Preview: Enfield (H)

Pictured: Our trip to Enfield (then playing at Ware’s Wodson Park ground) at the tail end of the 2005-6 season. Ludovic Dje on the ball

Fresh on the back of victory against Stansted at the weekend, Walthamstow go head to head with Enfield 1893, in a game rescheduled from earlier this winter.

It’s been another mixed season for our visitors, typified by their last two games: A 5-2 defeat against West Essex was followed at the weekend by a superb 1-0 win over Takeley.

Their away form is amongst the worst in the division, having just scored 11 games on the road in 12 games. Only Barkingside have scored fewer. But four wins and two draws is still t to be sniffed at.

The two sides met only a couple of weeks ago, Stow running out 4-0 winners at Harlow’s Barrows Farm stadium, but that result was a case of Ryan Maxwell’s side taking their chances, and Matt Hanning’s not taking theirs – the game was a lot closer than the score suggested.

As ever, Ben Bradbury will be a constant threat from set pieces and Reece Barrett up front can be a real handful on his day.

There’ll be some familiar faces around two, with a large number of former Stags having been involved with Enfield at some point this season: Stephen Ellery, Steven Frech, Komal Llewellyn-Reid, Ali Shikeey and Steven Wade. And that’s not to mention the management duo of Matt Hanning and Terry Fogarty, who were with Forest at the start of the 2015-16 season.

We’ve got history

Enfield, as the original club and the phoenix club (Enfield 1893) are one of the teams we’ve played the most in our history, and this Saturday’s game will be the 95th meeting between the two sides in all competitions.

We’ve won 37 times, Enfield 38, and the two sides have been level 18 times. However, recent form heavily favours the Stow, having lost just three of the previous 15 games. Though two of those three came last season – Enfield winning 3-0 and 2-1 in the Essex Senior League.

Their last wins before that were 2-1 in the 2005-6 season, and 5-2 in the Isthmian League Cup in September 1995.

Prior to that, Enfield won 7 in a row, and were unbeaten in 11 between 1960 and 1995, times when the Es were at the height of their success. In 1966 and 1977, the two clubs met in the FA Cup, with Enfield winning 7-0 and 4-0.

The first ever meeting between the clubs was in the 1919-20 Middlesex Charity Cup, a 3-3 draw where Enfield won the replay 1-0.

Our biggest victory over Enfield came just a few years ago, in October 2015 when a 6-1 win gave Terry Fogarty his first (and only) win as Waltham Forest manager. Forest were bottom of the table at the time, with Enfield second bottom. In an interesting twist, Terry Fogarty is now joint manager at Enfield, with his former assistant at Forest, Matt Hanning.