A GoFundMe page has been set up for our popular striker Jake Cass who suffered a devastating ruptured Achilles in the second game of the season and is a huge loss to the squad.
Scott Thomas and Sam Youngs have set up the page for Jake who is a club member and was particularly looking forward to the season.
Please donate to Jake’s GoFundMe page if you are in a position to do so by clicking below:
Help To Get Jake Cass Back Playing
As the country’s first supporters-owned club, members are our lifeline. Without them there would be no Enfield Town FC.
Our membership continues to grow and we are looking at achieving record figures this season. How important individual members are and the contribution they make can never be taken for granted. To celebrate our members, we will be publishing articles highlighting their personal contributions over the years.
We start with two members who have been extremely generous with their support. Iain and Elaine Keay have supported the club as members since we were formed. Unfortunately, their health means that they have been unable to attend games so directors Paul Millington and David Bryant visited them at their Essex seaside home to chat about what being a member of the Town means to them.
Iain and Elaine were Enfield born and bred and have fond memories of supporting the old Enfield FC. Iain’s attention to the club was initially drawn when listening to BBC Radio on a Saturday afternoon in 1959 when the live commentary was Enfield’s FA Cup 2nd round tie with Bournemouth.
Both fondly recall the FA Amateur Cup finals and in particular the replay v Skelmersdale in 1967 played at Maine Road, Manchester. The family set off from Enfield with their car blazoned with balloons and scarves. The locals were obviously upset with the Enfield win as all the balloons had been burst when they returned to the car after the game.
Iain’s passion for football and his contribution to the game in Enfield went beyond his love for the local club. He was a sports teacher at Firs Farm in Edmonton and then Grange Park and Lavender Primary. He obtained his FA coaching badges and qualified as a referee. He managed the school teams and was keen for pupils to carry on after school and formed Lavender Youth. Later a new youth team, Field End Youth, was formed and Iain was invited to help run the club and managed three of their teams.
He counts among those he coached: Paul Moran (Spurs & Enfield), Martin Grainger (Birmingham City), and Dan Woodhouse (Enfield). He also coached cricket and three youngsters went onto play for Middlesex CCC. Iain recalls during a break from teaching and whilst working as a social worker for Haringey Social Services in the mid 1970’s he was invited for an interview as assistant club secretary at Spurs but sadly did not get the job.
His involvement at Enfield included contributions to the Attack magazine. A supporters’ magazine that was one of the first, if not the first, fanzine. He let us into a secret in that he ghost-wrote the regular column by the captain (of Enfield and England), Tony Jennings. Iain recalls covering the visit of the England national team managed by Don Revie who had a training session at Southbury Road before an international.
He still has his collection of Attack magazines and has donated to the club shop his collection of football books and programmes including that for the inauguration of the floodlights at Southbury Road when 10,000 turned up to see the game v Spurs in 1962. His favourite player of the old club was Roy Thomas who regularly now attends Town games. Iain has too many favourite games but the FA Cup 4th Round replay v Barnsley in 1981 at White Hart Lane in front of 35,000 stands out.
After moving to the Essex coast, Iain managed a bookshop that supports the local hospice. He follows every Town game on Live Score and despite not being able to travel, he and Elaine have bought their memberships and season tickets every season. Additionally, Iain has made significant donations over the years that have made a real difference to our club. He explains that after the loss of Southbury Road he felt the Supporters Trust was the only viable way to continue with football in Enfield. He knew many of the old club’s stalwarts that followed the Town (Roy Butler, Keith Wortley) and decided supporting the Town was the way forward.
Iain recognises that as a supporters-owned club there is no single money person and progress and success on the pitch needs financial support. The donations have certainly made a difference to our Club and helped bring us to where we are now, and hopefully will bring the club the future success we all want.
It was a pleasure to meet Iain and Elaine. We at the Town have been very lucky to have them as long-standing members. We thank them for their support and generosity.
Paul Millington
The draw for the FA Cup Third Qualifying Round has been made.
The Towners will head to the Midlands, having been drawn to step 3 Halesowen Town of the Southern League Premier Central. Once again, the cup has thrown up a tie between two sides unbeaten at the time of writing – with the Yeltz sitting second in their league having won four and drawn four.
The fixture will be played on the weekend of 29-31 September 2023 – please note that there is planned industrial action affecting trains on Saturday 30th September.
“I think it’s a game we should all be looking forward to,” said Gavin Macpherson. “It’s an intriguing game because both clubs will know nothing about the other. In many people’s eyes we’ll be underdogs and I don’t mind that.”
“Any team that has made it this far in the competition will be tough opponents and Halesowen will be no different. They’ve started well but so have we, I know our supporters will travel in numbers so it should be a competitive game.”
“We’ll plan for it when the time comes, at this time we are only focused on the visit of Carshalton in what will be another tough encounter.”
Enfield Town 3 Felixstowe and Walton 0
Report by Andrew Warshaw
Every Town fan will be glued to Monday’s FA Cup draw after we reached the third qualifying round at the expense of opponents who were hit with an early goal blitz before trying their best to make a fight of it.
On paper the tie was a potential banana skin but was effectively over within the first quarter as we destroyed the hopes of our lower-ranked Suffolk opponents and in the process ended their unbeaten start to the season.
As we roared out of the blocks, Sam Youngs settled any nerves by getting us on our way from the penalty spot on four minutes after Ollie Knight was impeded.
Ollie himself doubled our lead four minutes later with a fabulous finish (pictured, celebrating) following some neat interplay between Marcus Wyllie and Reece Beckles-Richards.
Before the Seasiders could gain any kind of foothold they fell further behind. Wyllie and Youngs had successive shots blocked but Joe Payne made no mistake at the third time of asking as he lashed the ball home.
Town, themselves unbeaten in all competitions, were too slick for their Step 4 visitors and could, maybe should, have had a couple more by halftime. Knight shot just wide while one of his trademark crosses was inches away from being converted by Wyllie.
Youngs suffered a nasty-looking leg gash and also picked up a yellow card but continued to stamp his mark on proceedings until being subbed with 20 minutes to go.
Sami Bessadi curled another fine Town effort just wide but just before the interval, F and W should have got back in the game when Callum Harrison somehow missed the target after being put through by Noel Aitkins’ clever back heel.
H-T 0-0
It was one step too far for our Step 4 opponents but we were indebted to our three-goal cushion in the second half as F and W gave it a go.
To their credit they looked a different team, partly because of us easing off, partly through tweaking their system, playing an extra man in midfield and bringing on tall target man Josh Mayhew.
Mayhew headed wide just after the restart and we suddenly had to turn to our defensive skills to preserve our three-goal lead, Josh Okotcha falling awkwardly and limping off after keeping out one of several raids.
Mayhew and Joshua Hitter missed further decent chances for Felixstowe who for once, having notched up 17 goals in six previous outings, left their scoring touch at home.
In the last 15 minutes Town regained control as Payne rattled a 25-yard freekick against the post and Wyllie picked up a rebound and drove agonisingly wide.
“I was disappointed with the second half, there’s no doubt about that,” said Gavin Macpherson. “We saw it coming but I don’t think we dealt with it particular well. If they’d got an early goal then, we could have had a hell of a game on our hands.”
“But you have to take your hat off to the boys. It was no fluke. They took on board exactly what we wanted them to do inside the first 35 minutes. Often at 3-0 human nature dictates sometimes that you think the game is done. I never think like that but it’s understandable.
“In the end we put them to bed very comprehensively in the first half which was good enough to do the job.”
It may be too early to think that far ahead but another favourable draw and we could edge ever closer to the dream scenario of the first round proper.
Town:
Forster; Parcell, Okotcha (Coker, 58), Richmond, Payne; Knight, Youngs (Keeya, 70), Thomas, Bessadi (Birch, 83); Wyllie, Beckles-Richards
Congratulations to Town goalkeeper Rhys Forster on winning the Uhlsport Golden Gloves Award for August!
Voted man-of-the-match for a string of saves away at Haringey Borough at the end of August, Rhys and his defence conceded just twice and registered 3 clean sheets in 5 Isthmian League games as we ended the month with the league’s meanest defence.
Well in, Rhys – here’s to many more!
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We are pleased to announce the signing of experienced striker Tyler Blackwood.
Tyler, 32, has played most of his football in America which meant we had to obtain International clearance.
Born in London, the former Northampton Town and Barnet trainee moved to the United States to play college football at an early age – and has lived across the pond virtually ever since bar a couple of years in 2015 and 2016 when he returned to play in the UK including a brief spell at QPR
At his first US club, Tampa Spartans, Tyler scored 24 goals in 33 appearances. He most recently played professionally with Oakland Roots in the second division USL Championship
Welcome Tyler.
We are thrilled to announce that Marcus Wyllie has put pen to paper and signed a contract with us until the end of this season, with an option for one further campaign.
Marcus, 24, has scored seven goals in as many games in all competitions in his favoured forward position this season, fulfilling the promise he showed since joining us from Step 5 Risborough Rangers where he chalked up an astonishing 36 goals in 2021-22.
We wish Marcus, a huge favourite with Town fans, all the best for the remainder of the season.
Our Isthmian League Premier Division match away at Kingstonian – moved due to our participation in the FA Cup – has now been rescheduled for Wednesday October 11th, 19:45 kickoff.
As with last season, the Ks are ground-sharing with Tooting & Mitcham at their Imperial Fields home.
Enfield Town 2-2 Bognor Regis Town
Report by Ken Brazier
In stifling 30-degrees-plus conditions, reminiscent of last year’s sweltering home game v Folkestone, both sides put on an entertaining show for the 560 who turned out to search for a shaded viewpoint.
The Rocks looked far from a team that had recently bowed out of the FA Cup at the hands of Burgess Hill as they set about recording a first win at the QEII since January 2013.
Enfield endured a tough first half as they sought to get to grips with the pace of Bognor’s breaks – particularly down the flanks – with Lucas Pattenden, returning from injury, and Isaac Olaniyan prominent. After Scott Thomas had blazed wide and Reece Beckles-Richards had just failed to get onto the end of a Marcus Wyllie cross they had a let-off after nine minutes when Harvey Whyte played in Pattenden, who saw his shot hit the inside of the far post and rebound into Rhys Foster’s hands.
The Rocks got just reward for their strong start around the quarter of an hour mark when a good lay-off from Dan Gifford saw Jasper Mather lash the ball home past Forster’s left hand. But Enfield took advantage of a careless foul in a dangerous position after 22 minutes, and a sublime free-kick delivery from man-of-the-match Ollie Knight found Sam Youngs at the back post and the long-serving midfielder found the back of the net with a downward header.
The woodwork came to Enfield’s rescue again in the 29th minute. After James Richmond had had a goal ruled out for offside, Mather curled an effort against the same upright. A minute later, Forster did well to keep out a long distance lob. But he breathed a sigh of relief a minute later when he attempted to shepherd the ball out of play and was caught in possession way out on the wing, but the subsequent ball into the danger area came to nothing.
HT: 1-1
Enfield’s ball retention and creation of chances improved after the break. But, a few minutes after he had been booked for handling outside the penalty area, Forster found himself picking the ball out of his net after an incisive run down the left and low shot by Joe Rabbetts had enabled the Rocks to retake the lead, much to the delight of the travelling support.
After a couple of home chances had come and gone, another set piece drew Enfield level. Again Knight was the provider, and his accurate corner kick was headed home powerfully by Richmond (pictured). It was a testament to both sides that, despite the awful conditions for football, there was no hint of either holding on for a point with half an hour to go.
The visitors’ keeper Ryan Hall denied Beckles-Richards twice, once following a slick move involving substitute debutant Josh Keeya and Knight, and then with a brave smothering block at the striker’s feet. Wyllie, who was well-marshalled all afternoon, saw his 71st minute effort sail high and wide and Mickey Parcell’s heat-defying run ended with a cross that drifted behind. Mather fired over for the Rocks and, after appeals for a penalty at the other end when Wyllie went down were waved away, Pattenden and Gifford missed chances towards the end when their headers flew off target.
Town: Forster; Parcell, Richmond, Okotcha, Payne; Adjei-Hersey (Keeya 57), Youngs, Thomas, Knight; Wyllie, Beckles-Richards (Bessadi 89).
We are delighted to announce the signing of Irish midfielder Josh Keeya.
Josh was in the stands during our FA Cup win over Potters Bar and said he cannot wait to be re-united with Gavin Macpherson, under whom he played at Met Police.
A number of pro clubs including Millwall are reported to have been looking at Josh and Gavin said he was equally excited to have the 19-year-old in the squad.
“I have nothing but good things to say about Josh,” said Gavin. “He is a model professional and a very good footballer. His application and work rate are first class and that’s why pro clubs have been looking at him. He fits all the criteria to be a professional footballer.”
“Of course he’ll have to work himself into the team like anyone else but is a welcome addition to the squad and can only make us stronger.”
Welcome, Josh
Andrew Warshaw
