Enfield Town completed a disappointing end to the season with a 1-0 defeat away at Brightlingsea Regent in the Bostik League Premier Division.

The game’s single goal arrived 10 minutes from the end when substitute Pip Boyland headed in unmarked, making an instant impact having only come onto the pitch five minutes before.

While it wasn’t the end to the campaign that Town will have wanted, they actually made the faster start in this game and could have taken the lead as early as the fourth minute when Kezie Ibe hit the outside of James Bradbrook’s post, but on reflection it was probably their best chance of the entire match.

Ibe was at the centre of everything Enfield were doing in the early exchanges. He had another effort blocked after 15 minutes when he was fed by Aaron Greene and then he turned provider by crossing the ball to Sam Chaney, but it was well-cleared before he could reach it.

Despite creating next to nothing in the first half up to this point, Brightlingsea will have felt aggrieved that they weren’t given the chance to go ahead when Billy Hunt was bundled over by Marc Weatherstone, but the referee waved play on as both players fell to ground.

Weatherstone was then withdrawn from the game with an injury to be replaced by George Quarrington-Carter, who was making just his second appearance of the season.

The Towners continued to have the better of the chances going into the second half and came close once more when Sam Youngs shot over, but they were almost done on the counter attack when Ricky Griggs got forward, however a good recovery from Jamie Porter averted the danger.

As the clock ticked down, there was little sign of the deadlock being broken in this typical end-of-season clash. Matt Nolan did well to watch a high, bouncing ball all the way into his arms and the goalkeeper was then alert to race off his line and grab the ball inches ahead of Jake Gould.

Joe Yaxley then had another great opportunity for Regent as they began to turn the screw late on but, from a promising position, he was only able to skew his effort wide.

Quarrington-Carter showed his promise late on by going in strongly to block an attempt from Matt Cripps, and within seconds of that denial Enfield raced forward looking to grab a winner, but Josh Davison was ruled offside from Greene’s through ball.

Finally, with 10 minutes left on the clock, the opening goal came. A long throw from the right found Boyland in the box and his effort was deflected out from a corner. The resulting delivery was towards him again and this time he was left unmarked to power a header past Nolan and snatch all three points for Brightlingsea.

The result sees Enfield finish 10th in the league; a top-half finish but disappointing given their lofty positions throughout the season.