Chalfont St Peter Res. 2  Northwood Res. 1 

Saturday 27th October 2012

NORTHWOOD RESERVES		Suburban Lge Premier Div B
		At Mill Meadow, Chalfont St Peter
Team line-up		Northwood scorer: Carbon
1	Garry Malone
2	Ed Hatcher
3	Harry Wright
4	Adil Salih
5	Adam Pepera
6	Louis Judge
7	Jack Clarke
8	Colin Hoare
9	Sean James
10	Reynaldo Carbon
11	Rashid Oddabi
Substitutes
12	Jeff O'Sullivan (8, 60m)
14	Beka Bekim
15	George Chater-Clarke
16	Jason Puzey (9, 60m)
17	-

Northwood reserves’ recent winning streak came to an end away at Chalfont St Peter. Once again the reserves put up another good battling team performance, in atrocious weather conditions, and definitely didn’t deserve to lose the game. The pitch was poor and the freezing rain and driving wintry winds made it a very difficult day for both sides to play good football.

Chalfont were awarded a free kick on five minutes on the edge of the box and Garry Malone did well to punch the ball clear with so many players closing in around him.  Sean James made a number of good attacking runs early on, and Chalfont were finding it difficult to deal with his strength and pace up front.

Woods clearly started the game better than Chalfont, and they dominated the first period with the blustery wind behind them helping to drive them forward. Chalfont’s defence and keeper were finding the conditions very difficult and struggled to clear their half on a number of occasions.  So it was no surprise when Northwood took the lead on 35 minutes when Reynaldo Carbon found himself clear on goal after an exquisite through ball from James. With the Chalfont keeper caught in two minds, Carbon had the time and presence to run into the box and then deftly chip the ball over the approaching keeper. However, Chalfont were able to equalise within a minute of the restart when Northwood failed to clear the ball and it was picked up and curled into the top corner from just outside the box. Both teams would have been happy to go in level at half time and take the break to regroup and warm up.

Chalfont started the second half better, and went close to taking the lead on 58 minutes when their number 11 hit the side-netting from a strike just outside the box. Derek Lewis decided to change things up at the hour mark, replacing Colin Hoare and  James with Jason Puzey and Jeffrey O’Sullivan. Northwood were unlucky not to take the lead again on 71 minutes when Carbon’s curling free kick from just outside the box was well saved by the Chalfont Keeper. Woods continued to attack and came close on a number of occasions through good efforts from Jack Clarke, Harry Wright and Carbon. Chalfont sealed the win in the 80th minute following a good counter attack and even better finish from Chalfont’s number 11.

Overall this was a good team performance, with a number of stand-out performances in difficult conditions from the Northwood back four and Adil Salih in midfield. Despite the loss the signs are positive since the appointment of Derek Lewis and Andrew Richardson.