – package 1, but a full-page advertisement in the match day programme @ £62.50 per month = £1,000.00 for 16 months

You could also add a website link from our site to yours taking the charge for package 1 to £1,100.00 (£68.75 per month/£2.29 per day) and package 2 to £1,300.00 (£81.25 per month/£2.68 per day) for 16 months.

Website links are currently one of the most popular choices for our existing sponsors.

You may also like to consider our match day sponsorship options?

For just £150.00, you could choose either the man of the match, sponsor the match ball, or sponsor the match

day programme. Each option comes with 2 tickets to a game and boardroom hospitality and can of course be added to the packages above. All charges above are subject to the imposition of VAT.

Payment terms – to help manage your finances, whilst happy to invoice the full value of package at the time of commitment, we would equally be happy to offer you a 2-stage payment schedule.

Stage 1 – 50% payment on confirmation of the package, i.e. from now until the end of January.

Stage 2 – 50% payment of the balance in May 2026.

For any further questions or discussions, please email commercial@etfc.london and either Graham or Neil will respond, or call Graham on 07973 701515. We would also be happy to create an alternative package to meet your budget in addition to the options above.