Enfield Town 2 Braintree Town 0
In their latest pre-season run-out, Enfield Town recorded a morale-boosting win over full-time National League opposition with Lamar Reynolds notching his first goal for the club.
If the win was a touch fortunate as Braintree Town dominated possession for long periods and created plenty of chances, a combination of solid defending, good goalkeeping and a couple of visits from Lady Luck edged us closer to where we want to be come the start of the season.
Indeed the first-half side, minus the unavailable Sam Youngs, was as close as we’ve seen so far to how we might set up against Torquay.
Although Bayley Brown had the first chance of the game with a shot comfortably saved by Braintree’s triallist goalkeeper, the visitors were quickly into their stride.
Soon after a Braintree effort was disallowed for offside, however, Town drew first blood in the 12th minute, Ruaridh Donaldson’s right-wing corner nodded powerfully home by Reynolds. Another set-piece goal – huge promise for the season to come.
Now Braintree flicked the ‘on’ switch and pinned Town back for long periods. Rhys Forster was a busy man, keeping out well-struck efforts from Tom Blackwell and Jacob Pinnington, while centre-forward Lewis Walker blasted over an open goal.
Town still threatened on the counter, a delicious piece of twinkle toes skill from Bayley Brown setting up Reynolds who this time got his feet in a tangle.
The siege continued into the second half, with Blackwell replaced by an equally speedy triallist. Both Adam Thompson and Henry Hawkins had to deal with dangerous low crosses in the first two minutes, followed quickly by another disallowed Braintree effort.
The best of Forster’s saves came after 63 minutes, a point-blank block from Freddie Hockey. At the other end, Billy Leonard had a header well saved, with the rebound falling to a triallist, resulting in another excellent block, this time from the visiting defence.
With the arrival of the Triallist Army later in the half, Town started to enjoy more possession, and doubled their lead on 71 minutes. Thompson was fouled 12 yards from goal following a corner and a triallist thumped the penalty home with a refreshing lack of ceremony. The same triallist headed narrowly wide from Knight’s cross as Town finished the game on a high. Whilestill not the finished article, there were plenty of encouraging signs.
“It was a really good test for us and it could have been a bizarre scoreline,” admitted Gavin Macpherson who dispensed for the first time in pre-season with 4-4-2 in order to try out two other formations and put an extra player in defensive midfield where Ruaridh Donaldson partnered Micky Parcell in the first half.
“Last Saturday we had 11 chances and scored one so to come out with a couple of goals from fewer chances is a real plus,” said Gavin. “I’m really pleased for Lamar. Last season we didn’t manage to stretch teams enough.”
With three friendlies left, however, there is still much to think about. “ We have work to do in terms of our movement and how we function out of possession,” said Gavin. “Physically we’re in good shape but there is clearly work to do tactically.”
First-half team:
Forster, Benjamin, Hawkins, Thompson, Leonard, Parcell, Donaldson, Brown, Jones, Wood, Leonard
Subs in second half: Lambert, Payne, Knight plus 7 triallists
Martin Bentley