It's a big one. The eagerly awaited visit of local rivals Enfield Town. After 11 games in the league, the North London neighbours are separated by just two points in the top half of the Isthmian Premier table and are joint 3rd highest goalscorers in the league, including each scoring 6 goals in a single league game in this month, so all signs indicate that we are in for a treat this Halloween evening.
Our Opponents
We have shared a division with Enfield Town for over 10 years since Enfield's promotion from Isthmian North in 2011/12, one season after Wingate & Finchley's promotion from the same division in 2010/11. As such, we are all too aware of the challenge that Enfield can pose to our side on Tuesday night - Enfield have regularly finished in and around the playoff positions during their spell in the division and occupy 3rd place in the table at the time of writing. They are yet to succeed in promotion to the National League South during their current spell at this level but it appears to only be a matter of time before they get another playoff opportunity.
This season the Towners made a flying start to the league season with 4 wins from their first 4 matches but a slight drop in form coincided with a good cup run and the side from Donkey Lane now have a league record of 6 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats while missing out on a First Round proper tie due to a convincing 5-2 defeat by Cray Valley PM.
Head To Head
Our most recent encounter was at the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium where an outstanding Antonis Vasiliou bicycle kick gave the Blues a deserved lead before a late equaliser from Lyle Della Verde in a game that ended with both teams down to 10 men. At the Maurice Rebak Stadium in November a bumper 300+ crowd saw Enfield take all 3 points thanks to goals from Lewis Knight and Jake Cass. Wingate's last win in this fixture came in February 2022 with a 4-1 home triumph under the lights which the boys will be hoping to emulate on Tuesday night.
Last Time Out
Enfield come into the game having secured a convincing 6-3 win over newly promoted side Hashtag United. A hat-trick from Sam Youngs and a brace from forward Marcus Wyllie followed on from the opener by ex-Blue Reece Beckles-Richards. The Tags scored two in stoppage time at the end of the 90 to make the scoreline more palatable for the visitors in what was ultimately a very convincing win for the Towners.
After the Blues' own 6-goal victory, we suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of relegated side Dulwich Hamlet on Tuesday where, despite having a number of chances, we went down 3-2 on the night, with our goals coming from Anointed Chukwu and Ruben Carvalho.
Players To Watch
Ruben Carvalho made it 9 goals in his first 15 appearances for the Blues and has shown many more flashes of brilliance on top of that. He will be looking to take his tally into double figures before October is up with another on Tuesday night.
Enfield are a side that is fully aware of where the goal is this season. Young forward Marcus Wyllie has 9 of his team's 22 goals this season in the league since signing from step 5 last season as he looks to have fully settled at this level. Reece Beckles-Richards is another goal-hungry forward who is well known to us having played for Wingate as recently as 2019.
The game is all set to be a great tie, and we have an 'early bird' offer for fans in attendance before 18.45 who can get a ticket, burger and a drink for £20 (£17 concessions). Alternatively, adult tickets can be purchased online or on the gate, with concessions on the gate with valid ID and U18s free! We look forward to seeing many of you on Tuesday to back the Blues in this massive fixture.
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