Saturday 26th October 2013 Essex Senior League
Borough started brightly and might have grabbed an early lead when Solomon Shields met a deep cross from the left by Anthony McDonald but failed to get sufficient power on his effort to trouble the ‘keeper. Even half chances were few and far between in an evenly matched first half although Borough hardly helped their own cause by persistently launching long high balls at their not very tall front runners which were easily gobbled up by the much taller Enfield back line. Equally, the home team were also quite partial to long high balls with which Borough’s commanding central defender Dan Gudgeon likewise repeatedly repelled. Enfield’s left winger Harry Prince gave Borough plenty of cause for concern but fortunately when forced inside his finishing efforts lacked precision. Unfortunately, when the game seemed certain to be scoreless at the interval, a misplaced pass in the Borough defence seconds before the whistle enabled Jack Haspineall to send over a deep cross to the far post and with ‘keeper Ashley Harris losing his footing it was a formality for the unmarked home teams top scorer John Bricknell to nod it into the empty net. There was more “along the ground” football from Borough in the second half and it paid off in the 68th minute when McDonald fed substitute Christopher Benjamin and he arrowed his shot low across ‘keeper Alex Jennings into the far corner from just inside the area. Just when Borough seemed to be gaining the ascendancy they were reduced to ten men as Stephen Obeng received a straight red for retaliation. But it seemed to make little difference as Borough shrugged off their shortage of numbers and in stoppage time Lawrence Constanti finished a good day for substitutes, as Enfield were caught short of numbers at the back while trying to press home their numerical advantage, when he collected a high crossfield ball to close in from the right and beat the advancing Jennings with a shot very similar to the equaliser. Borough played out the remaining couple of minutes without any scares. It was a vital win as Enfield are in second place in the table and victory leaves Borough only six points behind them with a game in hand but 11 points behind leaders Great Wakering Rovers with two games in hand. If the table were to be re-drawn on the basis of fewest points dropped then Borough would be joint fourth.
Borough squad:- Ashley HARRIS, Lamarl BROWN, Cedric LAKOLE ,
Solomon SHIELDS (Christopher BENJAMIN, Nick NICOU)
Daniel WALKER, Daniel GUDGEON, Stephanos GEORGIOU (Lawrence CONSTANTI),
Stephen OBENG, Dean FENTON, Ashley FASHANU, Anthony McDONALD
Unused Substitutes Andreas LOIZOU, Charles DOUSE
Borough now have the opportunity to maintain their climb up the table with two home games. Sporting Bengal United visit Coles Park on November 2nd (3pm) followed by Barking on 5th (7.45pm)
