Andrew Warshaw on the story of Enfield Town FC’s first-ever season in the sixth tier of English football

The pitch invasion following Enfield Town's survival on the final day of the season (credit Phil Davison) — Towners fans invade the pitch after Enfield Town’s survival on the final day of the season (credit Phil Davison)

They did it! It may not have been quite how the club envisaged their survival to unfold but the party atmosphere after Enfield Town’s final game of the 2024/25 season said everything about the massive achievement of staying in National League South.

It isn’t every day you celebrate a 5-1 thumping with wild enthusiasm and a pitch invasion but having pulled off the ‘great escape’ after being rock bottom at new year, it was only natural that emotions ran high.

Town’s step two survival after gaining promotion a year ago always seemed probable going into the final round of fixtures against high-flying Worthing but you could nevertheless touch the tension in front of another bumper 2,000-plus crowd. Both St Albans and Salisbury had to win if Town were to slip but in the end neither did.

In a somewhat surreal scenario, news filtered through soon after kickoff that Truro, who would win the title with victory, had scored three quickfire goals against St Albans in Cornwall, rendering whatever happened at The Dave Bryant Stadium redundant.

That had the result of easing any Town nerves but on the day they were well beaten. Not that it ultimately mattered, however.

“I’m caught in two footballing worlds at the moment,” admitted Town manager Gavin Macpherson. “Obviously very disappointed with the performance. But I have to look at the bigger picture which is that we were dead and buried at new year.”

“We were everyone’s tip to go down so it’s an unbelievable feat by the players for all their hard work and they deserve all the plaudits.

“We’re a long way from teams like Worthing and Boreham Wood but we’ve done the business against sides we had a better chance against. The last two games were always going to be very difficult and so it proved. The fact of the matter is we stayed up four of five games ago during our unbeaten run.”

You could argue Town exceeded expectations, fuelled by that aforementioned eight-match unbeaten run towards the end of the campaign that provided important momentum and a priceless cushion before taking only one point from their last three outings.

Not if you’re Gavin Macpherson, however. “My expectations were always to try and stay in this league,” Gavin told the Dispatch just ahead of the Worthing showdown.

“What I will acknowledge is the damage that was done in those first few months when I had to re-programme the team. I have to take responsibility for that. I knew how much of a jump this was on and off the pitch but I made an error judgement earlier in the season in terms of certain players.

“As a result of that, I had to work excruciatingly hard to do my summer recruitment campaign a second time, if you like, during the season itself. I had to look into character, ability and running power whilst at the same time planning and preparing for games which wasn’t easy.”

Manager of the month for March, Gavin disclosed that before the Chelmsford game last month he had a deeper than usual private chat with the players about the bigger picture of life outside football, including his own fair share of family tragedy, designed to further cement squad bonding as they approached the run-in to the season.

“I told them about some of the things that have happened in my life, including my brother, and how the club assisted me in navigating through that and how much of a help that was.

“It was designed to let them know I was with them as regards the life struggles that sometimes come round. I wanted them to know they were not on their own and how much, psychologically, camaraderie can help and act as a kind of therapy. The point of the discussion was to bring a human side to the narrative and acknowledge that the boys have fought tooth and nail for the badge after going through something of a transition.”

Not surprisingly, Gavin admits to being mentally and physically drained after putting his all into plotting a survival course from day one. “We’ve effectively been playing in a two-tier league with the top seven or eight teams big-spending and full-time. I can’t make us something that we’re not but I’m immensely proud of the fact that for much of the season, we we’ve gone toe to toe with most of the other clubs.

“It shows a desire and application from both players and management staff that has never wavered. From start to finish, stepping into National League South this has been immeasurably harder, on and off the pitch, than anything we achieved last season. It’s a completely different bracket.”

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