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Enfield Town Season 15 SkyBet League Two – 3rd - Promotion Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect No outgoings over the summer aside from goalkeeper Andrei Lefter 10 who completed his pre-agreed transfer to Hull City, only other players to leave left to get minutes under their belts in the lower leagues. League The season started strongly for us, we were proving ourselves hard to beat so whenever we didn’t win we’d usually be still coming away from the match with a point in the bag. A key proponent to our success was our defensive prowess which considering we’d lost our best goalkeeper was very pleasing. We also found goals a bit more readily than the season past which left us after half the season in a promotion battle – something that I had thought was incredibly unlikely from us. The second half of the season was very much similar to the first half though all the teams around us were in similarly good form which meant that a run of 4 losses from 6 games between February and March left us outside the playoffs for the first time since early in the season with 7 games left to play. After that however, our defense really shone, only 2 goals conceded from then until the end of the campaign with us winning 6 of the 7. The penultimate game of the season was pivotal in our promotion campaign as we scored in the 92nd minute to take the win which meant the season ended with 3rd vs 4th on the final day with us needing to avoid defeat to be promoted. We ultimately won the game thanks to a first half strike to secure what, based on my pre-season thoughts, was an unexpected promotion. Cups As with the past few seasons the Cups are not something that I’ve focused too much on. However, we did actually progress to the 2nd round of the League Cup for the first time in our history before getting smashed 7-1 by Brighton. We did win our opening League Trophy game too but that was the only other win in cup competitions for us as we lost in the group stages there whilst also being knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round. Youth Intake Not the best, not the worst, a few players who with a few years of development look like they could provide us with some good options. Danny King 15 – Naturally a winger, but has pretty good tackling and already some familiarity in the position I’m training him to play – wing back. I’ve quite high hopes that he can develop into a strong option for us in the future. Nicholas Pond 15 – Technically he has reasonable attributes for a centre back and has plenty time to develop physically and mentally to hopefully break his way into first team reckoning – especially as we don’t have a lot of depth for centre back. A good personality on him so hopefully that will transpire to fast development. Joseph Rainford 15 - I’m not too sure what to make of Rainford, not great attributes as a defender but the coaches rate his potential highly, and as mentioned centre back is really an area we need improvement. Since being at the club he’s actually already developed a good chunk so hopefully he’s one of these with low ability when joining but fast development. Key Players Ed Stevens 13 – Transitioned into first choice centre back during last season and was very good for us this. Consistently performing well in what was a very tight defense. He unfortunately seemed to get jaded every other week even with me sending him on holidays but when he is playing he’s a strong performer. Josh Mohammed 11 – After losing Lefter I had little choice but to put Mohammed in, though he’d done reasonably enough on loan last season in the lower leagues. He was just very good for us, similar in ways to Lefter in his first season for us where he just prevented so many goals (26.54) which was surely a huge factor in our promotion. Ken Cover 13 – Cover spent half a season on loan 2 divisions lower last season and did reasonably enough netting 6 goals whilst developing quite nicely. It was enough for me to push him into the first team and despite other players already having staked claims to the starting striker spot Cover quickly made it his own with a hattrick in our first home game of the season. On occasion he was a bit patchy in form, but still scored plenty goals. The main thing I’m happy with is that he’s developed incredibly over the last season with improvements of 2 and 3 in many key attributes for the role – he could be the consistent goalscorer to finally replace Faal. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead Our new stadium hasn’t done much at all to alleviate our financial woes though we are about breaking even just from a base of minus 700k. We should be able to make some at least a little dent in it as we agreed last summer to sell Eirik Stensrud 10 at the end of the season to Cardiff for £100k. Not a bad deal considering the transfer date of 9th June is only 3 weeks before his contract runs out, as well we got 50% of next sale on it so hopefully he can develop well for Cardiff and earn us some more money going forward. It's a weird one, on one hand I’m absolutely delighted we’ve been promoted, but on the other I’m dreading that it might see us in a relegation battle in a league with 4 relegation slots. Relegation would be sure to get half the team upset and wanting transfers which is what I’d rather avoid. Hopefully the overall quality difference between League One and Two isn’t too big and we can avoid the drop with relative ease, but I feel it’ll be a tough season. On the plus side, perhaps it will bring us more revenue as we hope to get out of the financial hole we find ourselves in. Notable Landmarks 600 Appearances Stephen O’Brien 1 – Becomes the second youth player to surpass 600 appearances for the club. The next closest current player to the milestone is around 350 appearances away so he may well also be the last to pass the milestone. He’s probably still got a year or two left as first choice centre back too as we wait for youngsters to develop so could yet reach 700. 200 Appearances 3 of our players reached the 200 mark for appearances though with one of them soon to go onto pastures new. Eirik Stensrud 10, Jason Bailey 8, Martin Parker 10 100 Appearances Only one player to reach 100 this term with Juan Calero 11 joining the club, he’s contracted for another 8 years with contract extensions and is one of our better players so I can see him reaching many of the other milestones before his career with us ends. 50 Goals Sean Papirnyk 10 – Last season was our top scorer but struggles to get going this season, he still managed 10 which put him to 54 overall only the 4th player to pass the 50 mark.

Enfield Town Season 14 SkyBet League 2 – 13th Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Again nothing major on outgoings this season, but we did manage to secure a lot more loans for some of our young players which will hopefully serve them well when trying to break into the first team. I did as well change our formation from 4-2-4 Wide to 5-2-1-2 WB mainly to try and sure up our defense. League With our new formation we got off to a reasonable start, we did lose the opener but were looking competitive in most of our games which, considering the actual quality of our team is significantly the worst in the league, is something positive for us. For large parts of the first half of the season we were actually hovering around the playoff positions which was a bit of a shock. Alas, we did end up sliding down the league from October onwards but were picking up a decent number of draws rather than losing, though the draws were getting frustrating in their own right. From the end of December we didn’t win in 10 games drawing 7. In fact, from the 22nd of December where we recorded a 2-0 win we ended up with a record of W3 D11 L8 so not a great end to the season at all, arguably relegation form which doesn’t bode too well for next season. Our main issue this season was lack of goal scorers, only one player in double figures and only a further 2 above 5 goals for the campaign despite playing 2 up front and an attacking midfielder, really poor showing. Cups At present, I’m not really focusing much on the cups as we don’t really have much squad depth so in order to try and keep players fresh for the league and rotating in the cup we were really weakening our team and it told as we lost in the first round of the FA Cup and League Cup as well as every one of our League Trophy fixtures. Youth Intake A pretty poor intake, none of the players really looking like they’ll be an improvement on what we’ve already got. I replaced my HoYD after this intake finally finding someone decent who doesn’t have a balanced personality – the new one being resolute. Calvin Harris 14 – No pace, no real technical ability, and I’ve just this season reverted from playing wingers. I’m retraining him as a striker as whilst he’s a long way from looking a good striker he’s not really that much different to our current player there so maybe he’ll be one that scores despite his attributes. James Murphy 14 – Again more of a winger rubbing it in that I’ve changed from playing wingers. I am actually going to retrain him as a left wing back as attribute wise he could prove a good option there plus can also cover in the central positions too. Tony Hubbard 14 – You guessed it, a natural winger. Like Harris I’ll be retraining him as a striker, though his personality is certainly not promising. If I’m honest, I would not be surprised if only Murphy of the intake has any first team involvement, but hopefully there’ll be some surprises. Key Players Andrei Lefter 10 – On the whole we were much better defensively and Lefter again was a great goalkeeper for us this season. As previously noted, we have agreed a deal to sell him and he’ll be a miss, but hopefully he can develop well with Hull and earn us some money in the future. Stephen O’Brien 1 – Just an ever consistent performer for us in defense despite not being able to head the ball. He is the player in the back 3 I most want to replace, but we’ve not really anyone better yet so I’m happy for him to continue to put in performances. Sean Papirnyk 10 – Papirnyk is the Striker version of O’Brien in my mind, has no right being a prolific scorer, but just fired them in this season. Comfortably our top scorer in the league this season with 24. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead Financially we’re still in a bit of a mess, and not really showing much signs of changing. We are moving into our new stadium this summer which will hopefully help us start earning money each season rather than consistently losing it. We still have poor youth and training facilities which isn’t helping any players improve much. I’m likely to have to sell Eirik Stensrud 10 this summer as he’s a year left on his contract and doesn’t want to renew as he doesn’t think our squad is good enough which will weaken our midfield a lot also – maybe I’ll keep him to leave on a free, but it may be worth in the long term to get a sell on for him. Being realistic, I think we’re in league two for the long haul and see us going down more likely than us challenging at the top. I’m pretty content that our current formation will give us the best chance of success with our current players but it does have a lack of depth in defense (but that’s just our general lack of depth in defense). Notable Landmarks 600 Appearances Kieran Preece 1 – Became a much more bit part player for us this season, but still made a decent number of appearances surpassing the 600 mark and is now at 621 overall. 100 Apperances We had another 5 players pass the 100 appearances mark for the club to take the list to 23 in total past this landmark. It also highlights the strength of the season 11 intake. Romario Wellard 11, Lee Brown 11, Nicolai Lauritsen 11, Mitch Oakley 11, Juan Calero 11

Made my first sale for actual money of any of my youth prospects in what is the midseason window in season 14 of the save. Lefter is going to be a big miss for us, but he was making a massive fuss about wanting to leave and I do have at least an ok player who can come through in his place in goal. I managed to get Hull to agree for the transfer to take place at the end of the season also, so we'll still have him for the rest of our current campaign.

Enfield Town Season 13 SkyBet League 2 – 20th Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Nothing major on outgoings just youth players who weren’t going to make the grade released and mainly already retired through not finding new clubs. League The season got off to a pretty miserable start losing our opening 4 games, in fact 7 of our opening 10 games. Thankfully our saving grace was that the 3 games we didn’t lose were actually wins for us. The season, especially the first half, followed the same pattern with us losing most games but then winning the ones we didn’t lose. In fact, we didn’t actually draw a game until the end of December before drawing 4 of the next 5 home games. The second half of the season in general was much worse than the first half – we actually had a zero goal difference in the first half but -16 in the second half. Despite this, we didn’t really have any real risk of relegation with the bottom 2 pretty cut adrift all season but it was far from an exciting season. Cups Our cup competitions this season were pretty much a non-starter losing in the first round of both the FA Cup and the League Cup and in the League Trophy we lost our first two league games to already be knocked out before our last tie. Youth Intake An ok intake a few players who will perhaps come into the first team as back up players sooner than later as they are in positions we don’t have the best depth. Ed Stevens 13 – Has some pretty good defensive attributes, and whilst he is naturally a fullback I’ll be converting him into a centre back as we don’t have a lot of talent coming through there at all. Ken Cover 13 – A striker, nothing spectacular but isn’t actually too dissimilar attribute distribution wise to what Muhammadu Faal was and his many goals for us so hopefully he can be even half as successful as Faal for us. Isidro 13 – We seem to get an ok goalkeeping prospect each season, has some pretty decent attributes, but is lacking a bit for one on ones. He’s a long way from our first choice so at least does have the time to develop rather than being forced in. Key Players Andrei Lefter 10 – Lefter didn’t prevent as many goals as he did in our previous season (understandable as higher level), he also didn’t really keep all too much clean sheets but he still generally performed well on average. Unfortunately he doesn’t think our squad is strong enough so he won’t agree a permanent deal and I feel we could lose him sooner than later. Stephen O’Brien 1 – The fact that O’Brien is still playing is probably more testament to our lack of defensive options coming through but he’s still a pretty dependable performer for us. Kieran Preece 1 – Preece actually had one of his best ever seasons for us 17 league goals for us this season which is his second best return – his highest was in the Vanarama North. He does face competition from a young prospect in his position, but he’s one of our longest serving players and also the captain so he will still feature a lot going forward. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead As we got promoted we of course went professional, but also we had to build a new stadium to meet league requirements which won’t be complete till next year and has saddled us with a £2million loan debt. Overall we’re in a pretty dire spot financially, not helped with the youth players now getting a defaulted £150 per week opposed to the £5 they received before. I’m not even going to try and rectify it as there really is nothing I can do as we’ve already comfortably the lowest wage bill in the league. I’m somewhat hoping that if it gets bad enough then the owner might try and sell the club as our current elections every 3 years aren’t really that good for any infrastructure improvements, though that also runs the risk that our better players will be sold from under us. Avoiding relegation is the key aim again next time out. I was contemplating changing formation this season and again next season I’m thinking of doing the same as both players I was playing as strikers arguably would be better served as attacking midfielders but I still think our best chance of survival/success is focusing on attacking. Notable Landmarks Kieran Preece 1 – Reached the 150 goal mark for the club the first youth player to hit the milestone. Reiss Bolarinwa 6 – Became the 5th youth player to pass the 300 appearance mark for the club. He’ll not likely reach any further milestones as he is starting to be phased out the starting team. Marcus Giles 8 – Passed 200 appearances this season, when he first came onto the scene we had high hopes for him but he’s ultimately ended up being a back up player but still ticking up on the appearances list. Eirik Stensrud 10 – Stensrud ended last season on 99 appearances so it was no surprise that he reached the 100 appearance mark this time out. I feel he could be a player that we’ll lose sooner than later. Martin Parker 10 – Parker, now our first choice right back was another of 4 players who surpassed 100 appearances this season. Sean Papirnyk 10 – After a few seasons of being a back up player Papirnyk forced his way into a regular first team berth and also passed 100 appearances. Jack Bird 8 ­– Very much a bit part player Bird made 6 appearances this season which tipped him just over 100 for the club overall.

Enfield Town Season 12 Vanarama National League – 1st – Champions! Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect This summer we released one of our first youth players who’d played a lot for us in Jason Clarke 2 (he ended up retiring though). Once again we had a youngster who wasn't going to make it move to a different club. League Another strong start for us this season albeit quite a lot of draws, we only actually lost one of our opening 14 games and were well in the playoff race. We were having a bit of an issue in that our goals weren’t really been shared about a lot so were probably at some risk that individuals losing form would derail our season, though thankfully we somehow avoided that. We were just in good form for the most part but, we never actually were looking like winning the league as Exeter were comfortably top and although we ended the season really strongly winning 5 of our last 6 I wasn’t really expecting us to win the title. Exeter however, completely bottled the league title they lost their last 3 games which meant from 8 points behind with 3 to go we won the league on the final day – the only time in the season we were ever on the summit. We didn’t actually go top of the league even in the live league table until the 87th minute which is pretty crazy really. I was not expecting to be anywhere near winning the league we are lacking in a fair few areas, but we were just generally consistent throughout the season never exiting the top 6 once. Cups After last seasons good showing in the FA Cup this season was a big disappointment as we lost in the 4th qualifying round. The FA Trophy we beat the lower league sides on our way to the Quarter Finals, but were well beaten by York. Youth Intake Not the best intake, no real standouts and a lot of poor personalities. Dion Bailey 12 – Probably the pick of the bunch in that right back is a weaker area for us, looks to have some promise at least and I guess may end up as a back up next season. Mohamed Sherrif 12 – Doesn’t look terrible with attributes in the right places for his position but he's a long way to go to trouble the first team. Sanchez Jennings 12 – Technically, looks pretty solid. However, mentally and physically he is not brilliant. Maybe he can develop into an ok player for us but I’m not too sure. Key Players Muhammadu Faal – I was not sure Faal would really be any good this season, but he proved me wrong and was just firing them in for fun at the start of the season. Eventually he managed 35 goals in all competitions out scoring his xG by almost 10 goals. He’s declined a lot physically so I think next season he’ll surely fall off somewhat – which won’t be great as he’s our only real scorer. Stephen O’Brien 1 – O’Brien is a bit of an enigma, he plays really well for us in general in the heart of the defense, but when it comes to heading the ball he is woeful. In fact his technical ability consists of tackling and marking. I’m currently only giving him 1 year deal extensions as I hope we eventually get a defender who I can play instead but he’s a solid performer for us. Andrei Lefter 10 – As important a player as Faal for us in all seriousness, Lefter is just a very good goalkeeper for us. Over 26 xG prevented again this season which was pivotal for our consistency. We did receive another bid for him in the January window but again, nothing worth entertaining. I’m mostly worried that the increased financial burden of being a professional club might make the board jumpy at offers for our players. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead No infrastructure improvements this season other than that we are going professional over the summer – though that’s a given with promotion. I’m pretty sure we’ll need a new stadium too which is not going to help us at all financially. Next season I’m hopeful we can avoid relegation due to their only being 2 spots available. But I fear we’re going to lose money hand over fist so we’re not going to be anywhere near close enough to make some facilities upgrades - though hopefully us being able to do more than 4 training sessions a week will really help us develop players better. In spite of the success we’ve had with our attacking 442, I am contemplating actually changing formations next year too as other than Faal, we don’t really get goals from our strikers, so maybe changing formation will serve us better. Notable Landmarks Kieran Preece 1 – Now passed 500 appearances for the club (he was actually on 498 at the end of last season so the first couple of games got him there). He’s now up to 546 which in other circumstances could be a record for games at the club but with Faal still here he’s still behind. Brian Ibe 5 – Now passed 300 appearances for the club – the 4th youth player to do so. He is a player that in the long term is probably going to be replaced, but I’m pretty sure he may be able to reach 400 appearances before that happens and maybe he can hit 100 assists as well (currently 82). Jason Bailey 8 – One of 4 players to surpass 100 appearances for the club this season and I think this season he really pushed on a lot. Previously he was mainly appearing from the bench but now has made left back his own. Stuart Maley 8 - Maley is on an opposite trajectory to Bailey having started his career playing a lot for us where now he is very much a back up right back for us. That said, he has passed 100 appearances for the club this season. Andrei Lefter 10 – I’m very happy with Lefter as my goalkeeper and hopefully the 100 appearances milestone isn’t the only one he will pass for the club, still only 17 and has helped lead us to professional football. Jack Jones 9 – Jones has been my first choice centre back for the last couple of seasons, he’s nothing special but solid enough and has landed this year on exactly 100 appearances.

Enfield Town Season 11 Vanarama National League – 15th Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect We managed to get our first player out on loan this season though not to a playable league, otherwise nothing much to note. League We got off to a fantastic start winning 5 of our opening 6 games before losing 3 on the bounce, but then won a couple too and found ourselves fairly comfortably in the playoffs in the opening part of the season. The season didn’t really take off much from there very inconsistent form, but really it seems like the entire division were much the same way with us entering the last month in the bottom half of the table but still within a chance of the playoffs. In fact after back to back wins we were only 2 points off the playoffs with 3 games to go, unfortunately we maintained our inconsistent form and ultimately ended up drawing one and losing 2 of the last 3 and ending up dropping from 8th to 15th. We were not really good enough to be in contention for promotion, but to get so close to the playoffs and falling short is still a little disappointing. Cups Finally we managed an FA Cup run all the way till the 3rd round, and with a big scalp along the way as we beat League One Preston 2-1 in the first round. When we eventually reached the 3rd round we drew Wolves at home (ideally this would have been an away tie to maximise the money we received) who beat us 3-1. The FA Trophy on the other hand was very disappointing, we ended up bowing out in the 4th round after we failed to convert on an xG of 3.4 and were knocked out. Youth Intake Another good looking intake, with a few players looking to go straight into first team contention. Mitch Oakley 11 – He has a poor personality, but generally looks a well rounded player, I don’t really play with attacking midfielders, so I’m working out if I play him as a striker or as a midfielder (or I guess whether I change formation). Lee Brown 11 – In a way, not too dissimilar to Oakley he has some good mental attributes, but is lacking a little in terms of pace and for a striker – finishing. I’m hopeful he can improve on the few key attributes and be a capable goalscorer for us or at the very least a good supporting striker. Romario Wellard 11 – Naturally an attacking midfielder I see him as a long term option on the right wing, initially playing as back up to Kieran Preece 1, but, honestly, I don’t think he will be back up for long. Nicolai Lauritsen 11 – I’m not completely sure where to play Lauritsen yet mainly thinking he could develop into a very decent option for us in central defense but at the same time has the potential to be a good fullback – either way will be a useful option in either position I think. Again not the most positive of personalities, hopefully it can be mentored out. We’ve had a few years now of very good intakes, especially the last two which have both produced a lot of players who are already first team quality. Key Players Muhammadu Faal – 11 seasons of Faal recording our highest average rating and winning our top goalscorer award, not a newgen but undoubtedly the player of the save so far. Another 20+ goal league campaign for him this time out. I feel next season will be his last as he is starting to decline a lot physically but hopefully he can still fire in plenty for us. Andrei Lefter 10 – Only came in last seasons intake but immediately became our first choice goalkeeper. He was statistically the best goalkeeper in the league this season and managed an xG prevented of 33.92 which is very good (second only managing 10.40) and even better considering he’s still only 16. He was the subject of a bid from Championship AFC Wimbledon which was about £1k so nothing remotely tempting. Reiss Bolarinwa 6 – Bolarinwa had a great season for us this term with 7 goals and 7 assists to his name. He was just a consistent performer for us. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be developing all too much so he could lose his place in the squad sooner than later. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead Our improving of junior coaching last season really meant that we could no longer about break even with our income with us losing money every month. Thankfully we received £70k from TV rights for the FA Cup 3rd round plus half of the £75k gate receipts to push us briefly into the black. We didn’t manage to get through any improvements however so much the same. It’s hard to gauge where we’ll be next season as this league is so close from 3rd to 18th really, I guess I’d settle for another improvement Notable Landmarks Stephen O’Brien 1 – Passed the 400 mark for appearances for the club, the 2nd highest appearance maker from our youth intakes. Reiss Bolarinwa 6 – Passed the 200 mark for appearances becoming the 7th youth player to do so.

Enfield Town Season 10 Vanarama National League – 18th Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Not much to note coming into the season, and only one outgoing across the season again just a youngster who was never going to trouble the first team. League This season was very hit and miss a heavy loss in our opening game 3-0 before somehow winning our 3rd game 5-0. I did try altering my tactics a little bit due to the pressure our current tactic places on our defense trying both 4231 and 442 diamond but ultimately, whilst they did make us a little better defensively they took too much away from our attacking prowess so we ultimately reverted to our 442 system that won us the league last year. It was a tough season in general for us as we were in a big battle in each game to get any results and in general we never really drew any games so we were usually comfortably beaten or managed to win our games. This meant that we did actually survive fairly comfortably in the end 14 points clear of the relegation zone. We actually ended up with the 6th best attack in the league but also the 3rd worst defense. We actually set a league record this season which I think should stand for all time unless we contrive to 'better' it, we ended up with 190 yellow cards and 11 red cards. Cups Not much in the FA Cup we made it through to the first round where we were knocked out by league opposition. The FA Trophy likewise didn’t have much of a tale as we were knocked out in the 4th round to promotion chasing Solihull Moors. Youth Intake A fantastic intake this season with a few players already improving the quality of the first team and will go straight to be regular starters for us. (I forgot to take a screenshot of the intake). Andrei Lefter 10 – Another season where we have brought through a good goalkeeper, Lefter actually goes straight into the first eleven hopefully helping us improve our defensive statistics next season. Eirik Stensrud 10 – We haven’t had a good option coming through in the midfield for years so Stensrud is a welcome addition, he’s immediately our best midfielder though physically does have some weaknesses. Martin Parker 10 – Another player that is an immediate upgrade on the player who was in the first team in his position. Nothing spectacular, but no glaring weaknesses which is a positive. There are 3 or 4 other players that could end up as squad players next season. A really positive intake. Key Players Muhammadu Faal – Faal just continued doing Faal things 23 goals and 7 assists for the 34 year old was a key component of us winning the battle against immediate relegation. Unfortunately, he’s not getting any younger so he’s likely to only have a season or two left for us. The game also no longer considers him to be our key player instead bestowing O'Brien 1 with that moniker. Jason Clarke 2 – Clarke again had a good season for us, though I do feel he will be replaced in the team before too long as we do have some players with the potential to be better than him. Reiss Bolarinwa 6 – Whilst not a massively fantastic average rating a pretty decent season for Bolarinwa with 9 assists to his name. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead We’ve now improved our junior coaching once more and it is now considered excellent, but our actual facilities are still lagging way behind. Unfortunately, we have a board that’s announced via elections so every 3 years we just get a new owner who’s the exact same as the old one to all intents and purposes. Only this new one decided to remove our senior affiliate so we’ve now got one less income stream. We again will be aiming simply for survival this upcoming season but hopefully with our new intake we can maybe push towards a more midtable finish. Though the scheduling of the National League is weird in that both times I've been at this level I've had players need resting from playing where I've never had to rest anyone the divisions below. Notable Landmarks Byron Cathline 3 – Passed the 300 mark for appearances this season. Jason Clarke 2 – Suprassed 200 appearances for the club, incidentally has maintained over a 7 average rating across the now 227 appearances. Keir Jepson 7 – One of two players to pass the 100 mark for the club this season Marcus Giles 8 – Reached 100 appearances in record time, only his second full season at the club and already has appeared 100 times for the club.

Enfield Town Season 9 Vanarama National League South – 1st – Champions! Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect We moved leagues, competing in the National League South instead of the North. This season we had one player wanting to leave and he wasn’t looking like developing all too much so we sold him for nothing. League We started the season fantastically winning 7 of our opening 10 games, though we did have a heavy defeat in those games with a 5-2 loss to Barnet. Throughout the season we did more or less maintain our strong form winning the majority of our matches. In spite of this, we didn’t actually spend much of the season atop the league table only reaching the summit (aside from early season) after game 39. Whilst we did win most of our games from that point on, I could sense our performances becoming a bit more of a struggle, but thankfully the teams we were playing were not fantastic, 2 of our last 4 having being relegated. A loss in the penultimate match of the season however meant that the title fight would go to the last day between 3 teams with us in pole position but really still needing to win our final match to be sure the title would be ours. We scored early doors to put ourselves in a good position but couldn’t double our advantage before we were reduced to 10 men in the 70th minute. Despite our number disadvantage we did manage to score a second to put the game to bed late on, though ultimately it wouldn’t have mattered if we lost in the end as both Bath and Dartford failed to win on the final day and the title was ours. I’ve come to the conclusion that the National League South is an easier division than the Northern equivalent. Cups This season the FA Cup was a carbon copy to last season, win the first two games against lower league opposition and lose in the last qualifier against a higher level team. Our FA Trophy adventure was better this time out as we finally reached the 5th round again, though probably could have gone further as we lost to Tonbridge in the 5th round who were in our division; incidentally Tonbridge are in the final against one of our title rivals in Dartford. Youth Intake Another good youth intake with players for areas of the team we are low on depth. Richard Chase 9 – A very good goalkeeper, at least in terms of his technical ability. I’m not hugely a fan of eccentricity but other areas are very good for the level we’re at. Glenn Lawal 9 –One main thing to say about Lawal, he is very good on his physicals. His dribbling first touch and Work rate will need to improve a bit but he could be a very good player for us in the coming seasons. Jack Jones 9 – A decent base for him to be an option for us in defense in the coming years, but does certainly need to improve somewhat. Key Players Muhammadu Faal – Faal had his best ever season for us, 41 goals and 15 assists in the league is an incredible return. Thankfully too, despite him soon turning 34 he is yet to decline much at all physically so can hopefully keep firing them in next season too. Jason Clarke 2 – Clarke is a very good defender for us, almost always putting in a good performance when he plays. The issue being he’s a walking suspension, he’s not had any injuries yet still missed 10 league games this season. His first 16 games resulting in 15 yellows, though thankfully he did slow his accumulation somewhat after that. Marcus Giles 8 – He was straight into the first team after the intake last season but failed to score in his 8 matches and started this season off much the same – no goals after 10 games. Thankfully, my faith was then rewarded as he started registering goals and assists to help our promotion charge eventually ending up with 19 goals and 14 assists in the league and also became the first player without the surname of Faal to surpass 20 goals in all competitions in a season for us. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead We managed both an increase in youth recruitment and junior coaching this season and despite lack of a big cup run we made a decent profit this year. I actually think that is partially down to us being in the southern league as we are actually a southern based team really so less travel expenses I guess will have occurred. In the off season I need to make some decisions about quite a few players on whether they will remain first choice or replaced with the youth. Maybe it is harsh to do so after our best ever season, but I feel some are at the top of their ability and perhaps we can leverage game time at a higher level to set us up better in the long haul. I may make another post here later on in places where I’ve a dilemma on who to play. Next season, the aim has got to be to stay up, last time in the division we were woeful, this time I’m going to stay with my current formation which doesn’t really focus much on the defense and just aims for us to score as many as we can which I think will bode well for the players that we do have. Notable Landmarks Decided to add a new section for notable landmarks for the youth players, this update will have a few to catch up for the 9 seasons so far. There are a few who are in the middle of two landmarks that haven't been mentioned but these are the main ones. Kieran Preece 1 – Became the first of the youth intake players to surpass 100 all time goals for the club with him netting his 101st goal this season. He also surpassed 400 appearances for the club and now has 407 in total. He also passed the 50 mark for assists last season and now sits at 58 in total. Stephen O'Brien 1 - Surpassed 300 appearances for the club, now sits at 332 appearances. Andrew Yates 3 - Passed the 200 appearance mark, now at 217. Brandon Ibe 5 - Also reached the 200 appearances mark and this season passed the 50 mark for assists too. Reiss Bolarinwa 6 - Passed the 100 appearance mark now at 143. Oliver Morgan 7 - Passed the 100 appearance mark now at 104.

So close to a one to one ratio...

Enfield Town Season 8 Vanarama National League North – 6th – Lost Playoff First Round Transfers – Fixtures (1) – Fixtures (2) – Squad – Table – Key Player – Hot Prospect Della Verde was only retiring from professional football so we did manage to tie him down to a new deal this summer (he did not long into the season pick up a long term injury so not fantastic for an aging player) . There were no other unexpected changes to the squad. League I came into this season playing the exact same tactic as the season prior, hopeful that our generally improved squad quality would allow us to be one of the better teams in the league. Unfortunately. It didn’t go that way as we never really got going with some games even worse performances that those we put in for our disastrous season in the league above, although we were still hovering on the outskirts of the playoffs due to just picking up results in the other games. As I wasn’t happy with how the team were playing I made the choice to change from 4123 to 442 which was a bit of a risky change given we’ve only ever had one consistent scoring striker since the start of the save. Regardless, the change was a positive one with us almost immediately going on a long unbeaten run of 15 games which ended up not actually propelling us up the table that much. From there on we were again back to inconsistency. But thankfully picking up more wins than any other results but it was still a huge battle to reach the playoffs. This season we recorded our highest ever points tally yet barely made the playoffs. The Playoffs didn’t go well for us at all really, within a minute of kickoff we were down 1-0 before the rest of the first half was filled with very few highlights. A carbon copy of the first half start in the second as the same striker doubled their lead within a minute of the restart. We never really looked like getting back into the game but did get a late consolation goal to make it look like the game was closer than what was reality. Cups The FA Cup this season basically went they way of beating teams in lower leagues before losing to the team in a higher league, this time in the 4th qualifying round, a shame we couldn’t keep up with the previous seasons in getting to the 2nd round proper. We did have our best FA Trophy showing for a few seasons as we navigated to the 4th round where we took National League Newport County to a replay but ultimately their quality won out. Youth Intake Even better intake than last seasons with every single player considered an elite talent although some that the coaches rate highly do have some areas of weakness. Marcus Giles 8 – Has some really good attributes, but then also like nearly every striker we get in our intakes some not so great attacking attributes. I think he can develop into a good supporting striker for us even if he doesn’t immediately strike me as someone who will fire goals in at will. He did go straight into the starting XI once he’d signed his youth contract. Jack Bird 8 – Another striker again with not great attacking attributes though not awful composure. He also has the bonus of having some acceleration speed, even if his overall pace isn’t the best. I don’t envision him being a regular starter any time soon, but he will make an able deputy I’m sure. Ted Wakoma 8 – Actually looks like he could end up being a very good winger for this level with good attributes in the areas they’re wanted, he didn’t get the auto first team promotion, but I don’t think he’s far of the level to be considered. Another fantastic intake where the majority of players could have been highlighted here and wouldn’t be at all surprised if the team in the next year or two featured vast numbers from this intake. Key Players Muhammadu Faal – Faal did have a dry spell midseason (which probably is what prompted the formation change) but once again our best player to make it 8 seasons out of 8 so far. Another 36 goals and 10 assists in the league and yet is still happy to renew his contract each season. Jason Clarke 2 – Another solid season for Clarke, just a consistent performer in defense. There is some question on whether he will ultimately lose his spot due to him being unlikely to improve much more but another good season for the defender. Kieran Preece 1 – Preece had his best season by far for us this year just falling shy of the 20 league goal mark from the right wing. I’m hopeful that this is an indication of what’s to come from him as it’s good not to be solely relying on Faal for goals. Infrastructure/Looking Ahead No infrastructure improvements this season due to our financial state but our youth recruitment and coaching is starting to show through the intakes. In spite of it being a record point tally, I’m pretty disappointed with the season on the whole as we’re not really kicking on in comparison to previous seasons with us roughly finishing around the same spot and well, frankly going into season 9 in the same league we started in. With the new intake maybe now we can finally put together another good promotion charge next time out.