The Woods picked up a point from this poor contest at struggling Barton Rovers but the side were a shadow of the side who had got the better of Wingate & Finchley over two cracking FA Cup ties earlier in the week.

With injury ruling out Mitch Swain, there was a first-team debut in goal for Mark Britt, who has been performing well for the reserves over the past couple of seasons. Mark Burgess was also unavailable so Ryan Tackley returned to the starting line-up, while Sam Sharples and Dean Wallace continued the rotation policy in central midfield in preference to Anthony Page and Murray Williamson. Top scorer Scott Orphanou also had to settle for a place on the bench having missed the Cup replay through suspension.

Immediately from the kick-off Barton were almost caught out as Wallace chipped the ball from the halfway line but also just over the bar to the relief of goalkeeper Aaron Fletcher.

A quick break from the home side brought Britt into his first action on seven minutes as he raced out to save at the feet of Harry Holland, but it was an otherwise quiet start to the match with neither side looking likely to get an early goal.

Paul Andrews headed wide from a corner for the home side but then the Woods finally got their act together and took the lead on the half-hour. It was a good build-up involving Sharples and Aaron Cato, who played the ball neatly into the path of Danny Power, and he was able to guide a precision strike just inside the post for his first senior goal for the club.

The game should have been over before half-time as Cato shot wide after working his way into space, Josh Urquhart fired a free-kick just inches wide and then Leon Osei directed a free header straight at Fletcher after getting on the end of a Cato cross.

The significant change at half-time saw the Referee replaced by the Senior Assistant due to injury and the game was never allowed to flow in the same way. It seemed that every challenge became a free-kick, mainly awarded to the home side, and the Woods were unable to muster a shot on target at any stage.

Barton almost failed to capitalise on their good fortune, wasting countless free-kicks, but they did manage to level the scores on the hour when Paul Andrews stooped to head home a corner which had been allowed to find it’s way through a ruck of players without being cleared.

Britt made one comfortable save to deny Luke Knight as he tried his luck direct from one of the dead-ball situations but apart from that the game trudged miserably towards a finish.

The introduction of Page, Hicks and Orphanou failed to ignite the Woods, though Hicks did manage to cause a few problems down the flank, but there was still time for a flare-up towards the end.

Sharples was chopped down in front of the two benches by a bad challenge from Taylor Nathaniel, who had been booked earlier for a foul on Osei. After a tiresome fracas that followed, both players somehow ended up being shown straight red cards. I’ll leave it to those who were a bit nearer than me to judge whether the Match Officials got that one right.

Report by ALAN EVANS

Photos by James Brown