Northwood Res. 4  North Greenford Res. 3

Tuesday 24th April 2012

Northwood Res.		Suburban League Chestnut Avenue, Northwood
Garry Malone	1	Kick Off
Kevin Ayodele	2	7.45 p.m.
Harry Wright	3	H/T
Freddie Brooks	4	0-1
Mark Bennett	5	Scorers
Louis Judge	6	Northwood
Ryan Lee	7	Stephenson 3, Lee
Kyle Matthews	8
Garry Senior	9
Myles Stephenson	10
Wayne O’Sullivan	11
George Holland (11, 62m)	12
Julian Smith (8, 57m)	14
Temitayo Fambegbe (9, 62m)	15
-	16
-	17

The Woods ensured their Premier Division safety with narrow win in an eventful game against neighbours North Greenford United. There were less first-team squad players involved than had played against Leatherhead a week earlier with only Garry Senior and Wayne O’Sullivan, playing substitutes against Burnham at the weekend, starting this one.

The Woods started well, with Senior missing an early chance and then Myles Stephenson hitting the bar, but one evident problem after about ten minutes was that one side of the floodlights had failed to ignite and, unless resolved, would result in the game being abandoned once it got dark!

Not fazed by this, the visitors got themselves back into the game and then took the lead before the break when a corner was half-cleared and when the ball was played back into the box, substitute Josh Quadry showed good control to turn and hit a cracking shot that gave young goalkeeper Garry Malone no chance.

There was a longer than usual half-time interval while Steve the electrician set to work on trying the resolve the lighting problem but he did manage to get half of the far side lights working and it was unanimously agreed that this provided sufficient illumination to get the game out of the way.

Northwood came out for the second period in determined style, and a good ball from Ryan Lee saw Stephenson drill home an equaliser after 51 minutes. They continued to push forward and on the hour the favour was returned as a knock down gave Lee a chance, and the former Woods youth teamer fired in coolly. Substitutions followed, with the three most experienced players being replaced by teenagers, but just three minutes later it was 3-1 as Stephenson broke through on goal again and lifted the ball neatly over goalkeeper Jamie Carpenter.

But North Greenford refused to buckle and they were back in the game when a quick break saw Fouriya Saumbayat raced down the right and squared the ball to Daniel Clerkin, who slotted home after 76 minutes. Malone made a super save to tip over a good strike from David Castanho just a minute later and it proved vital. With four minutes to go, Stephenson completed an excellent second-half hat-trick with a cracking left-foot strike across the keeper and it should have been game over.

Yet again the Blues hit back, this time within a minute, as a poor clearance from Malone saw the speedy Jamel Mattan return the ball back into the box, where Clerkin helped himself to a second goal and it was 4-3 with three minutes to play.

Thankfully, the Woods held out strongly towards the end and it was the home side that went closest to adding to the scoreline, with Temitayo Fambegbe and Louis Judge both having shots blocked on the line, then when Fambegbe converted, it was ruled out for offside.

The reserves are now safe from relegation but have one more home game to play, on Saturday when Three Bridges are the visitors to Chestnut Avenue, and the Sussex side still need points to avoid the drop themselves.

Report: ALAN EVANS