Cheshunt v Enfield Town

[Bottoms Up]

How’s the situation at Cheshunt? Does their playing surface drain well? Or will the rain over the last two days put the game in doubt? 
decorating over Xmas/New Year but was planning to dash over from 2.30pm to catch the game and have a break

[Father Jack]

Twitter post from Cheshunt says pitch is OK now, but they may need an inspection if it keeps raining 

[Father Jack]

Pitch inspection 1245. Fingers crossed...

[Father Jack]

Game on!

[Albury_Walker]

The ground staff have done an amazing job today. Just need the rain not to be too heavy.

[Barney]

Good to hear it's on, credit to the groundstaff. Looking at the rain radar, it might not be too bad for the rest of the afternoon (but that's been known to be very wrong).

Hoping for an exciting game, it'll definitely be tough for Town, as Cheshunt are flying at the moment and we haven't had much game time of late!

Edited December 27, 2021 by Barney

[seemgee]

McDonald, Chappell, Kirwan, Thomas, Bray, Joseph, Kiangebeni, Youngs, Cunnington, Faal, Della-Verde

Gyebi, Taaffe, Muleba, Cook, Smith

[seemgee]

1-0 Youngs 12 mins

Edited December 27, 2021 by seemgee

[seemgee]

1-1 17mins

[Albury_Walker]

You cheats stop diving

[seemgee]

2-1 Cheshunt 74 mins

[Albury_Walker]

Never mind Townies Best team won ?????

[seemgee]

FT 2-1 defeat

att 966

[4wembleyfinals]

If the "official Twitter" reports are not too biased it sounds like a game we were not meant to win. I look forward to reading others views.

Sorry to see Coker was missing. I hope he is not ill with the virus. It would be helpful to have him back for New Years Day. I still believe Mo, Lyle and he should be our starting line up with Cunnington held back should you need another option.

However, 1pt from the past three league games certainly needs to be rectified before it gets worse. Of course this sometimes happens when you get in to the position of thinking you will win all the games in hand. They soon disappear.

Consequently we have to get back on track to our 2pts per game ratio. Which, for a start, means winning both games over the NEW Year period and continue from there.

 

 

[Albury_Walker]

Nice to see a good ref in charge today .He had the measure of your players antics . The only thing he got wrong was not sending judas off for hacking down Adam.  

[old towner]

11 minutes ago, 4wembleyfinals said:

If the "official Twitter" reports are not too biased it sounds like a game we were not meant to win. I look forward to reading others views.

Sorry to see Coker was missing. I hope he is not ill with the virus. It would be helpful to have him back for New Years Day. I still believe Mo, Lyle and he should be our starting line up with Cunnington held back should you need another option.

However, 1pt from the past three league games certainly needs to be rectified before it gets worse. Of course this sometimes happens when you get in to the position of thinking you will win all the games in hand. They soon disappear.

Consequently we have to get back on track to our 2pts per game ratio. Which, for a start, means winning both games over the NEW Year period and continue from there.

 

 

Agree with you 4WF why persist which Adam can’t he play left back (in the changing room) he is about as much use as a bulletproof motorbike or a waterproof teabag as you say he is better at coming on late in the game.  With. 2 mins left !!!!,! 

[Barney]

A rare appearance from me at a game, and a frustrating afternoon. I thought we were the better team for 60 minutes, and played some nice stuff - especially the 15 minutes either side of the interval. Youngs and Thomas were very good positionally, breaking up play and using the ball well, allowing Percy to get up the pitch and make things happen in the right areas - which he certainly did. We managed to work quite a few openings with both full backs overlapping well (good cross from Chappell for Youngs to open the scoring), and I was optimistic at half time, albeit slightly concerned about how our legs would hold out. 60 minutes in, when the goal hadn't come for us, it did start to feel like the writing was on the wall and Cheshunt were definitely in the ascendancy and finished the game much stronger. As much as it pains me to say, their annoying 5 was a very solid player, who marshalled the defence well all afternoon and snubbed out much of what was thrown at him. I know I'll be accused of moaning, but there was in my view a clear foul on Youngs leading up to their second goal, which the ref seemed about to give, but Youngs stayed on his feet, half kept possession and then lost the ball - the goal came directly from the subsequent phase of Cheshunt possession.

One thing I will say is that I think the management need to be a lot more proactive with substitutions - we needed fresh legs and ideas after 60 minutes, not after 80 when the game was all but gone, and the subs didn't really have time to influence proceedings when they were thrown on. Percy was fading, and not nearly as influential as he was in the first half, but Kirwan looked a threat getting forward, so was surprised to see him replaced. There were a couple of incidents where we might have got the rub of the green - our disallowed goal looked OK to me, but I was told by someone closer that there was a handball, and the players didn't seem to argue much. Also, a brilliant block from (I think) McKenzie to divert what looked to be a surefire goal over the crossbar from point blank range - I'd back Della Verde to score from there 9 times out of 10. I might be in the minority, but I think Cunnington had a pretty decent game, especially in the first half, linking play well and putting in a shift for 90. As mentioned upthread, I do think he might have left a bit on their 5 with the challenge, but the ball was close enough for it to have been a genuine attempt (it was right in front of me), so I think yellow was correct. I think the most disappointing thing from the game was Della Verde's contirbution, he's clearly a top player, and a real goal threat, but didn't get involved enough and was wasteful with free kicks - it was almost like he's not fully fit or is carrying an injury. Hopefully we have Coker as an option for the upcoming games to give him some rest if that is what's needed.

Our dip in form is worrying, but we played well enough for much of the game against one of the form sides in the league to not have me too concerned - with a bit more match time, and sharpness and I think we'll get back to winning ways. Nice to see such a good crowd, hard to know what the split was, but there were certainly a decent number of Town fans cheering the side on. Hoping for a better result against Potters Bar, and if we play like we did for 60 minutes today, I think we'll do OK.

[4wembleyfinals]

Thanks Barney for your very concise report.

I had hoped we had got over running out of energy in the final third of the game but it sounds as if it is creeping in again. Part of this must reflect on how the management use their subs plus certain players taking more than their share of the workload. The later is up to the players to sort out. 

I have said several times that playing up to Cunnington relies on a long ball tactic. Which contrary to belief uses up the most energy.

Although I still maintain that there is a long way to go and it is the simple things, like these, which should be addressed. So as to ensure we don't lose any more ground during the winter months. 

Consequently, like you I look forward to seeing us get back on track in the next few weeks.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by 4wembleyfinals

[Raingod]

Great report Barney, really sums up the day!

Coker was the only player unavailable on the day (Covid I am told) - so a strong squad to select from (I was surprised the new signing wasnt named on the bench with Maja suspended and Scott just recovered from injury)

We can be disappointed not to get  something from the game overall - I was standing near the corner flag and the block from their defender to stop Lyle scoring was amazing!

The 2nd penalty shout looked a definate one to me (look forward to seeing the replays)

We did play some good passing moves, but our shooting was pretty wayward at times - we do seem to struggle to make the right decisions at times - a great run past 2 players is no good if the 3rd tackles you - better to play it simple and keep possession!

The goals we conceded did look weak - but want to see them properly on the replays ..

Once Cheshunt took the lead I thought that was it - and fair play to them they shut up well and controlled the game - and celebrated at the end like it was a cup final, exactly as Stortford did the other week. Teams now want to raise their game against us and we have to be prepared to go up another gear ...

Cunnington I think gets unfair stick on here - in the last minutes he was chasing lost causes, and he is not just a tall guy to head the ball .. 

Welcome return of Scott in midfield and he had a solid game - but we should have actively been subbing him before the end due to match fitness ..

I want to see LDV hugging the touchline and hurting the other team  -feels we are wasting his attacking talents at times ..

And yes, we have gone back to delaying subs too much - we need to freshen things up when we lose momentum ..

I predicted 7 points from Cheshunt, Potters Bar & Cray - with Cheshunt being the draw - we can still get 6 ...

The table suddenly looks tricky - from being comfortably in 2nd we have dropped to 6 - and really need to win these games in hand ...

 

[lovely stuff]

15 hours ago, Albury_Walker said:

Nice to see a good ref in charge today .He had the measure of your players antics . The only thing he got wrong was not sending judas off for hacking down Adam.  

Classy as ever Audrey