Regent travelled to north London on a dull, breezy, overcast day to face Enfield Town, who had been their first opponents under new manager Kem Izzet. Red shorts replaced black for some reason.

A very different line up from the previous meeting of Turner; Boyland, Cripps, Forrest and Jake Gould; Clowsley, Dunne, Jerry Kamanzi , Turner and Barnett, with George Bugg up front were looking to maintain last Saturday’s performance against Folkestone. Gelashvili, Brice-Wiffen, O’Reilly and Byrne-Hewitt were substitutes.

Regent kicked off in front of a decent crowd of 344 and the opening exchanges were even with Turner making some good blocks from Enfield’s early attempts but some good responses on goal from Romario Dunne and George Bugg for the Regent.

After ten minutes Matt Cripps made a powerful run through the midfield and put George Bugg clear in the penalty area where the Enfield goalkeeper brought him down to concede an undisputed penalty and be shown a yellow card. Jake Turner stepped up to stroke the penalty the opposite side to the goalkeeper’s dive to establish an early lead.

The wind was blowing down the pitch behind Enfield and this presented problems with their high looping corner kicks and impressive long throws by left back Joe Payne. The threat was obvious after 25 minutes when Payne went over to take another throw in on the Enfield left and the placing of the Enfield forwards forced Charlie Turner to first punch, rather than catch the ball, and despite blocking a follow up Enfield were able to scramble a scrappy equaliser.

The remainder of the half was uneventful with Enfield lacking any cutting edge up front and the Regent forwards unable to make any impression on the robust opposition defence. Sam Hatton, Enfield’s former England C full back, was lucky only to be booked for one particularly heavy tackle on Jake Clowsley.

Second half
Neither side made changes at half time and the match continued in the same vein. Joe Payne’s long throws still posed the most potent threat from the home side whose supporters fretted about the lack of tactical substitutions up front to pose more of a threat.

The physical nature of the Enfield defence meant that both Jordan Barnett and George Bugg were substituted as the half progressed with Lewis Byrne-Hewitt and Finn O’Reilly coming on to provide fresh legs in attack.

Shortly afterwards came the first moment of real quality in the match when Regent conceded a free kick just outside the area. The Enfield players stood to create uncertainty as to the direction and Lyle Della-Verde superbly pinged the ball left footed into the top corner of the net.

But the lead did not last long and, significantly, the Regent heads did not go down. Instead a throw in from the left found Romario Dunne free in the penalty area, and he produced an equal moment of quality by turning and hitting the ball with his left foot into the far corner of the goal, afterwards claiming he knew it was in the moment he struck it.

Further half chances came from both sides and Regent had one long range shot which just went wide of the post but after two minutes added time the match came to an end with the score even at 2-2.

Match Verdict
A draw was a fair result and shows how far Regent have come since losing 2-0 at home to Enfield back in October.

Regent frustrated their higher placed opponents with their hard work and resolute defending so that Enfield’s only real threat came from dead ball situations. Romario’s equaliser was a moment of quality in open play.

Hopefully he can continue this at home to Worthing and Enfield will re-discover their scoring touch against Cheshunt next Saturday.

By Paul Ketchley