Enfield Town v AFC Hornchurch

[littlehampton]

Quite a match in prospect at the QE2 Stadium this afternoon and The Town, with two excellent wins behind them, will be going flat-out against the Urchins to add to their points tally and make it three wins in a row.

Past matches between the two sides have always been close affairs, and this early season encounter is unlikely to be any different. Town's form in pre-season friendlies, and the two opening IPL fixtures, has been very impressive, with a strong first team squad giving our supporters genuine cause for optimism this season. Today will be a real test of our credentials, in front of a decent size crowd. Everything to play for, let's hope Town can edge it with home advantage. COYT

 

[DerekR]

18 mins.

ETFC 1-0 HFC    Taofiq Olomowewe

[littlehampton]

GOAL

Taofiq Olomonwewe fires home from a corner in the 18th minute to put Town in front.

 

[DerekR]

HT

ETFC 1-0 AFCH

[DerekR]

53 mins.

ETFC 2-0 AFCH

 

Liam Hope

[DerekR]

79 mins.

ETFC 2-1 AFCH

 

Brad Warner

 

Att: 443

[DerekR]

90 mins.

ETFC 2-2 AFCH

 

Sean Marks

[DerekR]

FT

ETFC 2-2 AFCH

[littlehampton]

Full Time

 

Enfield Town 2-2 AFC Hornchurch

 

Well by all accounts we certainly got a very close, entertaining match against our old friends from Hornchurch. Disappointing for us to be two goals up going into the last 15 minutes, and to concede two late goals, and two points. Credit to the Urchins for their comeback, but seven points from three matches for The Town, is a pretty good start to the new season, and we'll learn lessons from today and move on.

 

Be very interested to hear other Towners thoughts on the match, performance, and result if you were there this afternoon.

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Just home from the game and actually pretty unimpressed with what I've seen. The Town players are technically far better than last year's squad. I understood that last season AL had us playing some pretty basic stuff given the limitations of the players he'd been able to bring in. So, why, oh why, oh why are we still playing as if we have Simon Thomas up front? I just don't get it. We look so much more threatening when we play the ball along the ground, stretch the opposition and then either cross from the byline or thread a ball through. Liam Hope isn't a Simon Thomas-type target man yet time and time again we pumped optimistic balls over the top looking for him to hold it up or win a flick-on (for no-one in particular). 

 

We may not have lost, but Hornchurch were there for the taking. I can't believe that Bricknell will relish balls lumped forward either. The pitch is pristine at the moment, so please can we stick to the attractive, attacking football this squad is capable of. For the second time this season we've gone 2-0 up and this time we have thrown a lead away.

[4wembleyfinals]

My first game of the season and for 80 minutes we played Hornchurch of the park. Much to the management's credit, yes I do say that, we have some very gifted players for us to compete well at this level.

 

It is obvious that the coaching level his much higher than last year. So far as Hope is concerned he was my man of the match for his tireless running and his constant dragging their defence from side to side. Where it fell down was that the expected runners for the openings created were invariably too deep behind him to take advantage. This can be adjusted in training to ensure that at least one player is always there to support him, not necessary the same one.

 

That said we still made sufficient  chances to have been out of sight by halftime.

 

Unfortunately however, as AL said himself earlier this week, the defence started to tire in the last 6/7 minutes and were in need of extra support by way of an extra defensive substitution.

Hence the last minute of added time equaliser.

 

However,from what I saw I think we can all look forward to an entertaining season.

 

I am off for the next 4  weeks and on my return hope to see us at least still in the top 5/6.  

[djwilf]

Frustration eh

 

Well after two pleasing results that was hard to take.

 

Think throughout the game we must have had the large portion of possession and overall were the better team man for man.

 

However, whereas we saw out the game on Tuesday we couldn't today.   I heard the groundsman in the last 20 minutes or so make a good point....why do we continue to lump the ball up front.   Liam will run his socks off for us however it's not his game to win aerial duels and knock the ball on to other players.    He's best coming short, chasing down and generally linking up with players.   We have 2 full backs are quite able going forwards.    Midfielders across the board who can play well and get the ball down on the floor and play attractive football.   On that basis we've thrown 2 points away today and it really should have been 3 points won.

 

We seem to get alot of possession...Johnson and Youngs worked extremely hard again however we seemed to lose our way towards the end.     I think Joe had what was 2 or 3 real saves for the whole 92 minutes and yet we find ourselves dropping first points of the season.  

 

Would be interesting to think how we could have changed things or seen the game out differently....as hopefully those won't be valuable points dropped.      Hornchurch were hardworking but had little quality.    Disappointing to say the least.

 

Hopefully the boys will learn from it though...would be nice if the team could see these games out and not end up settling back.   I thought we had enough experience throughout the team but guess there's no real "easy" games.

 

Either way, picked up a nice print of the stadium from the club shop so that will be getting framed soon.

[AnfieldTowner]

Disappointing result in the end but not a disaster and I guess we're going to get games like this - need to make sure we learn the lessons fast though. Same thing had nearly happened on Tuesday night so its disappointing that we hadn't improved on that from the previous game - credit to Hornchurch though, they probably had us watched on Tuesday and identified a weakness. Lets make sure that's the last time!

 

Another excellent performance from Sam Youngs - a game we really should have won. I'd have taken 7 points from 9 at the start of the season though so the players shouldn't beat themselves up too much! Spare a thought for our old friend Brad at Braintree - they were 3-2 up going into the 4th minute of injury time and lost 4-3! On a more positive note, nice to see Corey score at Barnet yesterday.

 

Anybody know what sort of a team we're likely to put out on Tuesday against Canvey Island? I had heard it might be largely an U23 side but I see the U23s are playing on Monday....

[lovely stuff]

Good performance by The Town..Hornchurch never really looked threatening or put us under any pressure for most of the game.

Its a game we should have won comfortably.

[TJFootie]

For those that watched yesterday, it's easy to be disappointed because Enfield dominated so much of the game, but we'll probably play worse and win games. Thought Johnson and Youngs were excellent in the centre of midfield, Johnson just shading MOM for me. It will be interesting to see if Bricknell changes the dynamic up front and games can be killed off, having said that thought Hope had a decent game yesterday. Onwards and upwards.

On a side note (I like those) seen on the Bostik site, that we signed Matthew Nolan from Great Wakering, is this the same player (keeper) from last season?

[behind-the-goal]

Funny old game. When I left (and even during the game itself) I felt oddly conflicted. On the one hand, it was clear that we were playing better football than last season. On the other, I never felt totally comfortable, and almost expected a goal (or two - groan) from Hornchurch.

 

It is clear that we are moving in the right direction. It is equally clear that we are still a work in progress (but, hey!, we've stll got important players to come back).

 

Like everyone, I though Sam was great, but let's also hear it once again for Liam. Great movement, clinical goal and took out at least a couple of their defenders for our first goal.

 

On balance, despite the frustration of two points lost, I feel positive about the performance.

 

A couple of times during the game we were top of the table!!!!!

[72wemblyfinal]

Agree with most of what has been said,what I like most about our performances this year is we are playing it a lot more on the ground and keeping our width on both wings,some of our build up play has been superb,yes we still play the odd long ball but we have to mix it up, Would not like to pick out individual players for praise as they all had a great game.One concern though is our giving away unnecessary free kicks in dangerous positions late in the game,it happened in both home games.and on Sat it was game changing.

I see great things coming from this team,I even had £20 at 25-1 to win the league.?