Thursday 19 April 2012

MUST WIN MATCH FOR ENFIELD TOWN

Saturday afternoon sees the biggest game of the season in the Ryman Division One (North) take place at The Queen Elizabeth II Stadium in Donkey Lane as second placed Enfield Town take on table topper's Leiston. Anything other than a victory for the Town will see the Suffolk side crowned champions so this really is a must win game for the home side.

For those not in the know after this important game both teams have one game left with Town visiting Grays Athletic (currently in 5th place) and Leiston welcoming Potters Bar Town (11th place) to Victory Road next Saturday.

The long and the short of it is that Town must win both games and hope that Leiston only draw or lose against Potters Bar Town next week in order to finish in top spot.

Where the points have been won by ETFC and LEISTON on a month by month basis??
This, of course, makes Leiston favourites for the title but as Town manager Steve Newing has said all the pressure is on them on Saturday afternoon in a match that will hopefully attract a decent crowd to The Donkey Dome.  Below are some statistics from the season for both sides and you can see it's very close between the two.

Leiston's 2-1 victory over Town on Saturday 10th December is really all that seperates the title rivals. How important could that victory be come the end of the season?

STATISTICS
GPG = GOALS PER GAMES
GCPG = GOALS CONCEDED PER GAME
PPG = POINTS PER GAME
ENFIELD TOWN STATLEISTON
40 GAMES 40
25WINS 27
9 DRAWS 7
6 DEFEATS 6
92 GOALS SCORED 93
46GOALS CONCEDED 43
84PTS 88
62.5% WIN% 67.5%
2.3GPG 2.33
1.15GCPG 1.08
2.1PPG 2.2
WLLWDW LAST SIX WWDLWL
14 CLEAN SHEETS 16
498 @ home v Redbridge on 2/1/12 BIGGEST CROWD 431 @ Needham Marker on 26/12/11

The Cold End has got the following few words from Lesiton fan James Spink this week - in order to get another side to the story and his thoughts of the season so far. Thank you for you help James.

1) Did you expect to be in this position at the beginning of the season?
Based on Needham Market coming second last year & a glance over their squad I think I can speak for most fans in saying we knew we would be 'competitive' and 'more than hold our own' and there was a good possibility of making the Play offs due to the 'champagne cork' factor, meaning we were on a roll and would surprise many teams. Whatever happens the season has exceeded our expectations for sure!

2) How many fans/supporters are expected to make the journey to Enfield?
I would expect us to have around 100 fans travelling on Saturday, hopefully more! (the club are running a supporter's coach)

3) Best and worst results this season?
Best result: 5-0 Boxing Day win at Needham Market. A fantastic display and we were unplayable in the second half and blitzed our local rivals with some of the best attacking football I've ever seen us play, outstanding!
Worst result: Losing at home to Sudbury 1-0 in the FA Cup - what a sickener, for so many reasons!
4) Best team faced?
Either Harlow Town who beat us 4-1 at Victory Road back in October and gave us a real lesson in what football at this level is all about or Grays Athletic who are such a powerful side full of power and pace.

5) Best player faced?
I was very impressed with Ryan Edgar (Brentwood Town) in two of the three games against us and also Harry Agombar (Grays Athletic) who netted twice against us over the 2 games, Tom Bullard was immense for Bury Town in our Suffolk Premier Cup semi final defeat on penalties and Sos Yao was also lively and caused us problems for Maldon and Tiptree recently.

6) Do you miss the Eastern Counties League?

Only the local derbies and relatively short away days! Other than that the Ryman League is fantastic and I would encourage all Eastern Counties sides to aim to get into it. Never an easy game and a very well run League, an excellent standard of football.

7) Where do you see Leiston in 5 years time?

As an established Ryman Premier League side, aiming for Step 2 (eventually) Hopefully looking back with pride at a superb money spinning run in one of the National Cup Competitions!

8) If you went to the Tilbury game last week....how good are they??
(many people predict they'll be dangerous opponents in the play offs)
It seems like ages since we beat them earlier in the season, I thought Tilbury looked very solid and was very impressed with Alex Read and Eimel Aiken. If they can get home advantage in the Play Offs they will take some beating and expect their fans to be fairly vocal too!

DEFEATS THIS SEASON
ENFIELD TOWNLEISTON
23/8 - TILBURY L 3-4 29/8 - Soham1-2
20/9 - Thamesmead 0-2 4/10 - Heybridge 1-2
10/12 - Leiston 1-2 15/10 - HARLOW 1-4
31/12 - Tilbury 1-2 26/10 - Grays 0-1
24/3 - Maldon & T 0-2 7/4 - Tilbury 1-3
31/3 - HARLOW TOWN 0-3 14/4 - Maldon & T 1-3


A mark of how far the two clubs have come over the last few years is indicated by going back to 2004 when at this time of year (27th April) Enfield Town were drawing 0-0 at home (Goldsdown Road in front of a good crowd of 364) to Sawbridgeworth Town and finishing fourth in the Essex Senior League. Leiston (24th April) were winning 1-2 at Ely City (crowd - 86) in the Eastern Counties League Division One in which they finishing in third place. As a quick quiz question the cold end asks Town fans can you name the three teams who finished above us in 2003/04 and Leiston fans which two teams finished above your team in the same year?? Answers are below. 

The Cold End can only recommend you make your way down for the 3pm kick off on Saturday afternoon and sample some proper football. Why not make a day of it.....and come down early, have a drink and watch the Arsenal v Chelsea game (kick off 12.45pm) in Butler's Bar beforehand.


Quick Quiz answers -
ETFC - Concord Rangers, Ilford and Sawbridgeworth Town
LEISTON - Cambridge City Res and Harwich & Parkeston

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