However Enfield Town clearly did not learn from this, as they frequently gave the ball away extremely cheaply in the middle of the park to an industrious Wingate midfield. The pacey Enfield left-back Kojo Ofori posed a constant threat to the visiting defence as he played more like a winger, but apart from Ofori it was Wingate & Finchley who dominated the early proceedings with quick counter-attacking football.

Dean Williams created space for himself in a crowd of defenders with some quick footwork but fired inches over the bar. Chris West then missed a golden chance when he received Daniel Stanton’s low cross, however he leant back and rifled high over the bar from 8 yards when it was easier to score. Wingate & Finchley were going to have to concentrate harder than ever having spurned two glorious chances to take the lead, however this was not the case. In the 36th minute an extremely rare mistake from the typically composed Ahmet Rifat led to the opening goal for the home side. Rifat miscued a clearance skywards after the ball had taken a dodgy bounce, and Bryan Hammatt was on the scene to head the ball in.

The Blues went in a goal behind at half time despite deserving much better, and they came out fighting in the second half. Chris West showed a turn of pace to beat his marker by the right touchline – he then crossed perfectly to the onrushing Williams whose point blank header was well parried by the home keeper Jerome John. Enfield Town seemed to grow in confidence as time wore on while holding their lead, and began to find space and create chances of their own. Ed Thompson was called upon to make an outstanding save from Ricci Crace, and then another one from the follow-up effort of Bryan Hammatt.

In the 65th minute Wingate finally got the equalizer their efforts deserved. A Leon Osei free kick was floated into the near post and Dean Williams made amends for his earlier penalty miss with an inch perfect diving header that flew into the top right corner. The game could have swung either way at this point as both sides were creating clear chances. Craig Ellis sent a low drive from 25 yards that was well held by Jerome John, however in the 83rd minute Enfield Town struck a killer blow by scoring the winning goal. Bryan Hammatt beat Ahmet Rifat to a through ball and the defender brought down his opponent inside the area and was duly shown his marching orders. Rudi Hall stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards.

The one man deficit meant that The Blues would find it difficult to get back into the game in the final 7 minutes. Enfield Town substitute Lee Smith came closest to scoring again when his powerful drive was well tipped onto the crossbar by Ed Thompson and the ball bounced the right side of the line and was headed clear.

Blues coach Michael Stone was very disappointed with the result given the quality of the performance. “Looking back at the game overall we were unable to take the two excellent chances in the first half and eventually paid for defensive errors that we were punished for. The referee could have been stronger as bad tackle after bad tackle went virtually unpunished but overall there was not much between the sides – which is a positive since Enfield Town will be amongst the promotion chasers at the end of the season. We now have to regroup and get back to winning ways at home to Tilbury next weekend.”

Wingate & Finchley: Ed Thompson 8, Jirka Houdek 7, Guy Helman 7, Craig Ellis 7, Ahmet Rifat 5, Guy Morris 7, Dan Stanton 6 (Tashan Bradshaw-Brown 84 n/a), Joe O’Brien 7, Dean Williams 7 (Leon Wilson 76 n/a), Chris West 6, Leon Osei 6. Subs not used: Darren Assiamah, Danny Berg, Mark Gradosielski