THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Barnet 0 Enfield 7: FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round

'Saturday is hard to describe, it was so superb! We played a game that was almost complete in every sense of the word'. These were the words of Eddie McClusky who was still excited two days after the great game. And he was not exaggerating. Enfield played for all they were worth against a side that was no pushover, and they came out with their reputation as the top Gola League team even further enhanced.

After just 32 minutes, the E's were already well ahead, with three magnificent goals from Carl Richards, Noel Ashford and Keith Hayzelden. However, contrary to their recent form, they did not content themselves with this lead but went on to get a grand total of seven goals by the end of the afternoon.

'This has been threatening for some time now,'' their manager continued, 'but so far they have been able to keep up this form for only parts of the match. On Saturday it lasted the whole 90 minutes. I'm delighted'.
For those of us who were entrusted with the task of choosing the Enfield Advertiser and Local Advertiser man of the match, the game was a nightmare: every member of the sidewas playing very high quality football, and all of themdeserved to be honoured for their part. The top contenders were Carl Richards, not only for his hat trick but also his consistency; Keith Hayzelden, who rarely has a bad game these days; and Dermot Drummy who worked harder than anybody to put the ball where it could do some good.

By the end of the first half, with the score standing at 3-0, the choice was between skipper Noel Ashford and keeper Andy Pape, the former being instrumental in most of the plays from which Enfield scored, and the latter having made some brilliant saves to ensure Barnet walked away humiliated. In the end the decision went in favour of the goal maker rather than the goal saver.
Enfield wasted no time and launced an immediate attack on the Barnet goal, Keith Barrett making the first shot at the net after just 11 minutes. Unfortunately this was cleared off the line by Glyn Creaser. Before the cheering crowd had time to collect themselves, the E's had the ball at the goalmouth and Richards made his first shot from the left. As the ball sailed towards the right of the net Peter Brown plunged at it in an attempt to clear, but only managed to send it into the back of the net after 12 minutes of very fast action.

Two minutes later they were there again, when a cross from Steve King put Barnet under pressure. The scrappy defence not quite managing to clear the ball but putting it to Ashford who scored from the midst of a tangle of players. The best Barnet performance of the day came after 19 minutes, when Baldry did well to catch Carl Richards as he stormed towards an open goal, although Humphries failed in his challenge of Steve King. The tables were turned when Edwin Stein found himself clear down the centre, and Hayzelden had to make a blistering run to block the attempt.

Having shown thathe can defend with a vengence Hayzelden went on to shoot and prove once and for all that he is a player of supreme versatility.Ashford gained possession of the ball in midfield and took it down the centre for a masterly pass to Hayzelden who put the ball past Humphries with ease, after 32 minutes. In the last 11 minutes of the half, Barnet had chances that would have bought them level with Enfield. These came from Dave Sansom with a shot from outside the penalty area, Stein from a corner and Evans from a Stein cross, all of which were expertly handled by Pape.

Barnet 0 Enfield 3: Half Time

When the teams came back out, Barnet made their sustitution, putting John Neal in for Steve O'Neill. He came on to see two near goals from Dermot Drummy in the first six minutes, and a superb goal by King who lobbed the ball over the head of the advancing Barnet keeper, to make it 4-0 to Enfield, after 53 minutes. The proceedings were somewhat marred when referee J.A. Moules saw fit to book Martin Duffield for his tackle on Trevor Parker in the 61st minute. This means that Duffield will be suspended for three games from Saturday, November 9. A tragedy as this period includes Enfield's first round FA Cup game on November 16th, a time when the side can ill afford to be without such a key player.

There was cause for further celebration just five minutes after the booking when a cross from King on the line gave Richards a chance to head in his second goal of the day. Neal was booked in the 69th minute for punching John Cooper in the face when tackling him and moments later Cooper was booked for retaliating against Neal. At this stage tempers became frayed, and it looked like there were a few more confrontations brewing up, but then the tension was dispelled when Carl Richards outran Baldry for yet another goal after 75 minutes.

Noel Ashford sprinted down the right to set up a beautiful cross for Drummy (producing the sort of form that we have not seen often enough this season). The resulting goal was disallowed but it was an inspired piece of football nonetheless.

The Enfield fans gathered at the Underhill Stadium were screaming for another goal to take the place of the abortive Drummy attempt, and so as not to let them down Nicky Ironton lobbed in the seventh goal after 84 exhausting yet exhilarating minutes.

Match report by Cherry Mostesher