Enfield Town lost ground on the Bostik Premier Division playoffs after a 3-1 loss at second-placed Haringey Borough.

The Towners initially led through Marc Weatherstone, but Joel Nouble’s brace, one before the break and one with four minutes remaining, was added to by Karl Akinwande in the dying minutes.

Town started the game promisingly and created some fluent moves going forward, with the best chance falling to Mickey Parcell, who saw his effort saved by Valery Pajetat.

The deadlock was broken shortly after that and it fell Town’s way when a shot from Matt Johnson struck Weatherstone, and it squirmed through the keeper’s legs.

Enfield continued to come forward and they missed a good opportunity when Kezie Ibe played in Billy Bricknell.

That missed chance came back to bite them as, after 22 minutes, the visitors failed to clear their lines in defence and Joel Nouble was able to curl into the top corner to level the scores.

Both sides continued to trade blows towards the latter end of the first half, Haringey coming close through Coby Rowe’s free-kick and Town through Ryan Blackman’s shot which was tipped onto the woodwork by Pajetat.

It was Town, though, who were handed the best opportunity to take the lead before the break when a long throw was handled in the penalty area, but Pajetat produced an excellent stop to deny Bricknell and keep the scores level.

The start of the second half remained just as even as the first had ended, with the away side missing chances through Bricknell, Blackman and Dan Rumens, while Matt Nolan in the Enfield goal had a lucky escape Dimitrios Froxylias put wide after he spilled the ball into his path.

Pajetat was proving to be a tough nut to crack in the Haringey goal, and he once again denied the visitors when he stopped a powerful Aaron Greene effort from a tight angle.

Finally, though, the home side’s position in the league table proved to be telling as they were awarded a penalty of their own with less than 10 minutes to go for a trip by Parcell, and Nouble stepped up to fire past Nolan and turn the game around.

Any chances of a quick equaliser were dashed with a minute of normal time to go as Karl Akinwade beat the offside trap, despite the claims of the Enfield defence, and calmly slotted past Nolan to seal the points.

The result leaves Town five points shy of the playoffs with six games left to play, the next of which is at home to Leatherhead, who sit just one place below Town with an identical points record. Kick-off is at 3pm.