Report
For this curtain raiser to the new season, Stag’s manager decided to rely on youth and how it paid off: with a starting eleven with an average age of 19yrs, Enfield, with their experience, must have thought their luck was in. However, what the Stags gave in age, they more than made up with enthusiasm and skill.
Enfield started the more brightly and had the obvious game plan of exerting physical pressure on the young Stags. They were forced back into their own half but still, had the first shot of the match through Leon McKenzie whose speculative effort went through a sea of legs only to miss the Enfield goal by a foot.
Enfield continued to apply the pressure and won a corner on 13 minutes from which Kevin Kilroy powered home a beautiful header after making a late run into the six yard box. This was a poor piece of defending from the home side but it was almost the last time in the match that Enfield were to get such a clear cut chance: only ex-Forest man Jamie Richards got a good position but he headed straight into Charlie Hasler’s arms.
The goal could have heralded a collapse in confidence but the youngsters were made of sterner stuff: having played in the U18 team for the past two years, they knew they had a job to do and got on with it. From the moment of the goal the Stags began to pressurise Enfield and forced the play into the top two thirds of the pitch.
With half hour gone, the Stags got the measure of the conditions and the three front runners: Thomas, Georgiou and McKenzie were beginning to give the Enfield a torrid time with Barrie being booked for an awful foul on Georgiou. As he was the last defender and Georgiou was on a goal scoring chance, Barrie could consider himself lucky to stay on the pitch. From the free kick McKenzie sent over a beautiful shot which hit the crossbar and was scrambled wide by the visiting defence.
It was only moments later that the continued pressure brought another corner which was headed just over by Thomas but the scene was being set for the second half, a second half display that few will forget!
With only three minutes gone in the second half Thomas almost opened his account when, after some excellent play on the left by Georgiou, he deftly cut the ball across the goal leaving ‘keeper Lee Robinson stranded but the ball just missed the far upright.
On 57 minutes the impressive Thomas equalised with a header after captain Dave Bastian broke through down the left wing and sent over a crisp cross which Thomas powered home with his head.
Now back in the game, confidence began to ooze out of the pores of the young Forest side and they began to play football that is often only seen on training videos.
Almost from the kick off, the ball was back in the Enfield penalty area with McKenzie who laid off the ball for James Chrysanthou who’d joined the attack from his right back position. He floated the ball to the far post where two Stags were waiting but the ball was scrambled away for a corner. The cross came in at the near post and centre back, Marc Ward came through to power the ball home from close range.
Now in control, the Stags were not about to give the ball away and frustrated their opponents by toying with them for half an hour. Enfield made three substitutions but they were no different to those they replaced.
To their credit, Enfield did try to get back on terms but the home defence stood firm as Enfield seemed to keep the ball in the air too much thus giving defenders more time to do their job.
Attack became Enfield’s downfall on the 90th minute when Thomas received the ball out of defence and broke quickly: he bore Down on the Enfield goal evading two tackles and gave ‘keeper Lee Robinson no chance at all slotting the ball home in the far side of the net