Enfield Town 3 Potters Bar Town 1
Report by Andrew warshaw
Third-placed Town stretched their unbeaten league record to 12 games but the latest maximum haul in the final derby of the season came at a heavy cost.
All thoughts go to Ollie Knight who collapsed at halftime and was later taken to hospital by ambulance after suffering what appeared to be a serious shoulder injury.
Losing a player of Ollie’s ability at such a crucial stage cannot be over-estimated and we wish Ollie, who has had a terrific season with his wing-play and assists, all the very best in his recovery as we push on towards guaranteeing a playoff place.
Marcus Wyllie’s brace took his league tally to 30 at the top of the division’s scoring charts but we ended up finishing the game with nine men.
With the Scholars compressing midfield, this was never going to be a classic. Indeed Sam Youngs had one of his quieter games but Town’s superior fire power was the all-important difference.
With both teams short on enterprise, the first half was a somewhat untidy affair. Taylor Mckenzie’s superb early intervention thwarted Temi Bababola while at the other end Dylan Adjei-Hersey fired just wide.
The deadlock was broken on 26 minutes when Marcus ran on to a superb Jake Cass headed assist and tucked the ball home.
The roles were then reversed when Marcus played in Jake who could only shoot tamely with three players around him while at the other end Brandon Adams blasted wildly over.
As halftime approached, Bar’s assistant boss and former Town favourite Liam Hope was yellow-carded for what can only be assumed were some choice verbals, followed by Lateef Adaja screwing a shot wide for the visitors.
H-T 1-0
Town emerged for the second period without the luckless Ollie Knight, replaced by namesake Ollie Turner, but Marcus’ lethal presence in front of goal soon came to the fore once again as he notched his 30th league goal of the campaign, a remarkable tally.
On 63 minutes he kept his composure to bury a fine assist from Reece Beckles-Richards, the latter’s first touch off the bench (both pictured celebrating).
Beckles-Richards then put the game to bed with a sublime shot and turn before Mickey Parcell was shown a straight red card for going through Temi Bababola and will now miss our final three regular league games.
Luckily we were already virtually out of sight but Mickey’s dismissal handed momentum to the Scholars who had three decent chances against 10 men, Lewis Taaffe preventing one of them by heading off the line.
Babalola eventually reduced the deficit with 10 minutes left but for all their late possession and another huge chance for Babalola, Bar couldn’t make further inroads despite seven added minutes and Town finishing with a limping Taylor McKenzie off the pitch with a dead leg.
“It looks like an expensive day,” bemoaned Gavin Macpherson. “All our thoughts are with Ollie who we will of course miss badly.”
“On the pitch we were a poor version of what we normally are. I can’t really condone what Mickey did and now I’ve lost the right side of our defence for three games. We’ll have to see how Taylor is over the next week. They’re big hits obviously but we can only do what we can do. I can’t influence what goes on elsewhere.”
Town:
Forster; Parcell, McKenzie, Tanner; Adjei-Hersey, Thomas (Harvest 87), Youngs, Taaffe, Knight (Turner 46); Wyllie, Cass (Beckles-Richards,60)