MATCH REPORT
Enfield Borough 4 London Lions 2

The saying goes “Attack is the best form of defence”. One glance at the goals against column for both of these clubs would tend to suggest that this is blatantly incorrect. However it does make for very entertaining football and that is what these teams provided for the third time this season on Wednesday evening at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium. The season’s first meeting in the Division One cup ended in a 5-5 draw while Borough surrendered a 2-0 half-time lead in the previous league encounter to lose 4-2. If Borough had endured the worst of the luck in the earlier meetings, the balance was redressed this time.

With only pride and a better league placing to play for, plus a whole raft of fixtures in the coming weeks, manager Marvin Walker rang the changes. Deniz Karakaya, Milvydas Lukosius, Thomas Opoku and Jamie Newby-Harris came into the starting line-up while there were full debuts handed to Adedade Adesoye and Trey Johnson. The game started quietly with any shots at goal being from a long range and off target. But just after the quarter hour, the home team took the lead. Opoku’s cross to the far post appeared to be aimlessly drifting out of play, but Newby-Harris stretched out a foot to knock the ball back into the goalmouth where Solomon Nwabuokei tapped the ball home. The advantage was short lived as within two minutes London Lions equalised. The ball fell perfectly for their top scorer Adam Bolle who curled in a first time effort from the left-hand side of the box. Lukosius managed to get a despairing hand to the shot, but was unable to keep it out of his net.

Before the interval Lukosius was called upon to make two excellent saves. Mattey’s curling shot from the edge of the box was destined for the top corner of the net until Lukosius dived full length to tip the ball over the crossbar while later in the half he dived to his right to parry Burchell’s fierce 25 yard shot. Bolle managed to hold off Guy Kiangebeni to get in a shot on the turn which narrowly cleared the crossbar as the visitors gained the ascendancy, but a quick counter attack saw Bruno Tavares beat his marker and cut inside only for Lions’ keeper Harpin to smartly leave his line and smother the shot.

Borough made a couple of changes at half-time with Richard Ennin and debutant Kamal Creary replacing Bruno Tavares and Karakaya. The end-to end tempo of the match continued with Lions having an early chance to score when Burchell nipped in on the blind side to toe poke a shot across the face of Enfield’s goal. Within a minute Nwabuokei picked up the ball inside his own half and drove forward. He passed to Ennin who in turn laid the ball off to Opoku and the striker beat Harpin from twenty yards. Opoku nearly turned creator when he closed down and robbed Harpin. Nwabuokei chipped the ball up for Ennin to head towards goal but over the bar. Shortly after Nwabuokei beat Harpin in a race for a through ball, but was denied by a covering defender. It was not all one-way traffic as Bolle headed across the goalmouth and shot over from close range while several efforts were deflected for corners. Midway through the half Lions gained their second equaliser. Burchell attacked down the left wing and his near post centre was firmly headed home by Bolle.

The heavens opened and the chances came thick and fast, but the game was evenly poised. Then the visitors were presented with the ideal chance to take the lead when they were awarded a penalty for pulling back, but Bolle missed out on the chance of a hat-trick when he hit his spot kick wide. The striker then narrowly failed to connect with Burchell’s low cross. Opoku was booked for a high tackle while Waiel Hassan replaced Trey Johnson. As it appeared that Lions may be gaining the upper hand, so Borough scored again. Gideon Sarpong’s far post cross was nodded precisely over the keeper and into the net by Nwabuokei. A goalmouth scramble at the other end of the pitch saw Lukosius make a brave point blank save before the referee awarded the visitors a second penalty. However his assistant had his flagged raised for an earlier offside and after consultation, he changed his decision. Deep into added time Opoku received a second yellow card for needless time wasting the length of the pitch from his own goal, but soon after Nwabuokei completed his hat-trick when he placed his free-kick around the wall and into the bottom corner of the net.

A very well earned three points against a team placed third in the table. The fact that a number of the new faces played so well will have pleased manager Walker immensely as will the fact that other players stepped up to cover for the absence of leading scorer Tage Kennedy. On Saturday Borough visit Risborough Rangers for a league fixture before travelling to South Wales on Thursday to play Cardiff City’s under 23 team in a prestigious friendly.

Team; Lukosius, Adesoye, Newby-Harris, Kiangebeni, Sarpong, Karakaya (Creary), Nwabuokei, Tavares (Ennin), Opoku, Plentie-Lawrence, Johnson (Hassan).

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