Enfield Town 1 Bath City 1
Report by Andrew Warshaw
Sam Youngs, not for the first time this season, rescued a point for Town but the players will rue not collecting all three against below-par opposition on a frustrating afternoon.
With the other teams in the drop zone all facing tough games against top six sides, this was a golden opportunity for us to climb the table and move closer to safety.
But we found ourselves chasing the game at halftime and despite a dominant second-half display couldn’t make our superiority count.
Bath had won three out of four under new manager Darren Way but hadn’t played for two weeks and looked rusty.
They almost fell behind in bizarre circumstances early doors when a clearance was charged down by Mickey Parcell 40 yards from goal and the ball ricocheted forward and bounced off the woodwork.
With Jake Hutchinson playing up front alongside Amaru Kaunda and Youngs in just behind, Gavin Macpherson went for an attacking formation — on paper at least.
But after that freak early chance, further opportunities were few and far between though Town could not be faulted for their approach play with Lennon Peake and Billy Leonard giving Bath plenty to thinking about on the flanks.
For all our promise, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock three minutes before halftime despite having posed little threat. Henry Hawkins was penalised trying to cut out a fine diagonal switch from Scott Wilson and Jordan Alves buried the freekick beyond Rhys Forster who, for some reason, had positioned himself behind the wall leaving the other side of his goal gaping.
The last action of the half saw a melee in the Bath area following a corner, the ball ultimately trickling into the keeper’s arms.
H-T 0-1
Town came storming out for the second half and Leonard’s cross-shot grazed the bar while Peake’s deliveries were a constant threat, yet another finding a jungle of legs in the Bath area but not converted into an equaliser.
For all our dominance, we very nearly conceded again. Just before the hour mark, Town fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when Romans danger man Wilson made space for himself but narrowly missed the target when it looked for all the world like he had doubled his team’s lead.
Finally, just when it looked like it might be a barren afternoon, the pressure told on 76 minutes.
A sweeping Parcell pass found Leonard who fizzed the ball across goal for Youngs, by now pushed further forward, to finish in trademark style at the back post.
It was the least Town deserved but for all their strong running and desire, the same old problem of lack of quality in the final third meant we ended up with one point instead of three, something that surely has to change for us to secure survival. The reality is that we cannot afford to draw games we should win and lose games we should draw in the weeks ahead.
“There’s a realism we didn’t win the game. I wish Henry hadn’t made the challenge but Rhys should have kept it out and he knows that,” said Gav. “Conversely I’m not sure their keeper had many shots to save. Yes they were on the rack at times but for all our entries into their box, we weren’t good enough where it matters most and it’s a massive frustration.”
Next up the small matter of a visit to Weymouth next Saturday. “We set out to get four points minimum from these two games. Now we have to go and win there,” added Gav.
Town
Forster; Benjamin, Thompson, Hawkins; Peake, Brown, Youngs, Parcell, Leonard; Hutchinson (Whittaker, 70), Kaunda (Chukwu, 82)