Report by ALAN EVANS

The Woods exited the FA Cup at the first stage with this disappointing defeat in their replay at Essex Senior League side Hutton who were playing in the competition for the first time in their history.

At the end of another hot day, the Woods faced a few travel issues with M25 closures causing some problems and they also had to shuffle the pack with both central defenders, Freddie Greenstreet and Mustafa Tiryaki, ruled out with injuries. Alex Sethi started for the first time, and was handed the captaincy, while Luca Lombardi was returned to the starting line-up.

And it was the home side that started on the front foot, trying a few shots from distance in the early stages, though they failed to trouble goalkeeper Noah Vaughan as they were well wide of the target.

It took twenty minutes for the Woods to force their first corner and that was headed away but three minutes later Nathan Akandi showed good anticipation to race onto an errant back pass and flick a shot for goal which was saved at the near-post by goalkeeper Stef Lamacq. From the resulting corner, Akandi saw another shot blocked, Lombardi tried to turn on the loose ball but his effort lacked power and was easy for the keeper.

Akandi was involved again a minute later but only with a pull back on Rege Manyewe as he got away down the right flank and he picked up a yellow card but the free-kick came to nothing.

Northwood were now at least matching Hutton in midfield and Amara Fofana was next to go close with a low shot from outside the box but it was wide of the post and half-time was approaching before the next goalmouth action.

Josh Havard replaced the out of sorts Lombardi on 40 minutes and soon after a deep cross from the right saw Reon Smith-Kouassi rise to head goalwards but it was just too high. Another substitution followed as Armani Morris came off for Yayah Jalloh to make his Woods debut.

Unfortunately, Hutton grabbed the lead with the very last kick of the first half when a corner came in from the left, was headed back into the danger zone and striker Adam Vyse was quickest to swing a boot on it and convert from close-range. The Woods needed to hit back quickly after the break but they again started slowly and found themselves further behind after 53m when another deep cross was headed in at the far post by Dean Cox from just a few feet out.

With a big task ahead of them, Northwood did start to make some inroads into the final third. Akandi found Liam Enver-Marum on the left and he cut in before shooting but Lamacq saved at the near-post. Louis James then replaced Brandon Trujillo for his Woods debut before Smith-Kouassi made inroads down the left and sent over a cross but Lamacq cut it out comfortably. 

After 61 minutes, Rodney Dos Santos got forward to shoot from distance but it flew well over and on 73 minutes Northwood made the final double substitution in their efforts to get back into the game with Zack Ingham-Wright and David Gillespie replacing Smith-Kouassi and Akandi.

On 79 minutes, a chance opened up when Havard was brought down just outside the box. Enver-Marum lined it up for a shot which was flighted well and had Lamacq beaten but it crashed back off of the crossbar and was cleared to safety.

Havard turned provider two minutes later with a well-threaded ball for Enver-Marum but the home keeper was out quickly and saved at his feet. Hutton were picking up a few late yellow cards as they looked to break up the play and it had the effect of eating up the remaining time.

On 91 minutes, Gillespie did well to knock in a tempting cross from the left but James was unable to get the touch in the middle but the Woods did finally pull a goal back two minutes later when Enver-Marum raced onto another good through ball and he finished coolly.

Sadly, there wasn’t enough time to find the second goal needed to force extra-time and it was Hutton who held on to victory and a home game against Grays Athletic in the next round.