ENFIELD TOWN (The Queen Elizabeth II Stadium)

ISTHMIAN PREMIER LEAGUE, ENFIELD TOWN 1-2 BILLERICAY TOWN, ATTENDANCE: 554

The first part of my North London double took place at The Queen Elizabeth II Stadium (aka Donkey Dome as the ground is located on Donkey Lane) in Enfield. Football returned to town in 2011 after a gap of 12 years.  

The Enfield story is far to complex to explain in a few lines, so can I point everyone in the direction of this write up by Ian King on the ever superb 200% blog http://twohundredpercent.net/?p=19845#respond which tells you all what you need to know.

The ground is located about half a mile from Enfield's old Southbury Road stadium, which is now a housing estate.

The ground was a dilapidated old athletics stadium when Enfield took control but lots of time, effort and money has gone into to restoring the stadium to it's former glory. The main stand is art deco, set way back from the pitch but it offers the best views of the game.

The rest of the stands in the ground are of the pre-fab variety but with the athletics track you feel away from the action. I watched the game from the balcony of the clubhouse, which had two Redemption Ales on sale. Happy days!

The game was a cliched game of two halves as the homesters had the better of the first before the visitors came back to claim the points.

Enfield took the lead after 19 minutes when captain Mark Kirby was played through and he fired past Billy Lumley in the Billericay goal.

Ricay were level after 68 minutes when Glen Poole scored from the penalty spot (pictured left). This was after Enfield's Joe Stevens was adjudged to have fouled Isaac Layne in the area. 

It was actually the linesman who indicated the penalty and once this was done then the referee had no option to show Stevens a red card as he was the last man.

The advantage told with a couple of minutes remaining when Billericay's Junior Luke headed home the winner after 87 minutes.