Enfield Town 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur XI

[Robsven]

I travelled from Norfolk for this one, and unlike a couple of posters, I was more then happy to pay £10 to watch this game. After all, I wasn't there to watch Tottenham (I couldn't care who the opponents were) - I was there to watch Enfield Town play in their new stadium!

 

Impressions of the Donkey Dome - the pitch is absolutely magnificent, a proper playing surface which will certainly benefit us.

 

The stands behind each of the goals are nice and close to the pitch - enough to hopefully create an "intimidating" atmosphere of sorts. It's great to have covered standing at both ends as well.

 

Even the seated stand and terracing at the side of the pitch seem adequately close enough to the pitch - I was worried that you might need binoculars, but the layout seems to work very well.

 

The bar is rather nice with decent decor and furniture (big thumbs up on the TV's) - although I can certainly see it getting quite cramped in there with only a handful of customers in there. Of course there is nothing that can be done about creating more space with regards to the size of the building - but how about having more smaller tables that you stand at, as opposed to larger tables that you sit down at. The service was very good at the bar itself, although as someone has previously stated on here, a queueing system of sorts needs to be implemented.

 

Oh - and the windows in the bar - it's a lovely viewing area for the game - plus hopefully we'll be allowed out onto the balcony in the summer (or winter even) as a vantage point to watch games? Or would health and safety get involved?

 

Didn't use the burger vans, but was good to see there were two there - I'm assuming that was just for last night though and only one in operation will be the norm for league games.

 

What else, what else... oh, coming down the stairs from the bar, you get a glimpse of the players tunnel and where the changing rooms are located - very plush indeed, has a professional feel about it.

 

As for the game itself - I did suspect we were going to get taught a lesson - and for large parts of the first half we did. How we went in at half time at 0-0 is anyone's guess. The second half was far more enjoyable (of course) and we really took advantage of our more positive period of play.

 

The atmosphere behind the Town goal in the second half was good - and it was excellent to see a large number of youngsters there who were actually really getting behind the team. Whether or not we'll see them back is another matter - but I did overhear a couple of them saying it was a "quality night" ... so hopefully we've created a few fans of the future. Would be nice if they eased down on the booting of the back of the stand - but an atmosphere is an atmosphere at the end of the day, and the over the top celebrations behind the goal for both our goals was really nice to see. Not just applauding and shouting "yes" ... but actually jumping up and down and going a little bit mental. Good effort chaps!

 

Oh, and my brother won the signed Jimmy Greaves England shirt - quality stuff.

 

One negative point - please get a new tannoy system haha, it was bordering on embarrassing with it continuously cutting out - but hopefully it's just technical problems that can be sorted out. Can we get the one we used to have at Southbury Road which used to occasionally fart during the middle of games???!

 

I'm so proud to support Enfield Town, and finally, after such a long time since we "left" Southbury Road, I finally feel as if we're home. Goldsdown Road served us superbly well, but it still felt like an away game to me. Massive thank you and congratulations to everyone involved with bringing us to the Queen Elizabeth stadium, you truly deserve every plaudit you get.

 

Amazing achievement - and you have certainly won back two supporters from the threshold of just following our results on the internet, to actually coming back and watching games on a regular basis.

 

Kindest regards,

Robbo

[townerboy]

excellent post, agree with all points raised.

[MbrunoB]

A quality well written opinion.