Northwood 4 Aylesbury 0
Tuesday 7th August 2018
| NORTHWOOD | |||
 |
|||
| 1 | Luke Sheldrick (57m) | ||
| 2 | Karl Stevenson (61m) | ||
| 3 | Miguel Matos (57m) | ||
| 4 | Hakim Nyariki (57m)(63m) | ||
| 5 | Ben Andreos (57m) | ||
| 6 | Carl Pearce (20m)(57m) | ||
| 7 | Jerome Slew (80m) | ||
| 8 | Wilson Chingoka (63m) | ||
| 9 | Ben Pattie (67m) | ||
| 10 | James Ewington (67m)(80m) | ||
| 11 | Kweku Conrad-Lucan | ||
| Substitutes | |||
| 12 | Matt Cooper (57m) | ||
| 14 | Antoine Akinola (67m) | ||
| 15 | Bradley Marriott (20m) | ||
| 16 | Jamie Fulton (57m) | ||
| 17 | Adam Murad (67m) | ||
| 18 | Ibrahim Conteh (61m) | ||
| 19 | Coalan Doyle (57m) | ||
| 20 | - | ||
Northwood gave themselves the perfect tonic as they concluded their pre-season campaign with a comfortable win over Aylesbury FC in a feisty affair at Chestnut Avenue. Luke Sheldrick returned between the sticks, while there was a new-look central midfield with Hakim Nyariki partnering Wilson Chingoka in the middle of the park after Callum Ferguson pulled up injured in the warm-up.
The visitors had plenty of defending to do in the early stages and Woods should have taken the lead through Ben Andreos but his close-range shot was blocked following a Ben Pattie corner. But Northwood were not to be denied as James Ewington capitalised on a mix up between goalkeeper Ashley Jenkins and brother Jordan to roll to open the scoring on 15 minutes.
Woods were forced into a change as skipper Carl Pearce had to leave the field to clean up a bloody nose with Bradley Marriott replacing him in central defence. But Northwood maintained their rhythm and could have extended their lead as Ewington saw his close-range shot blocked following a low cross from Kweku Lucan.
However, Ewington made amends and grabbed his second of the evening on 29 minutes as he finished of a sweeping move from deep involving Marriott and Karl Stevenson.
The 'friendly' aspect of the evening's proceedings was brought into question just before the break as Ben Pattie tangled with Aylesbury's Mohan Madkour, whose actions left the referee with little choice but to send him off, Pattie receiving yellow card for his part in the melee.
And Woods almost added to the visitors pain as Pattie played in Ewington, who rolled his shot wide of the upright. Aylesbury were required to do some defending after the restart as Pattie drew a full length from Jenkins while Ewington found space down the left flank but there was no one in the box to apply the finish.
Woods made a number of substitutions including a return to the pitch for Pearce and a first appearance at right-back for Ibrahim Conteh. The home side were now enjoying their best spell of sustained pressure, and Jerome Slew delivered an emphatic finish after Adam Murad has combined with Nyariki to make it 3-0 with 71 minutes on the clock.
And Murad completed the scoring on 84 minutes as he shot home for his first goal in Northwood colours to seal an impressive Woods' display and put Barker's men in a confident frame of mind as they look forward to the start of the league campaign this coming Saturday.
The goals can be seen on WoodsTV here.
REPORT by Robin Piper
