Northwood 3 Brentwood Town 1
Saturday 5th August 2017
| NORTHWOOD | Pre-season friendly | |
 |
Chestnut Avenue | |
| Team line-up | Scorers Williams 3 |
|
| 1 | Will Price | |
| 2 | Pat Kelly | |
| 3 | Pat Adamson | |
| 4 | Lewis Hobbs | |
| 5 | Brad Hewitt | |
| 6 | Hakim Nyarik | |
| 7 | Tayshan Hayden-Smith | |
| 8 | Ryan Debattista | |
| 9 | Meshach Williams | |
| 10 | Antonio Walker | |
| 11 | Michael Osei | |
| Substitutes | ||
| 12 | Callum Lyttle | |
| 14 | Wilson Chingoka | |
| 15 | Jamie Doolan | |
| 16 | James Gurteen | |
| 17 | Joe Russell | |
| 18 | A Triallist (gk) | |
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
The Woods ended their pre-season campaign as they started it, with a 3-1 success, this time in front of their home fans against fellow Step 4 side Brentwood Town. Simon Lane may not be sure of his final starting line-up for next weekend's opening league game at Hartley Wintney, but he went into this contest with his preferred diamond formation despite missing a few players with injury.
The visitors started well, and a couple of well flighted crosses saw two headers flash narrowly wide of the post. At the other end Brad Hewitt forced the first save of the match when goalkeeper Anthony Page kept out a header from a well delivered corner.
Woods keeper Will Price then did well to block a shot from Izzy Bademosi before Northwood took the lead two minutes later as Meshach Williams crashed home a shot. On the half hour an excellent move saw Williams show clever footwork at the near post to knock in a second goal, and when Price denied Bademosi for a second time, Northwood claimed a 2-0 lead at half-time.
It had been a fairly even half apart from the clinical finishing but the Woods looked more dominant after the break. But it wasn't until the 63rd minute that the impressive Antonio Walker was tripped in the box and a penalty awarded. Williams stepped up in an attempt to complete his hat-trick, but was denied by a good save from Page.
A superb ball from Lewis Hobbs put Wilson Chingoka through on goal but after beating Page the ball came back off a post, and then Williams missed out again when his drive also hit a post with Ryan Debattista failing to convert the rebound.
Having failed to be killed off, the Essex side were refreshed by a few substitutions and pulled a goal back on 73 minutes with a cool finish from Matt Price. The Woods had to defend well for ten minutes before Williams met a cross cut back by Pat Kelly to finally notch his third goal and wrap up the victory.
