Concord produced a smash and grab raid at Northwood Park that left the Woods without a win in five games and also three successive defeats in the league. Dave Anderson brought Harry Smart back in to the midfield and shuffled other positions with Gary Meakin starting at left-back, John Christian at right-back, Gary Burrell on the right flank and Chris Seeby in midfield. Leon Osei started his first game on the left.

After a bright start from the visitors which saw Danny Heale flick a header over the bar and goalkeeper Mitch Swain save comfortably from Steve Butterworth, the game developed into a real battle in midfield. 
Gradually, the Woods began to get the upper hand and after 40 minutes Rob Ursell played a neat one-two with Osei and fired a shot just over the bar. Two minutes later Ursell slipped a good ball through to Osei whose shot was blocked by the legs of Concord ‘keeper Dale Brightly. The ball ran loose and Eugene Ofori was on it in a flash, only to blast the rebound over the bar.

With that great chance spurned, Concord then took the lead seconds before the break and totally against the run of play. Butterworth received the ball in what looked like an offside position out wide on the left but his cross flashed across the six-yard box with no vital touch. But the ball was fed back in to Lyle Taylor, who fired in a shot which took a deflection and went through Swain’s dive.

Northwood needed to up their game in the second half, and it started with Burrell shooting over from distance and then Ofori hitting a cross-shot from the right which dipped and needed Brightly to stretch to keep it out of the far corner.

Hugo Figueiredo replaced Osei after 62 minutes and two minutes later the substitute raced onto an Ursell through-ball, but saw his shot blocked for a corner by the outstretched boot of a defender. Concord played for time as much as possible so the game rarely flowed. After 69 minutes, Gary Meakin’s corner was met with a powerful header from Seeby but Brightly was equal to it, diving across to push the ball wide of the post.

Ursell was the replaced by Anthony Page who was involved in the last good move of the game. Along with Seeby and Ofori, he helped work the ball across to Smart who hit a good low shot from outside the box but Brightly managed to get his hands down to save at the foot of the post.

The final fifteen minutes of normal time were frustrating for the Woods, who seemed to run out of ideas. Four minutes of added time, when around double that was expected, led to a final flurry but a Brad Hewitt header found no-one ready to attack the ball and a John Christian long-range strike dropped just over the crossbar.

Report by ALAN EVANS