Northwood U18 2  Wembley U18 0

Wednesday 27th September 2023

NORTHWOOD
1	Henry Ford
2	Keelan Sweeney
3	Jeremy Scholz
4	Jayden Williams
5	Liam Osborne
6	Ethan Bradford ©
7	Alex Grant
8	Nicholas Casteluber
9	Everton Lewis
10	Tom Reid
11	Sarin Thapa
Substitutes
12	Max Lousley
14	Londin Latifi
15	Jamie Dwyer
16	Fabjan Toci
17	-

The Woods Under 18s played their first home Allied Counties League game of the season when the Lions of Wembley came to the Skyline Roofing Stadium.

In fact, it was the first time in 13 years that the stadium had hosted an Allied Counties game, so a historic return to the competition after many years of playing Isthmian Youth League football.

There were several changes to the previous line-up, with debuts for 16-year-old goalkeeper Henry Ford and striker Everton Lewis, who is only 15, while Nicholas Casteluber made his first appearance of the season. James Payne and Ben Crowder were ruled out with injuries and Joe Reade was still not available.

It was a highly-competitive first half with both sides having a couple of good efforts on goal but it remained goalless. The Woods stepped up the pressure after the break with Alex Grant going close with one shot that skimmed the bar and then Lewis was denied a couple of times by the Wembley keeper.

But it was after 63 minutes that last season’s top scorer Fabjan Toci grabbed the all-important opening goal, coming on as a substitute to hit a fine shot from just outside the area which beat the keeper.

There was still ten minutes to go when the Woods made sure of all three points with a second goal and it was Lewis who netted on his debut, converting a cross from Grant. It was good to see Ford keep a clean sheet on debut too and the Woods moved back to the top of the division at this early stage of the season.

Report by ALAN EVANS