Enfield Town on Tuesday overcame a flu outbreak and some wasteful finishing to start their first ever European campaign with a famous victory over Danish side BK Skjold.
The north London club have been invited to play in the Fenix Trophy, a Uefa-recognised competition for semi-professional and amateur clubs, but threatened to have planning for their opener derailed by an illness that has swept through the camp in recent weeks.
“We’ve had lots of illness, not only last night but for the last three games now,” manager Gavin Macpherson told Standard Sport. “It’s been a flu-type problem. We lost our goalkeeper yesterday morning and our mainstay centre-half at the same time.
“Then the back-up centre-half was late to the game because of train problems! We ended up switching things around, we played the right-back at centre-back and then a right-midfielder at right-back.”
FT ETFC 3-1 BKS - A fantastic night ends in a debut European win for the Town!
— Enfield Town FC (@ETFCOfficial) November 28, 2023
Well played @BKSkjold you pushed us all the way. Looking forward to the return game already! @FenixTrophy pic.twitter.com/rcvkG1HqdV
Playing in front of well over 500 fans at the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium, the hosts took a first-half lead through Sam Youngs but failed to make their dominance pay and were pegged ten minutes from time. However, Youngs restored the lead from the penalty spot before Marcus Wyllie added a stoppage-time clincher.
"Our fans were unbelievable last night, noisy, went with the team from the beginning,” Macpherson added. “I thought we largely controlled the game, we were in the ascendancy like I asked the boys to be, on the front foot.
"I don’t think anyone could have denied us six goals on the night, so to be pegged back to 1-1 was a bit of a blow. We didn’t deserve that but if you don’t defend properly these teams can hurt you in that way.
"It would have been a travesty if we hadn’t scored at least another goal but getting two puts us in a really good position going into the next games.”
