MATCH REPORT
Enfield Borough 2 London Lions 4

Enfield Borough’s run of defeats was extended to four after Tuesday evening’s loss at the hands of new league leaders London Lions. Borough’s performance was much improved compared to the one they put in on Saturday against lowly London Samurai Rovers, but a late flurry of goals saw the visitors leave with a deserved three points.

There were five changes to Enfield’s starting line up from the weekend with Tristan Cover, Malachi Soile, Richard Ennin, Carl Adiku and Rinidie Lokilo-Imponge replacing Darral Wopara, Patrick Kanyuka, Korede Akande, Tom Opoku and Felix Udoji. The match had a very even opening with Felix Shalom shooting wide of the angle of post and bar for the visitors while Cover shot straight at David Myers in the Lions goal and Noor Mbaza’s run and shot whistled across the face of goal. Ennin then wasted a golden chance when set up by Lokilo-Imponge but the striker dragged his shot wide. After the initial burst of chances, things quietened down until just after the twenty minute mark when a snapshot by Benji Weinberger from the edge of the box drew a world class save from Dragos Stefanoaica as he flew to his left to tip the net bound shot over the bar. Next up Shalom had two attempts to break the deadlock for Lions, the first was blocked by Gavin Hinds-Cadette and the second flew across the goalmouth.

While both sides were playing some nice football the final pass was letting them down and as a result goal scoring chances were at a premium. Cover’s first time volley was deflected past by Adam Lipman before the visitors opened the scoring in the thirty eighth minute. Striker Austin Lipman outpaced Mbaza down the left, two attempts at goal were blocked by defender and goalkeeper but the ball dropped down to Lipman to drive it into the net. Lions were starting to get in behind Enfield’s defence at will and Stefanoaica was kept busy in the role of sweeper-keeper. Yet the best chance to increase the lead fell to an unmarked Adam Arnold who failed to get his header on target as Lions closed the half on top after Borough’s early supremacy.

At the interval Craig Nelson was withdrawn due to injury and replaced by Opoku. The substitute immediately combined with Ennin and Micah Jackson but failed to get his effort on target. The rain which had begun late in the first half cranked up several notches and after five minutes play, the referee called the players off in the awful conditions. A five minute interlude followed while the weather improved and on the resumption Borough were out of the blocks first and equalised inside three minutes. Ennin battled valiantly for possession before laying the ball off to Jackson who was tracking cross field from right to left. On the edge of the penalty box, the midfielder suddenly unleashed a venomous shot across the goal, past the diving Myers and into the bottom left hand corner of his net. He nearly doubled his tally ten minutes later with an in-swinging corner which hit the base of the far post, Ennin’s follow up was blocked before Myers bravely dived on the loose ball. Lions struck back and Mannie Liron may have done better than hit the sidenetting with his shot.

Crucially at this point injuries forced Borough into two more substitutions as Opoku and Soile had to be replaced by Wopara and Issac Stevens who was making his second debut having resigned for the club. The game swung in the visitors favour barely five minutes later when Stefanoaica made an excellent block while the subsequent shot was deflected behind for a corner. From this the ball was only cleared as far as Levi Levenfiche who fired into the roof of the net from an acute angle. Borough brought on Udoji for Lokilo-Imponge but Levenfiche scored again four minutes after his first as Stefanoiaca came to the edge of his box to attempt a headed clearance which landed at the substitute’s feet and he managed to thread the ball between two covering defenders and into the net. Borough refused to roll over and were given a route back into the contest five minutes later when a high ball into the six yard box was dropped by Myers and in the ensuing scramble Udoji forced the ball home. But any hope was soon extinguished when a punt from inside the Lions’ own half set Austin Lipman clean through and the striker calmly lobbed Stefanoaica to settle the contest.

A frustrated Anthony McNamee spoke post match. “We were let down by a lack of structure and positional discipline. We all want to attack as a team, but for some their priority should be keeping the ball out of our own net. London Lions are a good team and for long stretches we were a match for them. It is the little details that are letting us down and we need to sort these out before it is too late to get anything meaningful out of this season”

Team; Stefanoaica, Mbaza, Cover, Soile (Wopara), Hinds-Cadette, Sarpong, Adiku, Nelson (Opoku) (Stevens), Ennin, Jackson, Lokilo-Imponge (Udoji).

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