Enfield Town remain in touching distance of the Isthmian Premier Division play-offs after a 4-1 win away at struggling Merstham.

The visitors’ two-goal lead, given to them by Ken Charles and Sam Youngs, was halved by Shola Ayoola before the break, but further strikes from Lyle Della-Verde and Billy Bricknell in the second half secured a comfortable victory for the Towners.

Town made just one change from the side that beat Bognor Regis Town last time out as Charles came in for Shaun Okije, who was not in the squad at all.

The home side, one of four teams tied on 24 points at the bottom end of the table, made a nervy start to the game and Enfield soon began to capitalise on it.

Indeed, it only took 10 minutes for them to open the scoring as Della-Verde played in Sam Hatton down the right, and his cross was only cleared as far as Charles who fired home the loose ball.

Lewis Taaffe came close to doubling Town’s lead with a low effort while Calvin Ekpiteta was not too far away with his strike for Merstham.

However, the second goal went the way of the away side when an inviting delivery from Taaffe was punched away by Matte Pierson, but Youngs controlled the bouncing ball before drilling through the crowd of players into the bottom corner.

Merstham began to show some fight towards the end of the half but Nathan McDonald was on hand to block Chace Jacquart’s shot and to deny Ayoola from close range.

However, Ayoola was to get the better of McDonald before the break when he latched onto Ellis Brown’s flick to claw one back.

While the home side may have had hopes of securing an unlikely comeback in the second period, they were dashed just five minutes after the restart when Pierson could only palm Bricknell’s cross into the path of Della Verde, and he controlled the bobbling ball before hooking it into the net.

Town were rarely troubled from that point forward and were well in control of the game.

Bricknell could have got his name on the scoresheet multiple times before he eventually did beat Pierson, finishing into the bottom corner after a pin-point through ball from Della Verde.

There was still time for Merstham to threaten a consolation, but McDonald did well to keep out an effort from Brown, although the flag had already been raised against him.

Town are now five points adrift of Carshalton Athletic in the final play-off spot, however they have three games in hand on Peter Adeniyi’s side.

Next up for Enfield is the visit of mid-table Kingstonian this Saturday, which kicks off at 3pm.