Report by ALAN EVANS

The Woods battled back for a valuable point at Silver Jubilee Park having trailed by two goals at the interval in their first-ever match against Hilltop. Northwood were looking to bounce back from their heavy defeat at Wokingham Town at the weekend and made a couple of changes for this fixture with Jonathan Moura restored to the starting line-up, while Sankou Jabbi came in at left-back on dual-registration from Leverstock Green. Ilyas Khader, having been unavailable at the weekend, replaced George Eldridge.

It was the home side who started well, knocking the ball around with confidence and the visitor’s goalkeeper Finn Rushton was called into action after ten minutes, saving well to deny a good strike from Rinalds Jurkstis. Just two minutes later, Hilltop were in front though as Omar Al-Seadi cut in from the left and arrowed a shot across the face of goal and in at the far post.

It was a blow but one that the Woods recovered from quickly. After 15 minutes a well-flighted corner was flicked on by the head of Moura at the near-post and Juwon Akintunde pounced from close-range to level things up.

It was end-to-end stuff at this stage. Rushton saved again to deny the hosts but then the Woods stormed forward with Moura’s excellent run taking him through the home defence and into the box, It looked like a good finish but goalkeeper Hossam Hassan just managed to get a hand to it to push it onto the far post. Ilyas Khader was quickest to the loose ball but saw his effort blocked and cleared away.

After 32 minutes, Moura was influential again, playing a great ball which put Mark Osei through on goal but he slotted his shot wide of the far post and the Woods were wasting some great opportunities. They were made to pay four minutes later when Hilltop made a clean break down the right flank and the ball was played cleanly to Hussein Mahdi who fired home from the edge of the box. Back in front, the hosts raised their game once again. They should have had a third on 40 minutes when the Woods defence was exposed again and Tyrese Okello missed the target from close-range.

He made amends for that miss just two minutes later though as another run into the box drew a foul from Johnny Wilson and the Referee pointed to the spot. Okello took the penalty himself and slotted past Rushton to make the scoreline 3-1 at the half-time break.

Manager Scott Patmore rang the changes during the interval with Rafiq Bettamer and Parris Mason on to replace Lewis Buamah and Maksym Fostyk. The Woods needed to get back into the game quickly and, after a good start, they did just that. Mason provided the ball wide to Khader and his cross was only parried by Hassan straight onto Akintunde with the ball cannoning into the net for his second of the match.

Northwood were dominating play but were still susceptible to some quick breaks from the home side and Rushton did really well to tip one excellent strike over the bar on the hour. But after 68 minutes, Akintunde was bundled over when coming into the box from the left and another penalty was awarded, this time to the Woods; their first of the season in their sixteenth fixture! Akintunde took it himself and though Hassan saved his effort, he was adjudged to have moved off his line and, the Woods striker then completed his hat-trick from the retake.

There was still twenty minutes left for either side to find the winner and Osei had the best opportunity for the Woods on 72 minutes as he raced through again but Hassan was just equal to his shot, getting a hand to it to push the ball wide.

Two minutes later, play switched to the other end as a marauding run from skipper Mohamed Hussein set up Ali Mohamed with Rushton diving low to save his shot. Suddenly Hilltop had their tails up again and some more excellent passing moves could have produced a winning goal but firstly Rushton managed to push the ball off the attacker’s foot and then Kevin Mustali blocked the follow-up strike from Mahdi.

Mahdi remained a threat though and the Woods were grateful to Rushton again after 85 minutes as he dived to push another shot wide. It proved enough to make the point safe.