Chelmsford (H)

[symptomless]

No thread today?

Best kept that way, too.

Too much Christmas pudding.

[djwilf]

2nd best all over the pitch.

[Steph]

No, 3rd best the ref and lno's did better than us.

[Albury_Walker]

I guess it's down with the Christmas decorations then 😄 

Looking forward to the moans and we was hard done by  Inquest 🙈🙊🙉

[dwhe]

Albury, I would worry about your lot's position before having digs here, If we get relegated there is no guarantee we will be playing you next season, far from it.

You're more likely to be playing the other Enfield

Edited December 26, 2025 by dwhe

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Reminiscent of some of the dark days last season when the established clubs and full-timers steamrolled us on a regular basis. I had thought/hoped that we'd turned a corner, that even if we did come up second best then it would be by the odd goal having made a good fist of it. Today we were second best all over the pitch for large portions of the game. I think that this expensively-assembled Chelmsford side has the ability to do that to other teams now and then, nevertheless, we really had an off day.

Goalkeeper - We're on to our third goalkeeper following the departure of Rhys. I'm not convinced that any of them have been better than Rhys, and unfortunately Graczyk looks the weakest of the bunch. He should have dealt with the cross in the build up to the Hornchurch equaliser at the weekend, and I wasn't convinced by his performance today - parrying a shot back towards the onrushing striker and too often glued to his line at corners.

Sam Youngs - He's undoubtedly an ETFC legend, but he seemed off the pace today. He should have been substituted much earlier. 

Olly Davis - Showed for the ball and offered a lot more than Reynolds/Youngs had done earlier in the game.

Donaldson - Clearly desperate to do well against his old club, but the lack of pace playing alongside Thompson was exposed. I'm still not convinced he is anything more than a utility player at this level.

Back to the drawing board then. At the moment a second miracle survival looks beyond Gavin.

[No bull Towner]

11 hours ago, The Crowing Cockerel said:

Reminiscent of some of the dark days last season when the established clubs and full-timers steamrolled us on a regular basis. I had thought/hoped that we'd turned a corner, that even if we did come up second best then it would be by the odd goal having made a good fist of it. Today we were second best all over the pitch for large portions of the game. I think that this expensively-assembled Chelmsford side has the ability to do that to other teams now and then, nevertheless, we really had an off day.

Goalkeeper - We're on to our third goalkeeper following the departure of Rhys. I'm not convinced that any of them have been better than Rhys, and unfortunately Graczyk looks the weakest of the bunch. He should have dealt with the cross in the build up to the Hornchurch equaliser at the weekend, and I wasn't convinced by his performance today - parrying a shot back towards the onrushing striker and too often glued to his line at corners.

Sam Youngs - He's undoubtedly an ETFC legend, but he seemed off the pace today. He should have been substituted much earlier. 

Olly Davis - Showed for the ball and offered a lot more than Reynolds/Youngs had done earlier in the game.

Donaldson - Clearly desperate to do well against his old club, but the lack of pace playing alongside Thompson was exposed. I'm still not convinced he is anything more than a utility player at this level.

Back to the drawing board then. At the moment a second miracle survival looks beyond Gavin.

I agree none are better than Rhys, he was by no means perfect but he bailed out the defence too many times to mention and even though some hail Wright, in the 13 games Wright played, Rhys out performed him on the 13 league matches before earning more points and less conceded, the corner was turned already! Xav is our best defender, Thompson, Donaldson and Hawkins are too slow and get found out. It's going to be a struggle and hope dumping on Rhys doesn't result in us getting dumped back down!

[Rebel without a clue]

Complete shambles and non performance the players should be ashamed and should donate the match fee they received to a local charity and we should be giving the fans who witnessed that debacle free entry to the next home match to compensate.As for mr flappy in goal he’s got to be the worst keeper we’ve had this season hopefully his loan period is short and we can move on to keeper number 6

 

[No bull Towner]

25 minutes ago, Rebel without a clue said:

Complete shambles and non performance the players should be ashamed and should donate the match fee they received to a local charity and we should be giving the fans who witnessed that debacle free entry to the next home match to compensate.As for mr flappy in goal he’s got to be the worst keeper we’ve had this season hopefully his loan period is short and we can move on to keeper number 6

 

Sadly Mr Flappy isn't a loan....could be stuck with this one a while, Slough didn't want him and can see why

[The Crowing Cockerel]

1 hour ago, No bull Towner said:

Sadly Mr Flappy isn't a loan....could be stuck with this one a while, Slough didn't want him and can see why

Naming him Mr Flappy has amused me! Alternatively you could just call him Flappy and he sounds like the perfect hapless panto character!

[4wembleyfinals]

I know it's an easy job to be a critic from my arm chair. But when I watch the highlights of the Hornchurch game last week I was surprised at the number of times the new goalie just pushed away ball that he should have handled. 

I thought it was just me being hyper critical but from todays comments it appears to be his way of playing. If this is so I think that Gav has been sold a pup. 

If he continues playing this way then the defence will go to pieces. I can't believe that he is considered better than Connally!!!

 

 

 

 

[Big D]

Chelmsford fan here in peace. Just wanted to mention, we played Donaldson as a defensive midfielder last season (alongside Arthur Penney who is now at Tonbridge) and he was superb, a real leader. Experience, organisation, wins aerial battles and also a calming presence on those around him. We've missed someone like in the middle this season to be honest.

My first visit to your ground, I liked it. It's not easy to make these Athletics stadiums nicer but we've both succeeded in that respect.

Hope both teams kick on from here and you boys stay up whilst we go up!

[wilson]

This is not a good result following some decent results recently. I desperately want Town to not get relegated for the following reasons. I am Enfield born (Carterhatch Road) during the War and lived my first 31 years there - Eastfield Road Primary, Enfield Grammar School etc. When I married my Australian wife we bought our first house in Ponders End. before moving to Melbourne where we have lived for 51 Years apart from a 2.5 year sojourn back in London when we both retired. I have been back to Enfield at least 20 times during this time and have always managed to catch a match or two at Southbury Road, Goldsdown Road or the QE 2 stadium.

I have been a Town member since the club's inception. I purchased a named seat in the old stand that was transported to the QE2 and I have purchased a new named seat in the new 400 seater stand at QE2. The first Town match I watched was the fourth game they played back in 2001. We were in England to join a European tour but we arrived the day of the twin towers 9/11 disaster to find our tour was cancelled. I quickly found that Town were scheduled to play at Barkingside so I hopped on a tube and got to the game. I met a number of Town people there and had my photo taken with the Manager, Jim Chandler before the game. The photo formed part on an article that was published in the following week's program. I am proud to be a part owner of this fine club.

The reason I am desperate for the club to maintain National League status is because over the years I have seen many Athenian and Isthmian league matches. Now I want to see the team playing at the highest level. I have been planning to return home next August/September and I know that this journey will be fraught. I have advanced Parkinson's Disease so I am under no illusions about the difficulty in making such a journey and getting to watch the club playing at National League level makes the difficulties look more manageable.

My message to Gavin, management and players is please help me achieve this last ambition. Help me get to watch the club playing at National level from my new named seat in the new stand. Thanks guys and good luck for the rest of the season. Do what you can do to help me.

COYT

 

[lovely stuff]

St Albans had over 2200 through the gate on Boxing Day in the league below, against Wingate & Finchley. A thousand more than we had. I suspect that most of their fanbase over the years have remained in or near St Albans. Lots of our supporters now seem to be spread far and wide and have to travel a fair distance just to attend home games. Add the entrance prices in this league, plus two seasons in or near the relegation zone and i feel we may have plateaued both in fanbase and our position in the football pyramid 

[andyetfc]

1 hour ago, lovely stuff said:

St Albans had over 2200 through the gate on Boxing Day in the league below, against Wingate & Finchley. A thousand more than we had. I suspect that most of their fanbase over the years have remained in or near St Albans. Lots of our supporters now seem to be spread far and wide and have to travel a fair distance just to attend home games. Add the entrance prices in this league, plus two seasons in or near the relegation zone and i feel we may have plateaued both in fanbase and our position in the football pyramid 

I think you’ll find most clubs will have posted their best gates so far this season. It tends to be the norm this close to Christmas.

 

[The Crowing Cockerel]

Barring a change of ownership model, I'm not sure how we can consolidate at this level. We must have one of - if not the - smallest budget in the league which means that we can't afford the calibre of player our opponents can. We've done remarkably to manage two seasons, but with the league only getting stronger/wealthier, it feels a much bigger ask this season. If/when we do drop down, it will be important that we consolidate and reassess how we can create a model for success at Step 2 - at least we've made some ground improvements while we've been here!

17 hours ago, Big D said:

Chelmsford fan here in peace. Just wanted to mention, we played Donaldson as a defensive midfielder last season (alongside Arthur Penney who is now at Tonbridge) and he was superb, a real leader. Experience, organisation, wins aerial battles and also a calming presence on those around him. We've missed someone like in the middle this season to be honest.

My first visit to your ground, I liked it. It's not easy to make these Athletics stadiums nicer but we've both succeeded in that respect.

Hope both teams kick on from here and you boys stay up whilst we go up!

Very kind Big D. A nice leisurely outing for your boys on Boxing Day. Disappointing our boys didn't make it more of a contest, particularly given our recent good form, but there we go. Despite Chelmsford's indifferent start to the season, I'd still fancy you to make the play-offs.

[lovely stuff]

16 hours ago, andyetfc said:

I think you’ll find most clubs will have posted their best gates so far this season. It tends to be the norm this close to Christmas.

 

The point is was making was that our best gate was a thousand less than St Albans best gate. A team in a league below, who charge more to get in that we do (even though they are a league below) and who have a population only the third of the size of Enfield.

[lovely stuff]

16 hours ago, The Crowing Cockerel said:

Barring a change of ownership model, I'm not sure how we can consolidate at this level. We must have one of - if not the - smallest budget in the league which means that we can't afford the calibre of player our opponents can. We've done remarkably to manage two seasons, but with the league only getting stronger/wealthier, it feels a much bigger ask this season.

There are at least 6 teams in this league with the same sort of budget that we have and who have the same sort of gates. It is not remarkable to survive two seasons. An decent manager with our budget and players should have a 50/50 change of not being in the relegation zone come the end of the season. A very good manager should be able to get us near mid-table.

[djwilf]

I know we had a few decent crowds at the back end of last season but currently we re getting nearly 150 less fans than last seasons average.

Performances like Saturdays will hardly help either.

[The Crowing Cockerel]

3 hours ago, lovely stuff said:

There are at least 6 teams in this league with the same sort of budget that we have and who have the same sort of gates. It is not remarkable to survive two seasons. An decent manager with our budget and players should have a 50/50 change of not being in the relegation zone come the end of the season. A very good manager should be able to get us near mid-table.

So you're saying that we should be able to survive at Step 2.....with the right management/recruitment?