Late goal hurts Witham once again

Ryman League premier division

Witham Town suffered more late heartbreak as Enfield Town’s 88th minute strike saw them lose for the fifth time in their last six Ryman League premier division games.

Enfield had won three of their last four outings and were looking for three more points to keep their hopes of breaking into the play-off reckoning going.

Witham, on the other hand, needed points to help them in their quest to avoid relegation and a tight battle ensued.

The hosts made two changes from the side that had started the 2-1 defeat at Kingstonian on Saturday with Paul King and Jack Paxman dropping to the bench and in their place came Ryan Blackman and Lewis Godbold.

The game took a few minutes to settle but Enfield looked the more confident going forward and took the lead after ten minutes.

The opening goal, when it came, had an air of good fortune about it, though.

The ball fell to Enfield midfielder Tyler Campbell in the area but after his initial effort was blocked, it came back to him to have a second bite at the cherry.

And he was able to do more with it this time as his looping snap-shot span over Martyn Guest and nestled in the back of the Witham goal.

It was just the start that the hosts didn’t want and they looked to rebuild but the greater threat was still towards their goal.

Enfield striker Bobby Devyne was caught out by the linesman’s flag on a couple of occasions and Campbell stabbed an effort past the post, but they were unable to consolidate their lead.

They were ruing that before the break as Witham drew level in the 45th minute.

Witham pushed forward and moved the ball down the left before Tom Wraight drilled in a low effort that saw Enfield keeper Nathan McDonald make a good initial save.

However, he could do nothing to stop Wraight from following up to fire in the loose ball for the equaliser to make it level at the break.

The goal was just the boost the hosts needed and they looked to build on that after the break.

The game remained tight but Witham went close in the 61st minute when Chris Bryan’s cross was headed goalwards by Godbold.

A save from McDonald kept it level, but from the resulting corner, Danny Emmanuel’s shot from outside the box was blocked by an Enfield foot on its way towards the target.

The visitors were not about to give up two valuable points, though, and they came within inches of getting a second goal as substitute Liam Hope fired just over the bar in the 74th minute.

Play continued to flow from end to end as both sides went searching for a three-point haul for their tussles towards both ends of the table.

And it was the side looking towards the play-offs who were cheering at the end as Michael Kalu scored the winning goal in the 88th minute to leave Witham pointless for the fifth time in their last six games.