Northwood		Pre-season friendly Breakspear Road, Ruislip	Hillingdon Borough
Mitch Swain	1	Kick Off	1	Ben Harris
Gary Meakin	2	3.00 p.m.	2	Payne
Gary Burrell	3	Attendance	3	Pew
Michael Peacock	4	0	4	Joliffe
Chris Seeby	5	H/T	5	Notty
Ryan Tackley	6	2-0	6	Zachary Gill
Rob Ursell	7	Scorers	7	Lucas Wlliams
Mark Burgess (Capt.)	8	Northwood	8	Ramsey
Eugene Ofori	9	Matthews, Ofori, Senior, Burrell, Walters, Ursell 2	9	Gerald Kelly
Kyle Matthews	10		10	Long
Harry Smart	11		11	Lewis
Substitutes		Hillingdon Borough n/a	Substitutes
Lee Holland	12	Bookings	12
Danny Power	14	Northwood	14
Hugo Figueiredo	15	n/a	15
Garry Senior	16	Hillingdon Borough	16
Laurie Walters	17	n/a	17
Sam Sharples	18
Papa Agyeman	19
Ralph Starkey	20

 

Northwood enjoyed a confidence boosting goal spree against their near-neighbours as they continued their preparations for the new season. Harry Smart returned to the starting line-up as he replaced John Christian in the Woods’ midfield, the only change from the midweek win over Hampton & Richmond.

The Woods were quickly into their stride, and they opened the scoring on 10 minutes, Rob Ursell feeding Kyle Matthews, who turned the last defender before despatching a left foot strike into the bottom corner of the net. The same duo combined once more but this time Matthews’ shot lacked the necessary power to trouble Ben Harris in the Borough goal.

Woods continued to dominate, and Smart was inches away as his shot on the turn flew narrowly past the far post. Matthews and Ursell went close once more but at the other end, Hillingdon threatened through Ramsey, but his shot flew the wrong side of the crossbar.

Northwood were stroking the ball around with confidence and they were rewarded with a second goal on 32 minutes when Eugene Ofori beat Harris at the second attempt after the Woods’ striker latched onto Gary Meakin’s pin-point cross.

Ofori was replaced by Gary Senior before the half-time break and the latter had a chance to make the perfect start but was unable to reach another delightful Meakin cross, Smart rushing in at the far post but unable to keep his shot down.

Borough enjoyed a strong finish to the half, Woods’ goalkeeper Mitch Swain pushing a Ramsey effort past the post before dealing comfortably with a Long header.

Hugo Figueiredo, debutant Sam Sharples, Lee Holland and Danny Power were introduced at the half-time break for Matthews, Smart, Meakin and Tackley respectively. And it was more of the same as Woods added two more goals on 52 and 54 minutes, Senior rolling the ball into an empty net whilst Gary Burrell converted from the penalty spot after Figueiredo was tripped by Zak Gill.

Northwood made further changes as Laurie Walters, Papa Agyeman and debutant ‘keeper Ralph Starkey replaced Mark Burgess, Burrell and Swain. The new-look team continued in the same vein, and Northwood scored a fifth goal on 62 minutes as Walters latched onto Power’s ball over the top, Harris unlucky as the ball rebounded off Walters and a post, before the young Woods striker finished into an unguarded net.

The hosts were struggling to win any sort of possession and Woods inevitably added a sixth goal on 67 minutes as Ursell latched onto Chris Seeby’s cross.

There were further chances for Senior, whilst Figueiredo saw a shot cleared off the line. But the scoring was completed in the 85th minute when Ursell shot into the far corner of the net after Harris had saved Figueiredo’s initial effort to crown a highly satisfactory afternoon for Dave Anderson’s men.

Report by ROBIN PIPER

Photos by James Brown to follow