One Golden Day in the Sun?

Enfield Town vs. Harrow Borough - 3pm k-o

Mon. 28th August, 2016 - Ryman Premier League

It has been yet another slow start to a season, at Enfield Town F. C. - our third in a row - and I have not been along to witness events unfold since the final pre-season friendly at Harringay Borough (see elsewhere on this blog page). I will not blame it (my absence) “on the boogie”; but on my daughter’s hastily-arranged, last-minute 19th birthday garden party - and my own bad, mid-week memory. I must try harder. Last season, we lost our first three league games; the previous year we took just one point from the first 9 available; and yet, in both of those seasons, Enfield were very much “in the mix” at the end of each campaign. So a similarly slow start, this time out, has not left Town's long-suffering fans feeling too concerned or disconcerted.

After scraping just one point from their possible first 9 again, this time, Enfield went into Monday’s game with only 4 points “on the board” (none of them earned on the road) from their first 5 matches. So it was probably with some relief that fans realised their Bank Holiday opposition would be a side whom we had thrashed 5-0 in our last meeting (also at home) back in late November, 2015. A week is, famously, a long time in politics, though; and 9 months are an even longer time in non-league football. Many soccer clichés have flowed under the bridge, since the last visit of Harrow Borough FC; and key players have left Donkey Lane for pastures newer and richer.

The club website advertised this match-up as “the last game of the summer”. The big question was whether it would prove to be a good harvest – or a bitter vintage. There was also some familiar advice on the web page: “Get along to this afternoon's game and say farewell to summer with a drink in the bar”. Though the last of the summer wine was not on offer “Ales from Redemption and Colchester Breweries” were. Certainly some sort of redemption would also be required on the pitch, in order to kick-start Enfield’s already mis-firing season.

A glorious, hot, sunny, English late-Summer Bank Holiday afternoon welcomed a decent attendance of 405 to The QE II Stadium (the 5th-largest of the day in the Ryman Premier League). One might have expected a bigger crowd on such a lovely day; but there were only 18 fans in the away end. Of the home fans, son Callum may well have been the only Bajan amongst them. You can (eventually) read all the gory details, as ever, on the club’s website (http://www.enfieldtownfootballclub.co.uk/teams/65370/match-reports); but let me cut straight to the chase, here. There was simply very little of note to write up, for your delight and delectation. Suffice to say that one of the highlights of the game was when the Enfield Ultras tried to liven up affairs, deep into the second half, from the home end, to the tune of “Bread of Heaven”: “Let’s - Pre-Tend - We’ve - Scored - A - Goal …” The ensuing mock celebrations were to prove the only ones on offer, in what was mostly a very dull affair. SOOOOOO dull was it, in fact, that your reporter was reduced to playing “Spot the (secret) Towners celebrity fan”. 

 

Be honest, now; did any of you spot “The Messiah” straight away? Or Willie Nelson (“American musician, singer, songwriter, author, poet, actor, and activist”)? Both were sporting VERY good disguises, indeed!

Town's Parcell weeps tears of shame and frustration; while the visitors' management team look on, unable to believe they've got away with this one.

Back on the pitch, Enfield dominated possession; but lacked the necessary cutting edge in the final third of the pitch and failed to capitalise on their territorial advantage. They managed only a couple of on-target efforts all afternoon, for which the visitors’ ‘keeper, Luke Williams, was at his agile best. As is often the case, under such circumstances, the home side were, eventually, almost made to pay for their profligacy. Nathan McDonald was called upon to make a number of sharp saves; one of them very late in the game, when Harrow finally realised they were in a football match, rather than a bus-park. Ultimately, this was very much a case of two points dropped; leaving Town languishing in a lowly 19^th place (of 24). As Borough's website pithily summed things up in a Twitter feed: “A point earned at a ground where we usually do not perform all in all a good #bankholidayweekend”. Not if you were a fan of The Beautiful Game, it wasn't.

The second half gets under way – still in the absence of goals and away fans.

If there was any good news at all, it may have come in the shape of some wise words from one of the club's most famous (secret celebrity) fans, Mr. Nelson: "Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results". Let's just hope the old boy's right in this case.

Photo by Larry Philpot

Mind you, he did also once say "I believe that all roads lead to the same place - and that is wherever all roads lead to" ... which wasn't very helpful at all. Not least since Enfield Town FC's road leads them next to Hanwell Town and then Folkestone Invicta - which are very definitely NOT in the same place. For now, we'd better just hope he doesn't volunteer to drive the team bus.

Funeral in N17?

Haringey Borough vs. Enfield Town - 3pm k-o

Sat. 6th August, 2016 - Pre-Season Friendly

On Saturday, I travelled to an away game, for the first time in some months. Although, admittedly, it was not so very far away; just 5 miles, in fact. Haringey Borough F.C. were to be Enfield Town’s final pre-season friendly opponents; and it seemed like a good time to check out how The Towners’ preparations for another tough Ryman Premier League season had been coming along. “The Borough” play at White Hart Lane and, after significant investment, their Coles Park ground now features a new, state-of-the-art 4G, all-weather astro-turf pitch ... hopefully assuring all attendees of great ‘phone reception. The new pitch is a major investment, after year's of postponed matches and fixture congestion, due to a water-logged playing surface.This is an astonishing fact when one considers that the very existence of the ground has been under threat for some extended period of time: “End of an era as Haringey Borough FC learn they will lose Coles Park home” said the Tottenham and Wood Green Journal, back in March 2011. That was after Haringey Council had approved plans to demolish the historic 80-year-old ground. Well Boro haven’t lost it yet; and, five years later on, they are now entering their 83rd year on the site – though now ground-sharing with wandering Brimsdown FC, of the Spartan South Midlands League (First Division).

 

Amidst the confusion of player number changes, eagle-eyed readers will notice only five Town players on show at Coles Park from the starting line-up of their last league game.

Borough announced before the match that the game against Enfield would see free admission for all. So a tidy crowd, which I would estimate at about 200 (no official crowd figure has been released, since there were no gate receipts) occupied their main stand. Many of these were away fans. The rest of the ground areas remained closed, probably for Health & Safety’ reasons – as well as to allow for those all-important finishing touches, ahead of Haringey’s own new season. Boro play their league football in the level below Enfield. So Town’s travelling fans were probably expecting a morale-boosting away win. Fingers were mostly being crossed for an entertaining game. The question on many minds was how the visitors would perform in the heat of an early-August scorcher; and in the absence of a couple of last season’s stars, lost to higher tier clubs. Stalwart defender Claudiu Vilcu having joined Bishops Stortford, in the next flight up; while key striker Corey Whitely has moved to Dagenham & Redbridge, two flights up the rickety ladder of the English Football League. Their local admirers may wish them well; or else might continue to hope they encounter “snakes” on their journey and return back ‘down’ to the club, before too long.

 

It was the friendliest of Friendlies, so Town found time for a quick game of Ring-a-Ring-o'-Roses, before kick-off. 'Keeper McDonald wisely 'declined'.

Old hands knew all too well that there was an obvious Enfield connection in the Boro dug-out, where Tom Loizou sits as club manager. He had dramatically departed from the (old) Enfield FC club, way back in 2002, just days after the season ended. Then-owner Tony Lazarou (he of ground-selling infamy) said “the two had agreed to terminate Mr Loizou's 18-month reign by mutual consent”; but, given “Lethal” Lazarou’s own track record with the truth, it’s possible that was just a big, fat lie. For those interested, incidentally, Haringey are currently offering free season tickets for home games. Apply via the club.

If the derelict views from the main stand - and the border guard watch-towers - reminded anybody of an apocalyptic post-war landscape, or of 1966 British spy film “Funeral in Berlin” (sly World Cup year reference intended!) then they should not have been any too surprised to find Harry Palmer crop up, starring in the Boro goal - see team sheet, above. Fine casting!

First-half action, as Town (in white) apply pressure from a corner.

It turns out that Enfield Town will be playing a number of games on artificial surfaces this season; so, despite the match's insalubrious setting, the logic of this friendly fixture, staged in what currently looks like a war-zone, was soon explained - "... and not a lot of people know that!". Not the least of those league games will be a potentially testing trip to newly-promoted and well-financed Harlow Town – see coverage of their 'tasty' play-off game against Hornchurch, elsewhere on this blog page. This particular pitch never seemed to trouble any of the players, home or away. Although Enfield’s Nikki Ahamed (in particular) appeared to have a mostly torrid afternoon, with frequent poor control and misplaced passes, it’s not clear how much of that could genuinely be attributed to the surface - which looked really good and seemed to play well.

The Excitement of the First-Half Drinks Break. "Who ordered the Lambrini?"

Suffice it to say that, in what was, ultimately, a lack-lustre final run-out, there was little to bother purist followers of The Beautiful Game. Enfield Town ended last season as the form side at the top of the Ryman Premier League; but Boro just about edged the first 10 scrappy minutes of this game, as Town acclimatised to the surface. Early home pressure culminating with a strike against the Town woodwork from distance, out wide on the right, by Boro's #9 Benjamin. Then fortunes slowly readjusted; and Enfield belatedly started to take control of the game, against their more ‘junior’ opponents. Their quick break in the 20th minute, following a wasted Boro free-kick, was one of few early highlights; but this dangerous 2-on-1 break was, itself, also wasted. The mid-afternoon heat required a pre-planned drinks break in the middle of the first half; and it was very nearly the pinnacle of the first-half highlights.

Town’s Micky Parcell stood out, at right wing-back; so it was probably only appropriate that he finally broke the deadlock, opening the scoring in the 38th minute. His intelligent, lung-busting, support run through the middle was spotted by the otherwise frustrated (and frustrating) Ahamed, who played a well-weighted pass into space near the right-hand corner of Boro's 6-yard box. From there, Parcell neatly tucked the ball home beyond Palmer - who perhaps should have been wearing his trademark, thick-rimmed spectacles. Shortly before half-time, referee Joel Mannix spotted what nobody else had: a defensive hand-ball in Boro’s area. There were neither appeals nor complaints; but Town’s Billy Crook strode up to blast past Harry Palmer, from the spot. Mixing up his movie reference metaphors, nobody could have blamed the Boro ‘Keeper for observing: “You were only s’pposed to blow the bloody doors off”. So Enfield lead 0-2 at the break, underlining their higher tier status; and, if slightly flattering to them, it was hardly against the run of play.

The sultry, half-time breeze from the allotment end brought a pervading scent of warm rubber off the 4G pitch, where the black pellets of the playing surface had been getting thrown up by each step taken and by every bounce of the ball. A number of substitutions were made at the break; but with little change in the order of play. Enfield continued to edge the home side; but without further reward – and without many incidents of note beyond a nasty-looking and unwanted pre-season injury to Boro’s substitute #17, Ben Traore; caused as he twisted his standing leg, receiving a ball. It was perhaps fitting, and probably unsurprising to Enfield fans, that the home side did finally earn a late, late consolation goal to give the final score some respectability and balance. Boro’s #16, a half-time sub., beating Enfield’s suspect offside trap and running through in timely fashion to notch one up for the home side. Final score: 1-2; with pre-season honours (very nearly) shared! A morale-boosting away win duly delivered. No funeral in N17, then; but the morale-ometer remained strangely, stubbornly unmoved; unboosted.

 "A Brief History of Enfield Time"; Stephen Hawking writes the visitor notes.

Next up, Canvey Island at home, in The Towners' first game of the new Ryman Premier League campaign; and a sterner test of Enfield's promotion credentials. Wouldn't it be nice if Dr. Feelgood could reform, specially for the occasion, and serenade us with their soft, Essex balladeering?
Come On, You Towners!