Northwood		Pre-season friendly Chestnut Avenue, Northwood	Crystal Palace XI
Mitch Swain	1	Kick Off	1	Charlie Mann
Danny Power	2	1.15 p.m.	2	Kieran Kenlock
Gary Burrell	3	Attendance	3	Alex Wynter
Bradley Hewitt	4	141	4	Charlie Holness
Chris Seeby	5	H/T	5	Daniel Pringle
Michael Peacock	6	0-0	6	Jack Holland
Mark Burgess (Capt.)	7	Scorers	7	Jack Randall
John Christian	8	Northwood	8	Jake Caprice
Garry Senior	9	Matthews 73	9	Tauren McDonald-Roberts
Harry Smart	10	Crystal Palace	16	Ibra Sekajja
Rob Ursell	11	n/a	11	Rhys Williamson-Murrell
Substitutes		Bookings	Substitutes
Ryan Tackley (3)	12	Northwood	12	Wilfried Zaha (11)
Gary Meakin (4)	14	n/a	14	John Williams (2)
Kyle Matthews (9)	15	Crystal Palace	15
Papa Agyeman (2)	16	n/a	17	Kyle DeSilva (5)
Hugo Figueiredo (8)	17	Sent Off	18	Joe Goldsmith (9)
Shay (10)	18	Northwood	19	Brendan Kiernan (4)
Mark Britt	19	n/a
		Crystal Palace
		n/a
Referee: Mr Tony Power			Assistants: Mr Chris Evans & Mr Mark Sennett

 

 

Northwood got their pre-season programme off to a winning start with a single goal win over a youthful Crystal Palace outfit.

There was a familiar look to the Woods line-up in terms of personnel, but manager Dave Anderson opted for a new system as he deployed Bradley Hewitt, Michael Peacock and Chris Seeby in a formidable looking three-man defence.

Northwood were quickly into their stride with Hewitt seeing his header from  a Rob Ursell  corner rebound off a post as early as the fourth minute.

Woods continued to ask questions of Palace as they launched  a series of sweeping moves with Gary Senior going close on a couple of occasions whilst Ursell shot narrowly wide. Mitch Swain had to be alert in the Northwood goal as dealt comfortably with Tauren McDonald-Roberts effort in a rare moment of first half pressure from the visitors. 

Woods were creating plenty of openings but they continued to lack the necessary composure in front of goal as Senior and Seeby squandered good opportunities.

Both sides made wholesale changes early in the second half, and Palace began to offer more of an attacking threat. But it was Northwood who deservedly broke the deadlock when Kyle Matthews converted from close-range on 73 minutes.

Palace set about looking for an equaliser and the lively Jack Randall twice went close, forcing Swain into a smart save before fiercely struck free-kick rattled the Northwood woodwork. Woods continued to look dangerous on the break, and debutant Papa Agyeman wasn’t far away with a low shot.

However, there were to be no additions to the scoreline with Northwood good value for their win, to leave manager Dave Anderson a satisfied man after a useful workout for his young charges. 

Report by ROBIN PIPER

 

 

Photos by James Brown