In a game of two halves, Northwood could not hold on to a two-nil advantage against 19th placed South Park.

Goals from Ben Pattie and Sam Tring helped Northwood to a comfortable lead within 30 minutes. But two goals were not enough see off the visiting team, and a resurgent second half saw South Park grabbing an equaliser in the 67th minute.

Dean Barker made two changes from the mid-week Middlesex Senior Cup game, Dan Newton coming back in for the injured Karl Stevenson and Kweku Lucan replacing Sam Jenkins on the right flank.

Northwood started off the livelier team, and it did not take them long to get off the mark, a great turn and an equally great shot from Pattie lead to the opener of the game in the sixth minute.

Scoring the first goal did not cause Northwood to get complacent, and a beautiful passing move lead to Brendan Ocran being put through on goal, but his touch let him down and he was unable to improve Northwood’s lead.

Northwood kept up the pressure and had a flurry of chances, none coming closer than Newton whose header, from a great whipped in corner, went agonisingly wide.

The Woods’ constant barrage of attacks paid off when another great corner was tapped in from two yards by Sam Tring. 31 minutes in and Northwood looked the likely winners.

Although two-nil down, South Park did not let their heads drop, and with their first two shots on target in the 37th minute they managed to pull one back. A powerful long-range effort from McLean was saved by Luke Sheldrick but not out of harm’s way, with the ball falling straight to Tyreke Leslie, who managed to finish from a very tight angle.

South Park started the second half the vastly superior team with a constant bombardment of the right-hand flank.

67 minutes in and the visiting team deservedly got an equaliser. A poor piece of defending from Northwood lead to Sebastian Osei Obengo having an uncontested shot from the outside of the box.

After the equaliser the visitors almost got in front, a great save from Sheldrick denying Chevron McLean the away team’s third goal of the day.

Into the last 15 minutes and South Park sat back inviting pressure, and it was pressure that was almost too much for the visitors’ defence. In the dying moments Lucan played a lovely fizzing ball across the goal mouth but there was no player close enough to tap it home.

In the end Northwood could not break through South Park’s resilient defence, and the game finished in a stalemate.

Active IT Man of the Match: Ben Pattie

Post match interviews with Dean Barker and Ben Pattie on WoodsTV