Saturday 13th March 1971
STILL IN WITH A CHANCE
NORTHWOOD 3 HAM 2
With Viking losing at Harefield, Northwood’s two points at the expense of ham have kept alive the local club’s faint hopes of honours. With Ian Harvey missing in their line-up, Northwood took the opportunity to give newcomer Brian Taylor a chance in the mid-field, and it proved a successful venture.
Byrne and Horsford went close in the opening few minutes with shots which passed only inches the wrong side of the woodwork. But within 25 minutes Byrne rose above the ham defence to head home a Chick corner.
Ham struggled hard for the remainder of the half in a desperate effort to score the equaliser, but the Woods defence was giving nothing away, and the score remained 1-0 at the interval.
After the restart Ham scored the equaliser against the run of play. The Northwood defence allowed a ball to go loose, and their centre-forward was on hand to tap the ball into the net.
The goal stung the Woods into action, and several promising moves were spoiled by the forwards holding into the ball too long. But when a Ham defender made a poor back-pass, Horsford raced through to slip the ball past the keeper.
Minutes later Horsford was back and when his header hit the crossbar, Byrne was there to nod the rebound home.
Seconds from the whistle Ham snatched another goal from a well-taken free-kick, but it was too late to affect the final outcome.
Northwood: R. Byrne, Harding, Madigan, Dibbens, Bailey, Gould, Taylor, Chick, Dodd, P. Byrne, Horsford.
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