Enfield Town 2 Horsham 1
Report by Andrew Warshaw
A lightning start with two Sam Youngs goals inside four minutes was enough to see Enfield Town over the line and crucially narrow the gap on our rivals with our first win in 10.
Horsham’s recent league form may have been inconsistent but they came into this rescheduled fixture as the best away team in the division only to be hit with a Youngs brace before rallying in a game of two halves to set up a nerve-shredding finale.
With Xav Benjamin suspended, there was a welcome recall for club captain Mickey Parcell, reverting to his familar position at fullback following a lengthy injury layoff that had restricted his participation to a couple of substitute appearances.
Mickey’s experience and leadership skills were on show for all to see as he brought a calmness and stability to a side that pressed impressively, showed commendable movement on and off the ball, then defended stoically when the Hornets were stung into a reaction after the break.
Yet by that time, Town really should have been out of sight. Supporters were still coming into the ground when we took the lead inside the first minute. Mickey Parcell’s very first contribution was to float a freekick to the edge of the box for Henry Hawkins – Town’s latest player of the month – to head across goal and Youngs to supply the finish (pictured, celebrating).
Three minutes later and from a short throw, Nino Adom-Malaki and Corie Andrews linked up superbly and from the latter’s cross, Sam beat his marker inside the far post to lash home Town’s second.
It was a dream start and it should have got even better. Lemar Reynolds’ header somehow missed the target from four yards in the centre of the goal, Lewis Carey saved superbly from Adom-Malaki’s low piledriver before Youngs brought another save from Carey’s outstretched hand, only for Andrews’ goal-bound follow-up to be blocked by a defender.
H-T 2-0
It was as dominant a first half as they come but 2-0, as they say, is a dangerous scoreline and Horsham responded accordingly.
Only a magnificent double save from Joe Wright preserved Town’s two-goal cushion but on 56 minutes, the Hornets halved the deficit through James Hammond’s opportunist looping header across Wright and into the far corner.
Town immediately so nearly restored their two-goal when a freekick was cleared off the line but now the ball was mainly on the other foot, literally, as the Hornets pushed forward.
As Town were forced to defend deeper and deeper, Wright saved brilliantly again, this time from Jack Strange. And as we held on in a tense, nervy finale, the visitors saw teenage debutant Ronnie Gorman almost ruin the celebrations by blasting a 20-yard effort narrowly over the top.
Thankfully, for all their possession, the injury-hit Hornets, with only 14 fit players and having lost Lucas Rodrigues to a 10th-minute injury, couldn’t break through again, largely as a result of a backline marshalled superbly by Hawkins and Adam Thompson and some canny substitutions by Gavin who was understandably delighted following our first league win since Nov 25.
“We wanted a quick start at home and obviously had an extra training session on Saturday,” said Gavin. “The game would have been dead and buried if we had taken a decent ratio of our chances. At 2-0 it’s precarious if you concede and it all becomes a bit nervy which is how it turned out.”
“We had to do some hard running second half and introduce some fresh legs to bring extra energy but overall really pleased to have put away a decent side.”
“With Xav suspended we had a good replacement and also our captain back. Mickey has had a really chequered season but I thought he was excellent. We had to remain focussed in those last few minutes and make informed decisions because conceding another late goal would have been harsh.”
With other results going our way on the night, Town moved two places off the bottom and attention now turns to another massive game at Farnborough on Saturday in a relentless schedule.
“I’m hopeful we’ve got a little bit of momentum after two away draws and a home win,” said Gav. “What’s now got to happen is we use the amount of games coming up to our advantage.”
Town:
Wright; Adom-Malaki, Hawkins, Thompson, Parcell; Bullas (Brown 81), Traore, Youngs, Knight; Reynolds (Leonard 70), Andrews (Barlett-Antwi 75)