BetVictor
Isthmian League
South Central

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WORDS:
Alon Farrow   
PICTURE:
James Brown
WOODSTV:
Marlon Bass

Fighting back from a one goal deficit, a stellar performance from Northwood helped them achieve their second home league win of the season, against fourth placed Uxbridge.

Goals from Harry Lodovica, Luke Holness and captain Charlie Hayford helped the Woods secure a third victory on the bounce.

Northwood manager Jamie Leacock had to make two enforced changes to the starting eleven, with Azeez Alabi and Patrick Campbell coming in for the injured Mack Miskin and Liam McCrohan.

Northwood started the game the liveliest, but it was the visitors who had the first real goalscoring opportunity. Mark Bitmead’s low strike was well saved by Woods’ keeper Joe Ringer.

Up the other end, Northwood had almost found the opener. Holness did well to beat his defender and find space for a strike, but his shot was saved by the feet of Uxbridge’s goalkeeper Tyler Tobin.

Five minutes after their first big opportunity, on the 23rd minute, Northwood got the opening goal from a rapid counter-attack. Enock Ekongo started off the attack playing a through ball to Holness. Holness, running down the wing, created a low driven cross which was cleared straight to Lodovica who finished calmly inside the box.

The great start was short lived, as one minute after Lodovica’s goal, Uxbridge had scored. A floated cross from the left was mis-judged by Ringer with Bitmead there to tap the ball into the empty net.

After conceding so quickly, Northwood’s heads did not drop, and they looked to get back into the lead. Hayford played an over-the-top through ball to Lodovica whose shot skewed off-target but landed at Eric Lopes’ feet, with his shot agonisingly being blocked off the line.

Unfortunately for the Woods it would be the visitors who took the lead before half-time. With 38 minutes on the clock, Mahlondo Martin slid in at the back post to finish off a low driven cross from Uxbridge’s first goalscorer Bitmead.

The second half started off very slowly, taking 10 minutes for a notable moment to happen.
Uxbridge’s attacker Alex Paine connected sweetly from a cross, but his volley from 25 yards out went fractionally wide of the post.

It looked to be a frustrating second half for Northwood with chances and penalty shouts not going their way.
That was until, in the 83rd minute, Ryan Haugh slid to the ground trying to prevent the Woods attack. In doing so he was deemed to handle the ball by referee Michael Begley and a penalty was given. Hayford calmly stepped up and buried his penalty into the roof of the net.

With the equaliser scored and Northwood on the front-foot, it did not take much longer for the winner to be scored. With one minute left on the clock, Tyrone Pink floated the ball into Holness, who controlled expertly with his chest and finished into the bottom left corner, cementing an outstanding comeback win for Northwood.