Northwood Res. 0  Corinthian Casuals Res. 3

Saturday 17th November 2012

NORTHWOOD RESERVES		Suburban League Premier B Division
		At Northwood Park
Team line-up
1	Garry Malone
2	Ed Hatcher
3	Alex Ishola
4	Freddie Brooks
5	Colin Hoare
6	George Chater-Clarke
7	Ryan Penhale
8	Adil Salih
9	Chinnau Cole
10	Lewis Davis
11	Matt Cooper
Substitutes
12	Reynaldo Carbon (7, 46m)
14	Jeffrey O’Sullivan
15	Danny Racham (10, 80m)
16	Harold Eluma-O’Brien (2, 46m)
17	-

Northwood Reserves were beaten 3-0 by a big, physically stronger Corinthian Casuals Reserve side at Northwood Park; and but for some excellent defending from the Woods’ back four and several good saves from keeper Garry Malone the final result could have been even worse. For the first twenty minutes of the game Northwood were able to match the Casuals with a gritty determination and some free flowing counter attacks and they almost took the lead in the third minute when Chinnau Cole ran on to an exquisite through ball from Freddie Brooks, rounding the keeper and shooting on target, only to have his excellent effort cleared of the line by the back tracking Casuals centre half. The last ditched clearance eventually fell inside the box to Ryan Penhale, whose rising shot unfortunately hit the bar and went behind for a goal kick.

Corinthian Casuals got control of the game in the middle of the first half and launched wave after wave of attack on the Northwood goal. Good defending by Northwood kept the Casuals’ efforts to only tame half-chances and Woods were unlucky not to score in the forty fifth minute from a rare counter attack when Cole latched on to another through ball this time from Alex Ishola; Cole beat two defenders only to have his final shot saved by the Casuals keeper. Northwood were hit with a sucker punch in injury time when a clear foul on Ed Hatcher was missed by both the Referee and his assistant, allowing the offending Casuals winger to continue his run before crossing the ball into the Woods box for Corinthian’s big number 9 to head home with the final attack of the first half. 

Interim Management team Dave Fox and Richard Elderfield made two changes at half-time, bringing on Reynaldo Carbon and Harold Eluma-O’Brien for Penhale and the injured Hatcher. Corinthians quickly got control of the game again in the second half and they bombarded the Northwood goal with incessant attacks. Their unrelenting pressure paid off in the sixty-first minute when a cross from the right found the Casuals number 9 unmarked at the back post, and he was able to head home for his and Corinthians second goal. Ten minutes later in the seventy-first minute the Casuals striker almost got his hat-trick when he broke free and found himself inside the woods box with just the keeper to beat, but his shot was well saved by Malone diving low to his left. Sixty seconds later the Casuals striker ran on to another through ball, but was once again his hat-trick was foiled this time by the feet of Malone.

Corinthians went 3-0 up in the seventy-ninth minute from a corner, when the Northwood defence failed to track one of the Casuals midfielders; allowing him a free header at the back post. New signing Danny Racham was sent on to replace Lewis Davis in the eightieth minute. Woods’ first real chance of the second half came in the eighty-fifth minute when Carbon picked the ball up on the edge of the Casuals box, but his shot went straight into the arms of the keeper.

Late into injury time Malone was called into action again, with a triple save in the ninety-first minute and a good reaction save two minutes later, helping to keep the score down. When you consider the disarray the team found themselves in from the sudden departure of their Manager Derek Lewis and the overall dominance and possession Corinthian Casuals enjoyed throughout the game, Northwood Reserves did well to restrict the scoreline and put in a battling team performance with stand-out performances from Colin Hoare, Brooks and Ishola.