The Woods travelled to bottom of the table Harlow Town just one day after a change of manager for the home side had seen Marvin Samuel replace Anthony Anstead. It was the club’s first-ever visit to Barrows Farm, Harlow’s new home, and ultimately proved a successful one.  With Scott Orphanou and Gilbert Nuako both ruled out with injury, there were recalls for Chris Seeby and Aaron Cato to the starting line-up while Harlow’s new boss had recruited two new signings for their debuts in one-time Watford youngster Wayne Grant and Jose Espinosa.

The Woods got off to a cracking start when John Christian let fly from 20 yards which took a deflection to give goalkeeper Jamie Waite no chance. Despite falling behind to an early goal, the home side showed that they were out to impress their new manager and when Brad Hewitt slipped to let in Grant for a run on goal, Aaron Bufton had to be out smartly to smother his shot on goal.

After 18 minutes, Mervin Abraham robbed Danny Power of the ball out wide and then sent over a cross which picked out Ashley Taylor-Forbes but he shot well wide of the target. Soon after, a long ball again picked out the speedy Taylor-Forbes but this time he was stopped in his tracks by a well-timed tackle from Michael Peacock. The Woods got back on top midway through the half and Power’s cross presented Anton Lewis with a good chance but he was unable to convert. Just two minutes later, Eugene Ofori burst through two defenders and unselfishly set up Lewis to crash the ball home via the crossbar but the striker had drifted into an offside position.

There was just a couple of minutes to go to half-time when the Woods went further ahead as Cato produced an excellent cross from the left and Ofori cushioned a header back across goal and inside the post.

Northwood started the second-half conceding too many free-kicks with Danny Power and Sam Sharples soon entering the referee’s notebook. From those, Harlow went close with Espinosa firing wide and then Taylor-Forbes shooting over the top. Things got more difficult for the Woods after 67 minutes when Sharples clattered into another tackle and picked up a second yellow card.

Down to ten men, Danny Jones was introduced for Lewis to freshen things up a little but the home side gradually began to threaten a comeback against the ten men.
After 77 minutes a cross from Charlie Simpson was simply converted by Grant and suddenly the Hawks had a chance. Four minutes later a deep corner was met by a header from Oliver Cleaver but it was blocked at the post. Very little was going Northwood’s way, with every decision geared towards the home side and another free-kick saw Jason Mason float a shot just wide of the post.

Suddenly, against the run of play, it was all over with Peacock picking out Gary Burrell out wide and his cross was met by the reliable head of Ofori who planted it past Waite in goal. Just two minutes later Burrell was the provider again, this time with a ball down the middle which saw Ofori race through and steer a shot past Waite and complete his first-ever hat-trick for the Woods, making the score 4-1.

Power almost got on the scoresheet with a powerful run and shot which flashed just wide but two minutes into stoppage-time, Harlow picked up a consolation when a long cross from Cleaver found substitute Ola Akinnawo and he headed home.

Report by ROBIN PIPER