Northwood’s second journey to South Essex in the space of five days proved to be a more fruitful trip than before as they came away from Tilbury with the three points. Woods welcomed back Anthony Page for his first game since October following his long injury lay-off as he replaced John Christian in the Northwood midfield, whilst Eugene Ofori made his first start for a few weeks, partnering Leon Osei in attack with Scott Orphanou moving out onto the right flank. There was also a change of personnel in defence, Danny Power moving to right-back with Chris Seeby dropping to the bench.

Woods were quickly into their stride as they forced a succession of early corners with Aaron Cato’s in-swinging delivery testing the Tilbury defence. Having survived a couple of scares the Dockers succumbed to another pinpoint Cato corner as the unfortunate Donny Barnard powered a header into his own net to give Woods the lead on the fifteen minute mark.

Tilbury responded well to the setback and they twice went close to restoring parity through skipper Jamie Wallace, Northwood ‘keeper Bobby Smith clawing away a free-kick before another shot whistled narrowly wide of the upright.

The difficult playing surface meant flowing football was going to be at a premium but Northwood proceeded to create chances. Cato continued to be a threat, running from deep before his shot rebounded of the legs of ‘keeper Andy Hall, Gilbert Nuako’s fierce follow up shot being headed off the line by Rickie Hayles. Cato was in the thick of the action once more as fired in a shot which deflected over the Tilbury crossbar.

Woods kept up the pressure on the Dockers’ defence as Osei had a close-range shot blocked, with Bradley Hewitt well placed for the rebound but unable to keep his shot down.

The second-half began in a similar vein with Northwood asking most of the questions, Cato’s jinking run being halted just outside the Tilbury box, his free-kick being headed towards goal by Orphanou but Hall made a comfortable catch.

Tilbury briefly threatened as Manlee Brown picked out Wallace at the far post but his header was safely gathered by Smith whilst Northwood’s Michael Peacock had a scare as he almost headed into his own net.

Woods could have wrapped up the points midway through the second-half as a throw-in led to Osei crossing to the unmarked Cato but Hall produced a instinctive point-blank save to keep the Dockers in the contest. Northwood continued to search for the killer goal and their frustrations grew as they had a penalty shout for a challenge on Osei turned down.

Tilbury appeared to gain momentum from Woods’ failure to kill off the game, and Northwood had some defending to do as Joe Keith went close with a free-kick, before Christian Wheeler’s flicked header from a Hayles throw-in almost crept in at the near post.

The fresh legs of Hugo Figueiredo replaced Ofori on 74 minutes as Woods’ search for the crucial second goal continued and Hall was the Tilbury hero once again when Osei saw his volleyed effort tipped over the bar.

Seeby was a stoppage time replacement for Danny Power but there was to be no further goalmouth action and Northwood had done enough to pick up three useful away points as they look to get back into play-off contention.

Report by ROBIN PIPER

Photos by James Brown