Chesham United 4 Northwood 1
Thursday 27th August 2020
| NORTHWOOD | |||
 |
|||
| 1 | Fred Chapman | ||
| 2 | Luke Jones | ||
| 3 | Ryan Esprit | ||
| 4 | Diogo Da Silva | ||
| 5 | A Trialist | ||
| 6 | Craig Vargas | ||
| 7 | A Trialist | ||
| 8 | Charlie Kuehn | ||
| 9 | Aaron Morgan | ||
| 10 | Lucas Toti | ||
| 11 | George Isaac | ||
| Substitutes | |||
| 12 | Leon Smith | ||
| 14 | A Trialist | ||
| 15 | Jaden Sharman | ||
| 16 | Radu Stefanoaica | ||
| 17 | A Trialist | ||
| 18 | A Trialist | ||
| 19 | Excel Muhemba | ||
| 20 | Guiherme Monti | ||
| 21 | Andre Da Costa | ||
The Woods began a run of three tough pre-season games in six days with this away game at Chesham United who, under the joint management of former Northwood players James Duncan and Michael Murray, were challenging for promotion to National League South back in March at the time of the shutdown of the season.
With the central defensive pairing of Dave Thomas and Haluna Masembe both missing and Ryan Phillips out injured, the Woods were put under pressure from and early and Chesham took an early lead when a trialist blasted home from the edge of the area. But the Woods responded well and when George Isaac was impeded by former Woods defender Sam Jenkins in the box, it was Isaac who picked himself up to send the keeper the wrong way from the resulting spot-kick to level the scores.
The parity lasted just over ten minutes but during that time the Woods lost Craig Carby when he came off worst in a collision just outside the area and limped off, being replaced by a trialist to give Northwood's back line a very inexperienced look. And so it showed when Ronny Mfinda burst through and although Fred Chapman made a good save, the ball ran loose and Dernell Wynter, another who saw service with the Woods in the past, swept home to loose ball.
Despite that, the defence held firm through to half-time, with Chapman playing his part with a sharp save to deny Dave Pearce. At the other end, Luke Jones was put through by a sublime ball from Aaron Morgan but the 'keeper was out to block the full-back's effort.
Both sides made their share of substitutions during the early stages of the second-half but Northwood were unable to create too much up front with their only real chance to equalise being through Leon Smith who burst into the box and beat the keeper only for the ball to come back off the inside of the post and into the goalie's grateful arms.
Chesham came on strong again in the final quarter and increased their lead after 76 minutes. Bradley Clayton raced down the left and found Mfinda. His effort was again saved by Chapman but the rebound was pounced on by Zak Joseph who fired home.
The scoring was complete just four minutes from time when the makeshift defence made a hash of clearing the ball and Pearce had the simplest of chances to knock in a fourth goal.
REPORT by Alan Evans
