Enfield Town v Bowers & Pitsea

[seemgee]

McDonald, Gyebi, Coker, Thomas, Smith, Bray, Taaffe, Youngs,  Caas, Faal, Cunnington

Kiangebeni, Nichols, Kirwan, Della Verde, Maja

[The Crowing Cockerel]

ETFC 1 - 0 BPFC

Faal - 16mins

[The Crowing Cockerel]

ETFC 2 - 0 BPFC

Coker - 29mins - free kick, top corner

[seemgee]

HT 2-0 So far so good

Att 365

[The Crowing Cockerel]

ETFC 2 - 1 BPFC

Monville - 49mins

[seemgee]

2-1 50 mins

[The Crowing Cockerel]

ETFC 3 - 1

Cunnington - 50mins

[Bottoms Up]

For those not present or disappointed we won, the game was a typical Non League encounter.

lots of long balls, hitting the target men and getting the ball into the final third as quickly as possible before beginning to play, the styles was certainly not playing through the lines from back to front.

Saying that we were the better team with better players.

Sam Youngs was certainly a driving force from midfield and it was he who pressed won possession, fed Mo who then quickly played a 1-2 with Cunnington before finishing well.

The inconsistent Coker was selected ahead of the inconsistent Delleverde and typically scored a bullet of a free kick to double our lead. He then went on to play in his inconsistent way for the rest of the game .

We we’re slow starters and sleepy at the start of the second half and was soon punished by the Bowers impressive number 7 on the wing.

But we’ve got Mo who’s always looking and showing for goals. His shot was parried by the Bowers keeper and Cunnington scored from the rebound, 3 very good goals for various reasons.

Its now an away game at Kingstonian on a very muddy pitch which had a Corinthian Casuals game called off last night due to a waterlogged pitch, it hasn’t rained for about a week ?‍♂️
Nonetheless it’ll be a draining demanding game for our selected X1 on Saturday with little time for recovery when Carshalton then Margate visit us on Tuesday/Saturday respectively 

Ill target and shake on 7 points from the next 9 available today if possible.

[Steph]

A good report BU but I think some further analysis of why the long balls is required.

I cannot remember a single offside decision (I accept the correction if it is forthcoming) and that is because both sides seemed to play deep. I often saw Bowers back line had one player hanging further back which does not lend itself to offside.

The style of play, unusual for many of the teams we have played recently where they defend on the half way line, lends itself to end to end football with long balls predominating. Yesterday we saw good switches from wing to wing, something which has been lacking recently, and man to man marking by Boweers which left little time on the ball.

Still I may be wrong.

[andyetfc]

I thought we were fortunate on numerous occasions last night although the main difference was we took the three chances and put them away. Bowers and Pitsea could not be faulted in their enthusiasm to get a result and I’ve not seen seen such a small guy, their number 18, run so fast with the ball. Both he and their forward line caused problems but we managed to contain them. 
 

Funniest thing last night was the ref’ gave us a goal kick when it was obviously a corner and then apologised to their players for making the mistake. He could have changed his decision because we hadn’t taken the goal kick. Where’s VAR when you need it?

Big game coming up on Saturday.

 

Edited January 19, 2022 by andyetfc

[djwilf]

Just curious as couldn't make it last night....did we play 4 3 3...looked at the team sheet and wondered who started RB, also interesting that PK didn't start and mixed up the midfield a bit.

Youd think if teams were playing deep that would invite us on to get the ball down and play between the lines......I do like Cunnington's effort and workrate however feel it would be better if this was our out ball and not the first choice.

Onwards and upwards hopefully getting into the thick part of the month.   

[Father Jack]

It was 3-4-1-2, with Taaffe and Coker as wing backs. Certainly a bold move, and one that I thought might backfire on us, as Bowers got round the back several times in the first 15 minutes.  In the end it was the quality of men like Mo and Andre that got us the win.  

For the record, I hope that the formation change was a one-off!

[Rebel without a clue]

Didn’t attend last nights game so can’t comment on the game,was a bit concerned when I saw the line up it seemed a bit disjointed so pleased we managed a win though,Saturdays match a big 6 pointer 

[Raingod]

Enjoyed the game last night .. didn't really ever feel we weren't going to get anything less than 3 points once we took the lead .

Hats off to the management team for the selection :

- we looked at a fixture where we are clear faves to win and lined up with 5 very attacking players on the pitch

- we rotated a number of players - which is what we need in these busy times. If we all picked our strongest XI, I think we would all have PK and Lyle in it - but everyone bar Mo and Nathan M has had a spell on the bench - and this will surely increase the competition for spaces, and ensure we can deal with adapting to any future injuries

Cass has slotted well into the team and will be a real asset!

Feels like great team/squad spirit!

Goal1 was a slick passing move, Andre's free kick was a beauty, and our 3rd was thanks to Cunnington following up a shot and capitalising on the keeper spilling ..

So we are 2nd but a number of teams below have games in hand .. just need to take a game at a time .. 

Personally I think we need to be targetting top 3 - home advantage in the playoffs would be massive ... 

I would take a point from Kingstonian now, Carshalton and Margate are on the fringes of the play off chase - I would be happy with 6 from 9 ..

.. and do we try and defend our Velcoity Trophy or should we focus on the league and play youngsters ??

Either way exciting times  in the months ahead ...

[Barney]

Also not at the game, but I echo the sentiments about using the squad - we can't expect all players to recover fully from this demanding schedule, and we have enough quality outside our best XI (whatever that best XI is) to rotate, assuming people are fit. Well done on the win, was just what we needed, with a tricky run of fixtures coming up.