Northwood’s hopes of ending a long losing run at home came crashing down as they surrendered their hard-fought lead in the final quarter of this game against play-off hopefuls Leighton Town. The Woods fielded a fourth different goalkeeper in four games with a debut between the sticks for Mark Phillpott while young defender Ed Hatcher came in for the unavailable Mark Burgess. Warren Whitely returned from a short spell back at Harrow Borough to replace Chris Chase who had completed a transfer from parent club Wingate & Finchley to Maldon & Tiptree United. Finally, youngster George Gould came in from disbanded Windsor & Eton for a debut in place of suspended Jake Lovell.

After a bright start from the visitors which saw Phillpott immediately into action to save from Ben Gallant, Northwood took the lead with their first attacking move on 15 minutes. Miles Jones, playing his last game for the club before departing for New Zealand, slipped a fine ball through the defence and Scott Orphanou timed his run well to latch onto it and finishing in clinical fashion.

Whitely shot wide soon after while Gould headed a James Bent cross wide as the Woods tried to press home the advantage. After 29 minutes Bent knocked in a free-kick, Orphanou flicked on a header which looked goalbound but goalkeeper Kevin Marsh reacted well to keep it out. Just four minutes later another quick break saw Leighton defender Pete Clifford fail to clear with a weak header and Orphanou seized on it with a shot which Marsh just managed to keep out with a dive to push the ball round the post.

Leighton hit back five minutes before the break when an over hit free-kick from Lewis McBride was kept in and played back into the middle with Tom Windsor clearing an Alex O’Brien shot off the line. After the break, things started evenly with Bent heading a Ryan Tackley cross over the top and Jones hitting a shot that also failed to hit the target while Phillpott saved from O’Brien and Drew Roberts shot well wide at the other end.

After 62 minutes, Phillpott made another stop from a McBride shot and just beat Liam Howley to the rebound but the Leighton player was injured making a challenge. The visitors immediately made a double substitution in an effort to turn the game around. There was no immediate impact as the Woods continued to hold out but Leighton forced a corner and the ball was headed back across goal by Stuart Deaton for unmarked substitute Jamie Osborne to force the ball home from close range.

Just three minutes later the game was turned on its head as the visitors were gifted a penalty. A ball flashed across the area and as Howard Hall went to clear his lines, O’Brien dived in and somehow managed to force a foul. Roberts stuck the spot-kick away and the Woods, having looked to be heading for victory, now had ten minutes to try to rescue a point.  They got nowhere near it, reacting to the perceived poor decision by losing their composure completely, picking up four yellow cards and conceding a third when McBride took advantage of poor defending to slot home.

Report by ALAN EVANS

Photos by James Brown