Potters Bar Town 2-1 Enfield Town

Enfield Town’s fourth pre-season runout will have left Gavin Macpherson with plenty to ponder after failing to take advantage of their chances in a 2-1 defeat at neighbours Potters Bar Town.

The hosts, opening a new 3G pitch at their Lantern Stadium, were set upon early on as Towners debutant Lamar Reynolds glanced a header narrowly off target, while Henry Hawkins and Billy Leonard also both went close. Trialist A wearing 7 for Town was the next to threaten, taking Billy Leonard’s cross and shimmying round a defender before forcing a smart stop from the legs of goalie Jack Berman.

However, it was Potters Bar who eventually broke the deadlock inside 20 minutes when a lofted cross evaded the Town defence and fell to teenager Harry Brant, whose back-post header beat Adi Connolly and nestled into the roof of the net. The Scholars were unfortunate not to double their lead shortly afterwards as again Town’s backline switched off, but Brant blazed over when presented with another cross.

Bayley Brown thought he had levelled after sweeping home from a free kick, only to be denied by the linesman’s flag, but Town did ultimately find an equaliser just shy of the break when Tommy Wood powered home Leonard’s inswinging ball for his third pre-season goal in as many games.

Four new faces were introduced at the break but they were powerless to stop Town from falling behind again just minutes after the restart. A cheap free kick on the edge of the box was ruthlessly punished, flying inside the near post and providing an unwelcome sense of déjà vu from Tuesday evening.

The rest of the match was a story of Town providing plenty of effort, but not enough cutting edge. Some fine interplay between Trialist C (wearing 16) and Sam Youngs allowed Town’s midfielder space for a clean half-volley which was excellently saved, before the same Trialist himself twice had efforts from close range but found Berman in inspired form to deny him.

“It’s a game we should win, but don’t win because we concede two really poor goals and contrive to miss quite a few chances, though we have to pay tribute to their keeper”, said boss Gavin Macpherson.

“I think we’re where we want to be with the conditioning side of things, but probably not with our tactical side – albeit we should probably win the game quite comfortably. There’s work to do, and that’s what pre-season is for … we’ve got three weeks and a few games left to get us up to speed.”

First half: Connolly; Benjamin, Thompson, Hawkins, Payne; Leonard, Parcell, Youngs, Trialist A; Wood, Reynolds

Second half: Connolly (Trialist G, 60′); Jones, Benjamin, Hawkins, Payne (Lambert, 60′); Leonard (Trialist E, 60′), Brown (Trialist D, 60′), Youngs, Trialist C; Wood (Trialist F, 60′), Trialist B