Report by ALAN EVANS

The Woods faced a midweek local derby fixture for their first-ever away game in the Combined Counties League as they ventured to Berkeley Fields, home of North Greenford United. Both sides went into the match with 100% league records behind them, Northwood from just the one game played, the Blues from two so one of them had to go.

Mustafa Tiryaki, hat-trick hero in the Vase game at the weekend was missing from the starting line-up and that brought a starting debut for young defender Chris Rangel while Mehdi Yone also started his first match, in for the unavailable Rodney Dos Santos. Pierce McNamara returned in midfield too with Amara Fofana pushed into a wider role.

The home side started with two quick yellow cards in succession and one shot on goal which goalkeeper Kacper Orlowski saved comfortably. After nine minutes, the Woods had their first venture into the final third as Nathan Akandi and Brandon Trujillo combined to set up Reon Smith-Kouassi whose shot was pushed wide by Zack Brief in goal.

Both sides got some joy down the right as Smith-Kouassi set up Akandi for a shot which lacked power and then a similar move at the other end forced Orlowski into a save at his near-post. By this stage the floodlights were causing a few issues having gone out and play was suspended after 22 minutes as the matter was investigated. Two pylons were still out when play resumed three minutes later and on 27 minutes there was a big blow for the Woods as centre-half Alex Sethi went down while clearing the ball. Extensive treatment followed but he was unable to continue and replaced by David Gillespie and the makeshift defence was reshuffled once more.

Just three minutes later the home side went ahead when George Harmes found space to take two touches and blast a shot that left Orlowski clutching thin air as the Blues took the lead. A minute further and former Woods midfielder Harry McCorkell was shown a straight red card for a challenge in the middle of the park, leaving the home side with ten men with more than an hour still to play due to the stoppages. It got even better for Northwood as, from the resultant free-kick, Liam Enver-Marum maintained his record of a goal from every game he has started by skimming his shot past the wall to bounce up and over the goalkeepers dive to level the scores.

At this stage, the Woods should have held an advantage but it never panned out that way. North Greenford went close twice in the lengthy first half stoppage-time with Orlowski saving well from a free-kick and then Charlie Mitchell shooting wide from a good position. There was much discussion at half-time as to whether the game would continue withone pylon still refusing to ignite but both sides agreed it was okay and the Woods defended the dark end after the break with Luca Lombardi introduced in place of Akandi.

Northwood started well enough with Enver-Marum the main danger, whipping an inviting cross into the box but with no-one able to get a touch and then shooting wide himself from another free-kick.

But the Blues were still creating chances themselves and another ex-Northwood player, Rahim Jude-Boyd should have scored with a header that he put wide from just a few yards out. On 59 minutes the home side were back in front when Mitchell broke quickly down the right and pulled the ball back for Frankie Pass to hammer a first-time shot into the top corner and give Orlowski no chance.

Mitchell, who already had two assists, then latched onto a poor defensive clearance to smash a shot past the stranded Orlowski to make it 3-1 after 69 minutes and the ten men looked well in command.

Smith-Kouassi had one effort that was too high soon after but generally the Woods were unable to make any real impact as the Blues saw out the game comfortably. Two minutes into stoppage-time, things got even worse for the visitors when Rangel saw red for a petulant act and the final whistle couldn’t come soon enough.