(Ryman League Premier Division) 14th March 2000

Enfield (1) 1 Brown 19
Billericay Town (0) 1 Cooper 60 (OG)

It may be fun to see ex non league players make their way to the Premiership and entertain those that pay good good money. However, there's a much quicker route via refereeing that depends less on skill and more on the ability to screw up a good game with petty or mystifying decisions. Like Durkin for example, who was once a regular at Enfield matches and now is forever linked with Petit at Arsenal. The referee for tonights game was listed in the match day programme as Bone, though the replacement official we eventually were given was a far more sinister character. I'm at a loss as to how a player can be quite literally split in two inside the box and be in quite obvious agony, yet not a booking - not even a talking to for the villian of the piece (Steve Connor) was forthcoming. Outrageous.

Aside from the inadequate performance by the match officials this was quite an entertaining, if not freezing evenings entertainment. Enfield had the better with the wind to their backs in the first half whilst Billericay took the advantage when the teams turned round. John Morgan had a fine game and early on had two fine chances from long range. The first was inches over whilst Alleyne was nearly on the end of a second that came at keeper Gavin King like a hot potato too hot to handle first time. Richard Dunwell even looked interested too!

Enfield's opener came through two errors. Firstly a badly placed back pass by Chris Moore conceeded a corner, which was then headed goalwards by Brown and quite shamefully allowed to squeeze in at the far post by former E's favourite Justin Gentle. All very amusing for us of course, though Gentle could not have picked a worse time to foul up in front of an Enfield crowd who have proved to be rather unforgiving to former favourites, though Gary Calder must have been pleased not to encounter the same kind of disparaging remarks as dished out to some of our former managers.

On the Bravenet message forums it was clamed this week that our Grant cooper is a 'hair gel boy' and a 'tart'. This was as nothing compared to what his old man said after the player had the final touch to a rather unconvincing piece of defending. Then came Conner's assault on Clarke which had some of our regulars spitting venom at both player and ref from behind the barriers even whilst the play was up the other end of the pitch! It was left to Southgate for the final word, driving just over the crossbar in the final five minutes.

(Ryman League Premier Division) 18th March 2000

Basingstoke Town (2) 2 Winter (pen) 12; Sills 24
Enfield (1) 1 Clarke 38

Well, no matter how much I could moan about Basingstoke Town beating Enfield again, the fact of the matter is that Enfield created enough chances to have taken all three points. The trouble is, there was absolute dross between the chances, and that's before mentioning the officials (yet again). Are they getting worse this season or what? Today's was Keegan. It didn't take long for the first controversial moment to rear its ugly head. A Town player went down in the box... I turn and say something to a friend... next thing, Keegan is pointing to the spot and Winter is converting a spot kick to put us on the back foot from the off. Ten minutes of offsides later, blooming Hall is lobbed, and as he pedals frantically back, the ball hits the bar and Sills heads it home. Curses. Town had the advantage of the wind behind their backs. Dunwell had moments before failed to toe poke it past Tarr from a an Annon cross.

Richard Dunwell gave hope for a comeback with an inch perfect pass in the path of Clarke, who outpaced the defence to score with some ease. Now it was the turn of Enfield to create chances. Morgan's height denied him an equaliser at the far post and in turn, Dunwell missed a golden chance with a header at the start of the second half. Morgan was as usual turning the defence this way and that, and from one such run he was bought down by Bristow for a penalty. Jones - just on as substitute - blasted the ball agonisingly wide! Moments later Clarke had a clear shot at goal as Basingstoke players did an Adams. He missed. In injury time Morgan's hopeful cross caused all kinds of panic in the penalty area, with keeper and defender tangling to deflect the ball inches past the post. It was that kind of frustrating day.

(Ryman League Premier Division) 21st March 2000

Slough Town (2) 2 Marshall 18;Hawthorne 45
Enfield (1) 1 Southam 8

In a highly entertaining match which saw both teams try to play football with the ball on the ground with neat and incisive passing, turned out to be an excellent first half. Both sides were moving off the ball well and creating space for one another and it took seven minutes for Slough to have their first chance of the game. Junior Haynes did well to get a cross in from the left wing which was well met by a Dwight Marshall diving header which hit the top of the bar with the rebound falling to the advancing Dave Rainford who shot over with the goal gaping. Enfield did not let that get to them and with their next main attack they forced a corner on Slough's left. As the ball was whipped in, nobody tracked Southam's run well enough to prevent him heading home from eight yards out to give Enfield the lead. Slough countered strongly and began to exert some pressure on the Enfield goal. Andy Hall was quick off his line to cut out the lively Mark Hall's through ball which was aimed for Marshall's good run across the back line. Marshall was next to have a shot from outside the box but his curling effort went straight at Andy Hall. Just three minutes later, A Paul Barrowcliff effort from the edge of the box was fumbled across the goal by Andy Hall and Marshall reacted quickly to poke the ball home despite the best efforts of Brown. With Slough's next attack just a minute later, Haynes did well to get round two players out on the left and his long looping effort hit the back of the Enfield bar. Moments later, Slough were awarded a free kick on their right wing to be taken by Rainford. His cross eluded everyone and went skimming harmlessly across the goalmouth. Rainford set up Enfield's next chance misplacing his pass to Dunwell, whose shot fell to Morgan on the right wing. Barrowcliff blocked his shot with a great tackle only to see the rebound sit nicely for an Enfield midfielder whose ferocious strike from 25 yards beat Honey but hit the top of the bar. Enfield continued to pressure and a good run by Morgan took him past Kemp and Townly but his cross was just flicked over by the advancing striker. From the resulting goal kick, Haynes found himself witht he ball and some space to move into. He continued his run unopposed to the edge of the box where he shot just wide of Andy Hall's right hand post. Slough were slowly gaining the upper hand now and their next attempt came from a Rainford corner which was met by Daly. His flick went just behind the advancing Marshall who was unable to finish the move off. Enfield got another chance from another stray Slough pass, but this time Honey was quickly off his line to clear the danger. After 40, Barrowcliff and Marshall combined well on the left wing and Barrowcliff managed to get a good cross in which was superbly cut out by Annon to prevent Rainford from scoring. From the resulting corner, Rainford played it short to Hawthorne who somehow managed to get between the two Enfield defenders and out in a cross which the keeper could only palm out into the path of Marshall who shot over with an open goal. Bang on the stroke of half time, Marshall went some way to make up for his earlier miss. Pressurising the Enfield defence he won the ball and utilised his pace to break releasing the ball perfectly into Hawthorne's path on the edge of the box. His first attempt was well saved by Andy Hall, but the rebound fell nicely for Hawthorne who made no mistake with his second attempt making the half time score 2-1.

With Enfield bringing on Jones to replace Southam at the start of the second half, and Slough performing their usual trick of sitting back on the lead, the second half was never going to be as lively as the first. Enfield were applying the majority of the pressure and asking the most questions of the defences but Slough could always use Marshall's pace to break quickly. After 53 a corner from Enfield was flicked onto the bar and over by Brown after some poor marking again by the Slough defence. Slough managed to break shortly after with Marshall releasing Rainford whose first time effort on the volley went well wide. On 55 a Rainford corner was met by a Daly header but only went straight at Andy Hall. Aaron Patton was brought on after 73 to replace the weary Mark Hall, and almost instantly made an impact but his shot went just wide of the post and into the side netting. Five minutes later Honey pulled off another good save from a looping header across the goal. After 83, Dwight Marshall reacted quickly after Andy Hall again failed to hold onto a Slough effort, this one from Patton, but saw his effort go over. Steve Browne was then brought onto replace the outstanding Barrowcliff, to cheers of "Where's our duty free???" and "Where's the postcard gone??" from the home fans. Enfield should have done better with the last two chances of the game. Some excellent off the ball movement saw them create an opening but the final shot was weak and straight at Honey. Two minutes later, Livett was released and was through on goal, but hit his shot wide of Honey's right hand post when he should have done better.

(Ryman League Premier Division) 25th March 2000

Billericay Town 0
Enfield 0