Northwood 1 Welwyn Garden City 2
Tuesday 4th March 2025
| NORTHWOOD | |||
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| 1 | Aymen Azaze  |
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| 2 | Harry McKenna (89m) |
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| 3 | Junior Paiva | ||
| 4 | Manny Folarin | ||
| 5 | Alpha Keita-Turay | ||
| 6 | Stefan Powell (71m) | ||
| 7 | Bradley Clayton (90m) | ||
| 8 | Troy Perez-Duah |
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| 9 | Samuel Folarin | ||
| 10 | Hassan Jalloh (60m) | ||
| 11 | Josh Williams (84m) |
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| Substitutes | |||
| 12 | Devonte Totesaut (84m) | ||
| 14 | Jack Empson (90m) | ||
| 15 | Nnaemeka Anyanwu (89m) | ||
| 16 | Jon-Jo Bates (60m) | ||
| 17 | Alex Cathline (71m)  |
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Manager Gary Meakin named an unchanged side from that which had finally found their goalscoring touch at Stotfold but they got off to a bad start when the visitors took an eighth minute lead. A high press led to a mistake and a ball was slipped through for Carlos Velasco to give goalkeeper Aymen Azaze no chance.
The Citizens continued to make that quick start and went close to a second when Lewis Jones shot just wide but then the Woods hit back as a good ball from Harry McKenna caught out the Welwyn defence and Josh Williams raced through to slot past the oncoming keeper to level the scores.
Suddenly, Williams was causing plenty of problems for the visitors down the left flank and three minutes later he went close to his second, cutting in and hitting a dipping shot from 20 yards which was only just over. The same player broke into the box again soon after but was denied at the near-post by keeper Donnabhan Green.
On 29 minutes, the Woods should have been ahead as Williams again got down the left and squared the ball where Samuel Folarin was in front of goal. He stabbed the ball forwards but Green made an excellent block and point-blank range.
Welwyn hadn’t made much impact for a while but Azaze was forced into a good save to deny a Brad Wadkins effort after 35 minutes, while play quickly switched to the other end and Bradley Clayton was similarly thwarted by Green at his near-post after more good work from Hassan Jalloh.
But Northwood were to find themselves behind again just two minutes later as a cross came in from the left, Wadkins chested the ball down into the path of Jones and he swung a shot into the bottom corner to put the visitors back in front.
PHOTOS by James Brown
It stayed that way through to half-time so there was still much to play for after the break, though there was a slow start with neither side creating much in the final third as the pitch began to cut up a little. The first effort on goal came after 61 minutes as Sam Folarin did well to battle into the box and then cut the ball back where McKenna ran onto it to shoot but it was a fairly easy catch above his head for Green.
Sadly, the rest of the half was pretty much a non-event with plenty of time-wasting players throwing themselves to the ground every few minutes and yellow cards being similarly thrown around by the Match Official. The Woods could never get into any real rhythm and despite a series of substitutions, they were unable to find the goal required to earn a valuable point.
Things got even worse. Firstly, McKenna, almost ever-present through a difficult season, was bundled over on the right flank, leaving him with a dislocated shoulder and off to the Hospital. Then, six minutes into stoppage-time, substitute Alex Cathline was adjudged to have committed an over-zealous challenge which resulted in a straight red card in pretty much the last “kick” of a second half seriously lacking in entertainment.
REPORT by Alan Evans
