(Pre-Season friendly) 18th July 1998

Enfield 0
Arsenal 0

5,498 attended this friendly fixture at Southbury Road. Most left with the distinct impression that Arsenal were a little fortunate not to lose, after a late one-on-one in front of their goal. That aside, Arsenal showed their Premiership class, and had the decency to field their strongest side other than their World Cup players.Enfield played well, by all accounts (in a defensive sort of way). Their side was:-Manninger, Dixon, Winterburn, Garde, Bould, Grimandi, Parlour, Anelka, Wreh, Hughes, Boa Morte.

(Pre-Season friendly) 22nd July 1998

Enfield (0) 2
Woking (1) 4

Enfield clawed their way back into this match after finding themselves a couple of goals behind to a Woking side without the familiar butt of Lawrence Batty. A number of players were rested from Saturday's draw with Arsenal, and an Enfield side fielded a number of trialists found themselves two down early on in the second half. To their credit, Enfield turned the game around, but a dissapointing goalkeeping performance allowed the visitors to take the game with two late goals.
Both the newspapers and the teletext service the next day had the result as 2-2 - hence the wrong scoreline on this site earlier this week. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

(Pre-Season friendly) 22nd July 1998

Enfield (0) 0
Norwich City (3) 3 Coote 36; Milligan 38, 42

So what did I learn at my first pre-season friendly? First off, all the Enfield supporters were walking around in the new yellow and pale blue replica tops. Quite obviously there were a lot of us out there who thought that the previous away kit (used for the past three seasons) was past its sell by date. My God, what have they done? It now looks as if the person is wearing a yellow bib over a Manchester City shirt.
The home kit looks a lot better, now that the badge has been sorted out, and the new sponsor's logo (Gazette & Advertiser) is thankfully not of the sort that made the blue/white stripy kit look so crass. Who can ever forgive the person who decided to sew on the logo, which meant there was a 3" x 10" thick cotton wad bang in the middle of the shirt. Just another reminder of the Graham Roberts era that was soon to change with you-know-who.
As with every other season, there were lots of unfamiliar faces in the Enfield line up as players came and players left. Blimey - even the catering staff have changed as well. It's another pound extra to get in and the paint on the back of the stand will be completely peeled off by the time we finally get around to moving into the new ground.

The game? Enfield would prefer to forget about the last five minutes of the first half, as both Coote and then Milligan with a brace settled the game. By all accounts Milligan's first was a real cracker, though I was as usual viewing from the snack bar and was caught out (again).

(Pre-Season friendly) 27th July 1998

Enfield 1
Welling United 0

(Pre-Season friendly) 28th July 1998

Enfield 4
Billericay Town 2

(Pre-Season friendly) 30th July 1998

Enfield 0
Peterborough United 0

So what feedback did I get from these three matches? The Billericay game was little more than a trialist match, whist the visitors had quite a number of their first team on show. Busby Finch got the winner against Welling United. Barry Fry's Boro showed up on a Thursday night for a 0-0 draw

(Andy Pape Testimonial) 1st August 1998

Enfield (1) 2 Dunwell 43, 53
Barnet (2) 3 Charlery 8; McGleish 18, 86

The last time that Barnet played at Southbury Road was when George Borg got into a lather over the poor squad that was sent that night. He had the impression that a strong side would be sent, when in reality it was some rubbishy youth and reserve side that got sent home with its tail between its legs. So this time when Barnet send a supposedly decent side, Enfield field a side that is missing three or four key players, and still give the league side the runaround for the majority of the second half

The skies opened shortly before kick off and deposited buckets of rain throughout the rest of the afternoon. By the time the players had made their entrance and Andy Pape had got his welcome from both sets of supporters, there were announcements that the stand side was resembling a boating lake - indeed - the popular side of the ground was under three inches of rain in some parts. Playing conditions were simply awful, and of course, towards the stand was worse than most.

Barnet had the better of the opening half an hour. E's new signing Naylor (from Dagenham & Redbridge) tested Harrison in the opening minutes, only for Charlery to quickly assert Barnet's higher league placing by beating Pape in the first ten minutes, and then McGleish to add a second with ease. It did look as if this was going to be an embarrassingly easy win. To their credit, Enfield never gave up, and minutes before the break, a bad back pass stuck in the watery goal mouth and Dunwell converted easily.

The second half got off to an exellent start as Harrison was called into action on a couple of occasions to keep out the equaliser. The scores were finally leveled when Deadman picked up another loose pass from a Barnet defender and crossed for Holding, whose blocked shot at the near post fell for Dunwell to score easily. An on loan player... I daresay that Barnet must wonder how they let him go. Enfield continued to pepper Harrison from all angles, saving low to his right, then seeing his defence clear off the line when he was nowhere in sight. Even the most biased of Barnet supporters would agree that they were fortunate to still be in the game.

How ironic it was that the very player we were there to play homage to was the very player who was to decide the game. From a hopeful McGleish shot in the final few minutes, Pape dived to for what looked to be a comfortable collect and throw, only to see the ball rise up like a beach ball over his body. Off a divot presumably. Sack the groundstaff I say.

(Pre-Season friendly) 4th August 1998

Leyton Pennant 2
Enfield 0

There's a funny story to this one. It appears that co-TGTLS News editor Peter Coath made his way over to Bridge Road for this game, little realising that the ground was vacated a few years ago, and that the club now play near the Crooked Billet in another of those East London merger/partnership deals. Not only that, but when he went into the social club for a drink, there were three other Enfield supporters in there as well! Still doesn't beat the time I travelled all the way to Kingstonian F.C. to find a pile of rubble where the old ground was. The club were sharing with Hampton at the time whilst their current ground was being built.

(Pre-Season friendly) 8th August 1998

Enfield (2) 3 Cooper (S) 2; Dunwell 41; Cooper (G) 86
West Ham United (1) 2 Bartlett 34; Etherington 62

Who can resist watching Premiership opposition at Southbury Road on Saturday? Enfield take on the Hammers, who have promised to send the first team squad for their final friendly before the start of the season. Also available inside the ground will be issue 24 of TGTLS News. Can you resist?

The old, old story. Promises of a strong side to be sent meant nothing in the end. A look in the Saturday newspapers revealed that West Ham United had played the previous night against Woking, and it did not take a genius to work out that today's West Ham United side was going to be made up of reserves and youth team players.Even so, it was quite a dissapointment to learn that there were no recognisable first teamers in the visiting line up. So no Ian Wright then.
Meanwhile, there were a lot of unhappy visitors from East London who were a little peeved at paying £7 to watch their reserves. If the price was upped by a pound before the game because of the quality oposition, surely we should all get a refund at a home game when we are playing a side that is struggling. Seems fair enough to me.

Enfield were well worth this win. They got off to an early start through Sammy Cooper's second minute opener. Whilst the Enfield end of the ground were getting into issue 24 of TGTLS News (plug,plug) the West Ham lot were getting stuck into their TWO fanzines that were on sale inside and outside the ground. But whilst the likes of TGTLS News and TOTE sell for 50p each, the Hammers were forking out £2 a time for theirs. Premiership fanzines have gotten to be such big business in the premiership that they are challenging the matchday programmes in price and on sales. Yes, um... where was I? Oh yes, so Enfield were 1-0 up early on. Then Annon miscontrolled a upfield pass into Enfield's penalty area for Bartlett to beat Pape easily. Dunwell then showed that he can score with his head to take Enfield into a 2-1 lead at the break.

The second half bought wholesale changes , along with a thumping equaliser from Etherington on the hour. Like the previous Saturday, Enfield finished the game strongly, with the opposition keeper called into action on a couple of occasions to block what seemed like certain goals.
The game looked to be heading for a draw when Grant Cooper snapped up an opportunist's goal when he was first to react to a cross that had been hooked back into the goalmouth via the bar. Like we always say on these occasions, we can only beat the sides that the opposition send to us.

(Pre-Season friendly) 11th August 1998

Enfield 2
Cambridge City 1

I wonder if Cambridge city sent their first team?

(Pre-Season friendly) 12th August 1998

Witham
Enfield

Apathy sets in. Nearly a quarter of a season of friendlies played already!

(Pre-Season friendly) 15th August 1998

Braintree Town (1) 1 Gedney 42
Enfield (0) 2 Dunwell 55; Naylor (pen) 80

Enfield's new strike force of Dunwell and Naylor won the game for Enfield in the second half of this friendly. Dunwell's equaliser came from an assist by Sammy Cooper, whilst Naylor's was from the spot.

(Pre-Season friendly) 17th August 1998

Enfield 5
Harlow Town 0

That's it! Now on to the real thing!