Sittingbourne 4 Enfield Town 2
Report by Andrew Warshaw
Enfield Town’s hopes of further cup progress this season were extinguished yesterday as we crashed out of the FA Trophy at Sittingbourne, arguably the low point of a challenging season.
Despite recovering well from conceding early and taking the lead, it was the in-form Brickies who reached round four as they hit us with a three-goal blitz and then held on in a relatively uneventful second 45 minutes.
Whilst there is no doubt Sittingbourne are far better than their Step 4 status (unbeaten in 15 games prior to yesterday and one of the most prolific scorers in non-league football) , they ended up being precisely the banana skin everyone feared. The taunts delivered by their fans as they cruised to an historic victory didn’t make for comfortable listening for the hardy Towners fans who defied the atrocious weather to travel to Kent
After the pitch passed two inspections, all the goals came in an explosive opening half, the high-flying hosts getting on the scoresheet after just four minutes when we were beaten for pace down our left and Henry Sinai converted Troy Howard’s cross.
Within the space of 15 minutes, however, we seemed to have gained control courtesy of two Lennon Peake assists. The first presented Jake Hutchinson with a free header, the second saw Sam Youngs head home at the back post.
Jake spurned a great chance to extend our lead, only for the hosts to restore parity when Ryan Kingsford’s 30-yard ball was collected by the dangerous Howard who again delivered with pace. This time Joe Boachie drilled home though Rhys Forster should arguably have cut out the cross.
The goals kept coming but frustratingly for the hosts who were better than us on transition play. The third was an audacious overhead kick from Boachie that on most other days would have probably missed the target, the fourth seeing the swirling wind play a part when a Boachie header hit the post and went in off the luckless Dan Cox.
H-T 2-4
It left us with a mountain to climb – even against Step 4 opponents – and the management team immediately swopped Adjei-Hersey and Scott for Leonard and new boy Bayley Brown.
Yet if anything Sittingbourne had the better of the early second-half exchanges without creating much more in the final third. But then neither did we despite now having the wind in our favour.
You could argue that Forster had no saves of note to make while Harley Earle pulled off at least two at the other end. But the most disappointing aspect is that we lacked conviction even against a side two leagues below. And while a far poorer surface than we’re used to didn’t help, the fact Sittingbourne seemed to want it more was a bitter pill to swallow.
At least we have a chance to bounce straight back on Tuesday at Tonbridge but this was an opportunity missed to go further than we ever have in the Trophy – notwithstanding confident opponents who are firing on all cylinders.
“We showed our class for 20 minutes or so but it went away from us because we lacked composure, conceded terrible goals and they had a game plan to spin it and play the pitch,” said Gavin.
“I was pleased with how we responded but of course we’re all bitterly disappointed because it was another avoidable loss. I’ve been on the other side of this in cup competitions many times and come up trumps. When you’re full of belief like they were, you go out with nothing to lose.”
“If you put Sittingbourne in our league, they’d lose a lot of games but in one-off matches if you don’t function properly, you can get punished by a side with their kind of record.
“We’ve given the players some hard truths but I’ve never been in this position. You have to be strong-willed and I will never shy away but it’s probably as low as it’s been for me as a manager.”
Forster; Cox, Thompson, Benjamin; Payne; Tuck, Scott (Bailey, 46), Youngs, Adjei-Hersey (Leonard, 46); Peake (Whittaker, 85), Hutchinson (Beckles-Richards, 77)