The usual horrendous traffic problems on a midweek night meant a delayed arrival and kick-off for this much-rescheduled fixture, but credit goes to the home groundsman whose work on removing  surface water meant that the game was the only one to go ahead that night.

Mark Barnham’s selection problems continued with Danny Power suspended, Gilbert Nuako and Ryan Tackley unavailable, and Brad Hewitt, Aaron Cato and Leon Osei still ruled out with injury. It meant a debut at left-back for Max Moore and a place on the bench for reserve players Anton Robinson and Sam Phillips.

The home side were soon driving forward and they took the lead with their very first attack on eleven minutes. A short corner was only half-cleared, and full-back Jason Barton latched onto it to rifle a right-footed shot into the bottom corner.

The Woods were unable to make a mark, and the game slipped away from them completely with two further goals in three minutes. After 27 minutes a cross came in from the right, flighted well by Kevin Watson and some poor communication between Michael Peacock and Mitch Swain somehow saw both let it go through to curl inside the post. Just two minutes later a powerful strike from Uche Ibemere crashed back off the crossbar and fell kindly to Danny Penny, who slotted home.

Northwood showed some signs of settling towards the end of the half with a long-range effort from Kyle Matthews testing goalkeeper James Tedder, before Anthony Page missed a glorious chance after being set up by John Christian; steering his shot wide of the post.

Both Peacock and Christian had been struggling with injuries, so were replaced at half-time by Phillips and Anton Lewis as the Woods looked to make some inroads back into the game.

Within a minute, a cross from the right fell invitingly to Lewis at the far post, but he nodded the ball the wrong side of the upright; a second easy opportunity spurned inside two minutes.

The Woods never gave up the fight, though, and a good attacking run from Scott Purdue saw his cross laid off by Page to Sam Sharples, who was unable to keep his shot down.

After 69 minutes, Northwood were rewarded for their hard work as Sharples got through on goal and when his shot was pushed out by Tedder, Lewis was on hand to ram home the loose ball for his first league goal for the club.

Robinson got his first taste of Ryman League football when he replaced Hugo Figueiredo on 74 minutes, but VCD put the game beyond reach five minutes later when Ibemere forced the ball in from close range after a cross from Reece Walsh.

The final ten minutes saw the Woods rally well again, though, with Robinson impressing with several neat through-balls. The first put Lewis in on goal but he took an extra touch which allowed Tedder to block his shot, the second again found Lewis but this time he blasted the ball just over the bar. In between those Page headed a Matthews cross wide of the target, while Campbell-Grimshaw and Lewis both hit shots which again were too high to hit the target.

Overall the Woods had been too badly damaged by a poor first-half spell to avoid defeat in this game but there was plenty learned from a difficult fixture.

Report by ALAN EVANS