With two games in as many days, Enfield Town travel to Worthing tomorrow, followed by a home fixture with Totton on Bank Holiday Monday, hoping to improve to on a faltering start to the season but with plenty of optimism.

Worthing will be keen to make up for their midweek defeat at Farnborough and will provide dangerous opposition as we come face to face with former Towner Anointed Chukwu who joined the Rebels at the end of last season.

Last season we lost both games against Worthing  though our visit to Sussex resulted in a narrow 1-0 defeat. A decent result would set us up nicely for the Monday home game against newly promoted Totton with squad rotation almost certain given the quick turnaround.

“We never feel we can’t get anything from any game,” said Gavin Macpherson. “We would have hoped to have taken more points so far but we go to Worthing with a game plan against a very difficult side that moves the ball very well.”

“The schedule is horrible to be honest. This time last year we were licking our wounds after Slough. We’re not quite in that bracket this time but we’ve got to man up and get on with it.”

AW

Enfield Town 0 Hornchurch 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

Enfield Town fell victim to another Hornchurch late, late show on Tuesday as we suffered our second defeat in three games, hardly the ideal scenario for the Bank Holiday programme.

After a lacklustre first half in which we got bogged down and couldn’t find any kind of rhythm or creative outlet, we gave as good as we got after the break following an attack-minded tweak and arguably deserved more from a spirited response, only to lose all three points at the death.

The Urchins have made a habit of scoring late goals  — not just against us – and did it again to maintain their 100 percent start to the season.

Gavin Macpherson made two changes from the Maidenhead draw, bringing Nino Adom-Malaki into the starting lineup along with Tosh Gallimore

We started brightly when a freekick was cleared off the Urchins line but somehow couldn’t maintain the momentum and spent the rest of the half on the back foot.

Hornchurch skipper Tom Wraight fired just wide and Charlie Ruff had an even better chance as he missed the target with the goal at his mercy

It was a wake-up call for Town but we couldn’t make the ball stick in our opponents’ half and continued to give up possession with Arthur Nesta a virtual spectator in the Hornchurch goal.

As halftime approached, we at last put together a brief flurry of activity in the final third  but six corners to none told its own story.

H-T 0-0

With the game still level, we had a chance to start over again. After some stern words in the dressing room, Billy Leonard was pushed further forward and it almost paid dividends straight away as a delicious cross was cut out just as it was about to reach Lamar Reynolds.

Suddenly, more adventure and more urgency from Town and a far more open game although Rhys Forster was lucky not to be punished after getting himself in a pickle by trying to take a touch instead of clearing his lines.

To be fair to Rhys, however, without two or three fine stops and generally safe hands, we may well have been playing catch-up by then. One point-blank save from Henry Hearn immediately sticks in the mind.

At the other end, Nasta failed to deal with a long throw and almost paid the price. Cue a flurry of subs by both sides, Bailey Brown adding strength to Town and Matt MacArthur pace.

When Harry Lodovica, another sub, was almost wrenched to the ground as he tried to burst forward, inexplicably nothing was given. Even the usually mild mannered Jon Underwood showed his displeasure with the decision but with 10 minutes left, Town got a massive let-off as the bar twice came to their rescue.

The game was won on 88 minutes when Tom Wraight was adjudged to have got the last touch in a goalmouth scramble. Yet there was still time, in the final minute of seven added on, for Town to carve out their best effort of the game when Mickey Parcell found space in the box but couldn’t get enough purchase on Leonard’s cross to beat Nesta.

“It was the poorest first half from us I’ve seen in a long time,” admitted Gavin Macpherson despite having called for more quality after the Maidenhead game. “It was unacceptable and I can only apologise to the supporters. We lacked running power and they were sharper to everything.”

“I gave them a kick up the backside at halftime and we looked much better after a tweak as well. We deserved to be behind at halftime if I’m honest but we then saw a different Enfield.”  

Explaining why he took both Wood and Reynolds off midway through the second period, Gav said: “I felt there were some tired legs and Matty gives us something different. I thought we were unlucky to lose the game in the second half but Hornchurch keep finding a way and that’s no fluke.”

Forster; Benjamin, Thompson, Donaldson (Hawkins, 90); Adom-Malaki, Gallimore (Bullas 75), Youngs, Parcell, Leonard; Wood (Brown, 67), Reynolds (MacArthur, 67)

The games come thick and fast and tomorrow we welcome familiar opponents in Hornchurch who have got off to a great start by winning their opening two fixtures (kickoff 7.45)

Having condemned Eastbourne Borough to their first defeat at home for 16 months on Saturday,  courtesy of an Angelo Balanta’s stoppage-time winner, the Urchins will provide their usual stiff opposition as we attempt to gain our first maximum haul before another tough challenge at Worthing on Saturday.

With back-to-back games over the Bank Holiday period to come, don’t be surprised if the management team rotate at some point over the next couple of weeks to use the improved squad to its full advantage.

“Hornchurch represents another hugely tough game,” said Gavin Macpherson. “They’ve signed really well and are a club who might quietly fancy their chances of being in the top part of the league come the end of the season.”

“We’re under no illusions how difficult it will be but I’ll be looking for a better performance than against Maidenhead  when we showed heart and desire but not enough quality. I’ll certainly be looking for more.”

Enfield Town 0 Maidenhead United 0

Report by andrew warshaw

Enfield Town put their first point on the board Saturday in a game that was eye-catching for the first 45 minutes but thereafter failed to live up to expectations and became somewhat scrappy.

An encounter littered with offside decisions and penalty claims had its moments in both boxes but didn’t have enough quality overall.

However, having been highly unfortunate to lose at Torquay in their opening outing, Town will take heart from having already played their part against two of the big boys in the division.

Relegated Maidenhead, eager for an immediate return to Step 1, were keen to bounce back from a shock opening setback against Chesham and will probably feel they had the better of proceedings.

Town fielded a near full-strength side, Henry Hawkins being the only obvious absentee, but found Maidenhead’s physicality a constant concern. Our most promising  forays forward came whenever Billy Leonard was in possession but in the main we struggled to break Maidenhead down and had to defend for large periods.

The Magpies’ Liam Dulson and Josh Umerah both went close early doors before Lamar Reynolds pulled the trigger from four yards after Tommy Wood did brilliantly to keep the ball alive. It looked for ever like the opening goal but credit has to go to Manny Onariase for a last-ditch block.

The visitors continued to pose the greater threat, however. Manny Onarise’s header was just wide after Rhys Forster came flying out of goal but Rhys redeemed himself by clawing away a Sam Barratt effort when we failed to deal with a freekick near the halfway line.

The best chance of the half then saw Barratt beat the offside trap, only to see his sublime lob come back off the bar.

It came at a cost. Barratt was immediately  forced off injured but Town had a huge let-off when a Xavier Benjamin handball went unpunished. Right on halftime, huge shouts for a penalty at the other end when Ruaridh Donaldson appeared to be tugged were also ignored.

H-T 0-0

Maidenhead resumed with the same intensity as Town were forced to play on the counter. Another penalty claim, for the away team for a shirt pull, didn’t interest the referee who then failed to pull out either red or yellow for a crunching late challenge on Hayden Bullas, only to caution Tommo moments later for a far less dangerous foul.

After a largely eventful period of play, a flurry of substitutions from both sides upped the tempo. Harry Lodovica certainly made a nuisance of himself up front for Town but it was a brief cameo from Tosh Gallimore that caught the eye, suggesting the new man in midfield will be a more than useful asset.

 The final whistle was greeted by a melee near the touchline involving a phalanx of players on both sides which fortunately didn’t get too ugly and was thankfully broken up.

“A lot of blood and guts but not much quality,” said Gavin Macpherson. “Last week we brought a lot of quality into the game at Torquay but today we were devoid of it in terms of retaining the ball. We turned over possession far too easily but the boys all put a shift in against a very strong side who will be near the top come the end of the season.”

Enfield Town (3-5-2): Forster; Benjamin, Thompson, Donaldson; Jones, Parcell (Gallimore, 84) , Bullas, Youngs (Brown, 75), Leonard; Wood, Reynolds (Lodovica, 63)

Subs not used: Adom-Malaki, MacArthur, McCann

Attendance: 758

We are pleased to announce the loan signing of central defender Noah McCann from Queens Park Rangers.

Noah, who joined QPR more than a decade ago after being scouted while playing Sunday league football, was on the bench for their Carabao Cup game this week.

The 19-year-old defender, who has represented Scotland at youth level and describes himself as “a ball-playing centre-half who likes the physical side of defending” , joins us on a 28-day loan and will provide valuable cover at the back.

Welcome Noah!

Following a highly unfortunate defeat at Torquay last Saturday, Enfield Town hope to put their first points on the board on Saturday against Maidenhead United

Despite an opening setback at Chesham, the Magpies are another of the promotion contenders in their quest to get straight back to Step 1 following demotion to National League South.

“Once we got adjusted at Torquay after being thrown some curved balls before kickoff we were very good. It was a decent yardstick for us so it’s quite an easy one to move on from,”  said Gavin Macpherson. “But we’ve still got players missing so we’ll have to address that.”

“Every game is a tough game in this division, all the more so if you’re short on personnel. Maidenhead will expect to be in the mix come the end of the season. I doubt they are too worried about that first result and we’ll have to make it as difficult for them as we can.”

“It’s a great day to welcome another ex-National League side and have a go at it. If we can put a few more points on the board at home than we did last season, we should have a reasonable campaign.”

“With a couple of recent additions, we’re somewhere around where we want to be squad-wise now though defensively we may need to add because of short-term difficulties. Otherwise we’re fairly settled and it’s important now to look at some form of continuity moving forward.”

AW

Yet another player has been added today to Gavin Macpherson’s squad as we look to add numbers and quality to the roster for the new campaign.

Left-back Nino Adom-Malaki, who played as a trialist in the pre-season victory over Spurs under-21, joins us from Millwall where his career was cruelly halted by a serious knee injury but who is now fit and raring to go after his rehabilitation.

During his time at Millwall, where he played primarily in the under-18 and under-21 squads, Nino was loaned out to Sutton United where he made 18 appearances.

“We all saw in the Spurs game what Nino can bring,” said Gavin Macpherson. “Like I said when we signed Tosh Gallimore, it’s all about competition for places and in Nino’s case leftback, wingback and wide midfield.”

“The minute people think they’re going to be picked they can drop a level so it’s all about having a squad that allows me choices with a hell of a lot of games coming up. Having seven subs now also adds to the need to be able to broaden the squad.”

Welcome Nino!

We are delighted to confirm the signing of all-action midfielder T’Sharne “Tosh” Gallimore who came off the bench late on in our opening game of the season at Torquay last Saturday.

Tosh, who turns 25 next week, has joined from Chesham United where he spent five successful years and made 126 appearances.

“I’m trying to build a squad and Tosh has played at this level for a good while,” said Gavin Macpherson.

 “It’s all about competing for positions. Too often last season, we didn’t affect things off the bench and it’s key that everyone fights for their place. Tosh brings another important dynamic to our midfield.”

Welcome Tosh!

Torquay United 3 Enfield Town 1

Report by Andrew Warshaw

Never mind the scoreline, feel the performance. Rarely, if ever, has a two-goal defeat promised so much.

It’s no exaggeration to suggest that on chances alone, Enfield Town’s opening game of the season – on paper one of the toughest trips of the entire campaign – could well have resulted in three points, let alone one.

Instead, we got nothing despite having to field a makeshift back three who had never played together and staging a brave second-half fightback.

Those who weren’t at Torquay on Saturday may question how a 3-1 defeat could be described in such a positive vein but even among the Gulls faithful the narrative at the final whistle was that we were distinctly unfortunate over the 90 minutes.

Such a shame, therefore, that we were playing catch-up so early in the game – the opposite to this time last year when we took a surprise lead on our National League South debut at the same venue, only to ultimately fall short.

Having lost Adam Thompson to a hamstring issue, joining the unavailable Henry Hawkins on the sidelines, Joe Payne was drafted into the back three with Ruaridh Donaldson switching to the middle.

With a couple of others missing too, Town were only able to name five substitutes instead of seven but started on the front foot and looked confident until being hit with a quickfire double blow.

Inside nine minutes, Cody Cooke’s flick-on straight from a Rhys Forster goal-kick found Louis Dennis who supplied the finish and two minutes later, we found ourselves further behind.

When the linesman controversially kept his flag down, Jordan Young ran on to the highly influential Matt Worthington’s inch-perfect pass and produced a sumptuous strike that no keeper was going to save.

Worthington, on whom Torquay have placed great hope this season, was running the show from his deep-lying midfield role and at this point, his team were too slick and too clever for Town, finding pockets of space, timing runs with precision  and exploiting an unfamiliar defence.

 But on 25 minutes Town so nearly halved the deficit when James Hamon pulled off a remarkable save from Lemar Reynolds’ close-range strike. Had the ball twirled the other way, it would have ended up in the Torquay net. Instead it spun against the post before being cleared.

It was indicative of Town’s ill-luck and by halftime we were three down courtesy of Cooke’s perfectly struck side-foot penalty after Payne was beaten on his inside and pulled down Young.

While they controlled much of the first half,  Torquay were nothing if not physical and a couple of crunching challenges on Xavier Benjamin and Billy Leonard resulted in yellow cards though the hit on the latter might easily have resulted in red.

H-T 0-3

The hosts may have been anticipating a landslide  but Town had other ideas and instead of damage limitation, we poured forward.

 Once  Forster had clawed away Sonny Blu Lo-Everton’s  curling effort to save us conceding again, we took over as Torquay’s intensity dropped.  

Just after the hour mark, Mickey Parcell was in the right place at right time with a half-driven tap in – apparently his first goal from open play since his return to the club — and from then on, it was one-way traffic.

Sam Youngs went close to finishing off a sublime four-man move, Tommy Wood’s header found Hamon in sparkling form again, Hayden Bullas had a shot deflected wide and substitute Harry Lodovica‘s first-time effort struck Hamon before bouncing up on to the bar instead of into the net.

There were more lucky escapes for Torquay, who were struggling with Joe Payne’s long throws. With 10 minutes left, Reynolds, clean through on goal moments after seemingly been struck in the face like a clothes line with nothing given, shot agonisingly wide of the far post. Then Avan Jones, during seven minutes of stoppage time,  found himself free at the far post but couldn’t direct Donaldson’s corner towards goal.

One ominous sight for Town was Benjamin limping off with what may have been concussion following a clash of heads with Cooke that delayed the game for five minutes and forced Town into yet another defensive switch.

Late on, there were cameo outings for new signings Matty Macarther and midfielder T’Shane Gallimore and the tremendous ovation the players got from the travelling faithful at the final whistle said everything about the effort and fighting spirit which augurs well for the new campaign.

“When you go 3-0 down, it’s a very difficult road back against any opposition,” said Gavin Macpherson. “We made some poor decisions at the start and that’s massively understandable. I know that’s a weird thing to say because you never accept that. But if we had Tommy and Henry, those goals simply don’t happen. We had a totally makeshift back three, square pegs in round holes, and ended up playing three fullbacks instead of three centrehalves.”

“Once they got themselves together, we stepped up and how we haven’t got at least a draw against top opposition, I don’t know. All in all, I’m absolutely delighted with them.  I never thought we were massively short of Torquay and my over-riding feeling is lots of promising signs.”

“I wasn’t allowing damage limitation. Our supporters are the best in this league, no question. They acknowledged how the team put a shift in and just fell short. The fantastic support from the warmup to the end, you wouldn’t get that at any other club in this division.”

Town:

Forster; Benjamin (Macarthur 79), Donaldson, Payne; Jones, Parcell (Gallimore 88), Bullas (Brown 81), Youngs, Leonard; Wood (Lodovica 75), Reynolds

By Andrew Warshaw

Enfield Town may not be able to match some other clubs in National League South when it comes to full-time status and daily training schedules which is why fitness levels could prove a key element throughout the campaign – starting at Torquay tomorrow.

At various intervals during pre-season on the training pitch, Town employed a strength and development expert in Leon Braithwaite, designed to get us up to speed for the long haul ahead.

Leon, brother of former Olympic sprinter Darren Braithwaite, is close friends with Jon Nurse, the pair having taken their coaching badges together. The rest, as they say, is history.

Leon, who played professionally as a striker with Exeter City but who has widespread non-league experience and a close affinity with ETFC having represented us in 2006-7, spent a number of training sessions in the build-up to Torquay fine-tuning fitness levels in order to improve our ability to compete with the so-called bigger teams in the division.

“If you haven’t got the biggest budget, one way you can compensate for that is fitness to give yourself a fighting chance,” said Leon who is also a qualified sports psychologist and first lent his expertise to Town back in February last season when fitness levels needed a boost for the tough run-in.

It proved such a success in helping Town achieve their goal of survival that he was invited back in pre-season to put the players through their paces.

 “I spoke to Gavin and Nursey earlier in the summer and we devised a plan. Small margins help in football. The fitter you are, the more concentrated you are and you don’t get drawn out of certain positions. Your mindset is stronger in terms of attention to detail and being more adaptable,” explained Leon.

“The players embraced me with open arms. Everyone is fitter and stronger by about 20 percent than when I arrived for my first training session. They might be under the cosh at times in certain games and of course natural ability helps. But I believe you can also accrue points simply through fitness levels, especially when you’re not full-time. They got better and better in pre-season. From what I’ve seen, I have no doubt the club can compete this season.”