A defeat is only a loss if you fail to learn from it, and so far this season Johnstown have had ample lessons to learn.

It was another disappointing outing for Johnstown this week, succumbing to a second successive heavy defeat at home in their O’Neill’s Sportswear Division 1 clash on Thursday night with Enfield the victors, winning out 5 goals to 2.

A promising start by the home side saw Justin Flynn shoot narrowly wide from distance as the visiting keeper scrambled to cover his net with just 2 minutes passed.

Shortly after, the visiting side began to take control and but for a superb sliding block/tackle by Dylan Bollard on 8 minutes, they could have taken the lead. A dangerous cross from their right eluded everyone in the box except for the lurking attacker on the back post. His instant control and shot required Bollard to be at his most alert to block the shot before it could reach Dan Shields in the home side’s goal.

As another few minutes elapsed, Enfield again found themselves free in the area. Living up to his name, Shields stood tall and batted away the shot to his right, keeping the game scoreless.

However, the pressure from Enfield was soon to pay off as midway through the first half they took the lead. A missed clearance in the back line was pounced upon. The visiting striker took full advantage of the error and comfortably took his chance.

Just before the half hour mark, Johnstown won a corner on the right. As the cross entered the 6 yard box, and under no pressure from the home side, an Enfield defender lucklessly steered into his own net bringing the hosts level.

Within 10 minutes, Enfield restored their lead. A free awarded just inside their half was launched long and high into the Johnstown area where it was met by an unmarked visiting head. Enfield were quickest to react to the flick on and one easy turn saw them 1-on-1 with Shields who could do little as the ball was hammered past him from close range.

It was to get worse for Johnstown just before the break as another individual error , this time a missed header, freed up the Enfield man wide on the right. His low ground cross found their man who managed to finish off the move with a rather clumsy finish despite McQuillan’s best efforts to exert pressure on him.

The second was to see more of the same. Individual and team errors punished ruthlessly by an efficient Enfield side.

The first of these came 3 minutes after the restart. A long throw was hurled into the Johnstown area and was met by the head of an unmarked man who flicked it straight into the net.

A carbon copy goal followed 10 minutes later as Enfield made it 5-1. Another throw in launched into the area, lax marking and no challenge as the ball was met by a free header. Shields could only watch before picking the ball out of his net for the 5th time of the night.

There was small consolation to come when Kacper Zeberek was felled in the area. He quickly dusted himself off before firing the penalty he had won into the net making it 5-2 with 9 minutes left.

Any hopes of a comeback were short lived however as Johnstown could not get any momentum or continuous flow to their game as Enfield remained in control for the remainder of the game.

Johnstown FC Team: D. Shields, J. Colton, D. McQuillan (c), J. Forde, J. Gaffney, D. Bollard, J. Flynn, S. Challenger, B. Gibney, K. Zeberek, D. Halligan
Subs: D. Grumley for McQuillan, W, Cahill for Flynn, A. Mooney for Halligan, L. Kelly for Gaffney.