On the face of it, three goals, a clean sheet, three points and no cautions sounds like an emphatic clean-cut victory but in fact the Woods were indebted to goalkeeper Berkley Laurencin for much of their success against lowly Beaconsfield Sycob. Mark Burgess named the same starting line-up that had beaten Guernsey in the gruelling FA Trophy tie a week earlier but they had enjoyed a week’s rest.

The visitors had also been buoyed by their first home win of the season the previous week and have added a bit more experience to go with some of their young talent but it was the Woods who started the brighter and they were rewarded with the opening goal after 18 minutes. Ismael Ehui did the hard work with an attacking run down the right and he knocked a great ball across to the far post where Sam Byfield had time to take a touch before firing home.

Perhaps Northwood expected to go on from there but Beaconsfield had plenty of good movement about them and Ashley Kelynack brought Laurencin into his first action just a minute later as his low shot was comfortably saved. Omari Patrick did well to get past both Burgess and Nick Turner only to see Laurencin pull off a fine save from his shot, pushing the ball up and wide of the goal and after 35 minutes, a long-range effort from Ollie Jones was heading for goal before Laurencin stretched and palmed the ball over the bar.

Having maintained the narrow advantage to half-time without threatening a second goal, the Woods supporters were hoping for better things in the second half but the Rams still pushed and Jones was again denied as the Northwood keeper tipped his shot over the top just to be sure of it not dropping into the net. After 52 minutes another pass into the box found Aaron Berry and Laurencin again saved his effort. Although the ball ran loose, there was no-one there to add the required touch and it was eventually cleared away to safety.

The Woods finally started to string a few passes together themselves and one ball clipped forward saw Ismael Ehui through with just goalkeeper Sam Bunting to beat but he chipped wide of the far post. Northwood were then dealt a blow as their top scorer was forced off after feeling a hamstring injury just two minutes later and he was replaced by Rob Hastings on 61 minutes.

But Sycob’s best chance of levelling came two minutes later as a quick break led to a ball slipped through to Berry who ignored offside claims while attempting to take the ball round Laurencin only for the keeper to get down and push it away.

Perry Dicker had an immediate impact when coming on as a substitute against Guernsey a week earlier and he pulled off the same trick this time. Replacing Will Hudson after 66 minutes, just a minute later he broke quickly from midfield, fed a neat ball on to Joakim Ehui and the winger slotted past Bunting to double Northwood’s lead. Still Beaconsfield rallied with Tom Willment coming from defence to have a shot deflected just wide and then, from a corner taken by substitute Danilson Vicente, Willment came in with a powerful header but it flew the wrong side of the post.

It was the visitors’ last hope of salvaging the game though as with ten minutes left, a neat ball saw Hastings use his pace to good effect and although Bunting came out to make a good block from his initial attempt, the ball ran kindly for Hastings who fired home from the rebound. The action continued through to stoppage-time. Lee Togwell picked out Patrick with a good ball but the Sycob striker shot across the face of goal and wide while Vicente poked a late chance wide. Northwood almost scored from a well-worked corner as Michael Murray got on the end of an Andy Lomas ball and Burgess flicked it into Bunting’s hands.

In the end, it was an unconvincing victory but the three points were important as it takes the Woods ten points away from the relegation places but also just six points off the play-off places in what is becoming a very tight division.