FC United beat Enfield Town to win 2021 Brian Lomax Trophy

On Saturday, FC United of Manchester beat Enfield Town 3-1 to win the 2021 Brian Lomax Trophy – a fixture celebrating community ownership and promoting supporter-owned clubs in the game.

Nick Duckett, one the FSA’s Community-owned club National Council representatives, tells us more about the match at Broadhurst Park…

2pm on Saturday afternoon. The Enfield Town coach arrived at Broadhurst Park an hour late thanks to their centre forward oversleeping.

Normal UK weather conditions were reversed: torrential rain in the south had given way to pleasant sunshine in Manchester. “We’ve not had much rain up here this summer”, said one suntanned Mancunian. Enfield Town’s kit man had got here on time though. He’d brought along the trophy and flags and some of the members of the Enfield Town Supporters Association, who very generously had sponsored today’s match.

Enfield Town’s directors were joined by the FSA chair Malcolm Clarke, who was to present the trophy to the winning team. The group was given a very entertaining whistle-stop tour of the ground by FC United board member David Ashurst, who informed them that the travelling fans would have to source their beer from the home end as the away end bar staff were absent due to COVID-19.

🏆 Captain Michael Potts lifts the trophy with Assistant Manager for the day, Joe Bebbington

Thank you to @ETFCOfficial for a really good game – let’s do it again!

🟥🟥⬜⬛⬜🟥🟥 pic.twitter.com/wG9mqQscH3

— FC United of Manchester (@FCUnitedMcr) July 24, 2021

After a quick meat and potato pie, chips, peas and gravy, we were shown to our allotted seats and settled down to watch what turned out to be an entertaining match between two teams at step three – with high hopes for the forthcoming season.

FC United were looking for revenge as the last time the trophy had been contested two years previously, it had been Enfield Town who had beaten them at their Queen Elizabeth II Stadium by three goals to one.

FC United opened their account almost immediately on three minutes with a well-taken goal by impressive-looking striker Cedric Main and then proceeded to totally dominate the first half. On the half hour, Jordan Simpson picked out Main with a flighted long ball and Main slotted in at the near post. In fact, he could have had a third as a close-range header narrowly missed the target.

FC United manager Neil Reynolds took the opportunity to change things around in the second half, and one of his substitutions, Regan Linney put the match beyond doubt with a deft volley on 70 minutes.

Enfield’s Ebrima Sawaneh did grab a consolation goal five minutes before the end but FC United ran out winners in their first outright victory in the cup since defeating AFC Wimbledon 2 -1 in 2006.