Northwood U18s 1  Harefield United U18s 1
Northwood won 8-7 on penalties  

Thursday 6th September 2012

NORTHWOOD UNDER 18s		FA Youth Cup
		Chestnut Avenue, Northwood
Team line-up		Northwood scorer Murray
1	Garry Malone
2	Alex Nolan
3	Prav Amarnath
4	Ronnie Blagden
5	Rob Brooks
6	Alex Ishola
7	Darius Murray
8	Patrick O'Connor
9	Harry Fulbrook
10	Michael Elderfield
11	Liam Doyle
Substitutes
12	Sam Beecham (8)
14	David Palmer (9)
15	Issac Alawode (11)
16	Luke Humphries
17	Aaron Garrick

In front of a healthy attendance of 62, Northwood played host to Harefield United for a place in the first qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup.

Harefield enjoyed the better of things in the first half and Garry Malone was by far the busier of the keepers, making several noteworthy saves. In a pretty uneventful first half, special mention should go to forwards Harry Fulbrook & Michael Elderfield. They chased everything and helped the team reach half time with the score line deadlocked at 0-0.

Whatever the Northwood management team said at half time, it worked, and the Woods came out fired up. On the hour the home side went ahead following a corner when Darius Murray flicked the ball home.

The game then became far more open, but Northwood definitely had the better of the chances. With around fifteen minutes to go all three Woods substitutes had been used, and they looked comfortable, but from this time on the match became frenetic. With ten minutes to go Michael Elderfield became the first of what would be several players to be either booked or sent off. 

For some inexplicable reason the referee added on more than five minutes of stoppage time, and in the 95th minute an unfortunate own goal saw Harefield back in the game and so it moved into extra time. The first period of extra time was dominated by Northwood but they couldn’t score and frustration began to build.

A further booking saw Sam Beecham see yellow, and from here on the match became really exciting. Harefield hit the bar with a screamer and Northwood countered. Tiredness was now beginning to be a factor and a late challenge by Pranav Amarnath saw a third yellow card given by referee Daniel Simpson. With penalties beckoning, a melee in midfield saw Rob Brooks – who had been outstanding – receive a red card along with a Harefield player.

For reasons only known by himself, the official then added nearly a further ten minutes to the extra time period but the game still finished at 1-1. The penalty shootout that followed was dramatic. After fifteen penalties Pranav Amarnath scored the decisive kick and Northwood had won 8-7 on spot-kicks! Great stuff and a well deserved victory!

REPORT by Alan Palmer