Andrew Warshaw looks ahead to what Towners fans hope will be the club’s first play-off campaign in five years

*Enfield Town FC continue to fly high in the Isthmian Premier Division*

Good Friday is not only the first day of the Easter weekend, it’s also a chance to watch Enfield Town’s penultimate home game of the regular season – which could prove to be a special occasion.

The club have been successful in bringing forward the game against Cray Wanderers by 24 hours from Saturday to Friday, with the idea of pulling in as many local fans as possible. Good Friday football is a rarity in itself but it might well be a day to remember.

By the time you read this, the Towners may already have clinched the coveted play-off place that everyone involved has been fighting for since day one of the season. If so, victory over Cray will be all-important in terms of trying to secure a home semifinal tie.

Alternatively it could be the very day that a play-off place is actually achieved, with just two fixtures to follow – at Potters Bar on Easter Monday and then at home to Bognor Regis, both of which are likely to be hugely anticipated occasions.

Whichever scenario is at play on Good Friday, the Cray game is unmissable in terms of supporting the borough’s biggest club in its quest to reach National League South. The squad has changed radically since the last time Town reached the play-offs five years ago. That year the club picked up a remarkable 22 points from their final eight games in the league season but conceded after less than a minute against Dulwich Hamlet, who went on to win 4-2.

One player who remembers it well is Nathan McDonald, the goalkeeper now in his second spell with the Towners. Nathan can’t wait to have another crack at trying to get Enfield promoted.

“It was heartbreaking,” Nathan told the Dispatch. “After all the hard work to get into the play-offs and then blow it in that one game. We were 3-0 down before we could even respond.

“In my view the team we had then probably under-achieved, whereas the hallmark of this side is we have incredible spirit and togetherness.”

Grinding out wins has been an important factor, something no team can do without experience. There was a period when the club were pushing for automatic promotion, then it looked as if they might fall away, only to get firmly back into the play-off positions.

“It’s been a bit of mixture to be honest,” explains Nathan. “But we’ve got a great management team who plan everything out.

“Having lost at Dulwich five years ago, I’d love us to have home advantage this time round. I’ve had two promotions with Braintree but it would mean the world to me if I could do it with Enfield.

“This would mean so much more. There are teams in the division with far bigger budgets who will miss out, maybe because they haven’t got our spirit. We’re a fan-owned club and I know how much it would mean to the supporters.”

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