Report by ALAN EVANS

Northwood began life at step five for the first time in thirty-five years with a new manager and a brand-new team, with thirteen players making their Woods debut and with opponents Holyport visiting the Skyline Roofing Stadium for the first-ever time.

The Woods made a good start to the game and could have grabbed an early lead in just the second minute as a cross from the right picked out Bradley Bubb but his header went over the bar.

There was an offside flag when Liam Enver-Marum had the ball in the net after eight minutes but the home side should have been in front on 12 minutes when Enver-Marum ran from his own half, pushed past Eric Mafuta and sped into the box. He cut back across another defender onto his left foot but with just goalkeeper Tom Moulder to beat, his rising effort skimmed the bar.

Six minutes later, a free-kick played in by Luca Lombardi was met with a first-time strike by Brandon Trujillo but that flew wide of the near-post and soon after the visitors began to get forward themselves, creating two half-chances in quick succession for Lucas Surpanu but he was off target with both efforts.

There was 39 minutes on the clock when the Port had their first effort on target as a low shot from wide on the right was pushed away by the diving goalkeeper Kacper Orlowski with Kieron Lake-Bryan completing the clearance from the loose ball.

Still level at the break, the Woods came out strongly early in the second half and they scored their first-ever Combined Counties League goal on 49 minutes. A corner was headed out by Holyport skipper Austen Edwards but Amara Fofana was just first to the clearance and poked it forward to Bubb who was just being played onside as he quickly swivelled and shot past Moulder.

The goalscorer was substituted soon after, replaced by another debutant, Zack Ingham-Wright and soon after, Trujillo tried his luck with a left-foot strike from the edge of the box but was again too high.

Orlowski was back in action on 58 minutes as he had to get across to palm away a swinging free-kick from Sam Clark for a corner. It was the last goalmouth action for a while as neither side managed to threaten for a period of time either side of a water break. The Woods introduced Armani Morris for his debut in place of Lombardi while Holyport made all five substitutions inside a period of thirteen minutes as they looked to get back into things.

At the end of normal time, skipper Mustafa Tiryaki was penalised after winning a strong header just outside the box with the Port awarded a free-kick in a dangerous area but they were unable to take advantage with the shot just clearing the crossbar.

Almost immediately, Ingham-Wright broke through at the other end but just saw his chip over the goalkeeper thwarted as he managed to get a hand on the goalbound effort. But it was all over five minutes into the six minutes of added-time when a quick counter-attack saw Enver-Marum grab his deserved first Woods goal.

With no midweek fixture, Northwood now head to an FA Cup clash with Hutton FC at the Skyline Roofing Stadium next Saturday afternoon with a win behind them.

Photos by KEN GREEN

• Previous
• Pause or Play
• Next

• IMG_0027.jpg
• IMG_0028.jpg
• IMG_0029.jpg
• IMG_0030.jpg
• IMG_0031.jpg
• IMG_0032.jpg
• IMG_0033.jpg
• IMG_0034.jpg