Northwood Report

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Ryman Premier League Northwood 1-0 Slough Town

 

We travelled to Northwood one place off the relegation zone and we were hopeful that this could be 3 points in the bag and the start of a mini revival, however football has a habit of kicking you in the teeth, and this game proved that point excellently.

We kicked off in a 4-4-2 formation, with Haddow and Saulsbury at full back and Daly returning back to his usual centre back role partnered by Michael Murphy; Harris and Steer were the wingers with Metcalfe and Hakki playing down the middle leaving Hodges and Spencer up front. The first 30 minutes was poor, neither team had any attack of note and possession was squandered constantly by both sides. The highlight of the first half hour was Veli Hakki miscontrolling the ball and then expertly rolling it over his shoulders, Brazil of the Ryman League indeed! Slough’s first chance fell to Spencer, via a superb Ian Hodges pass, unfortunately Spencer’s shot from the edge of the box was excellently turned over by the Northwood ‘keeper Rob Bullivant. Slough continued their pressure with Ian Hodges being the main catalyst constantly harrying the defence and was unlucky not to set up the opener; his square ball being cleared just before it was tucked home. The second half was looming and neither team looked likely to score until the Slough players stopped expecting a free kick to be given against them, however, the referee ‘played on’ and Kris McHale blasted the ball into the top right corner past a stationary Shaun Allaway from 30 yards. The final action before the half time whistle saw Slough nearly go 2-0 down but luckily their forward’s header rattled the outside of Allaway’s left post.

Slough started the second half the better of the two sides, Hodgey was cynically brought down 20 yeards out as he headed towards the Northwood goal, however the referee waved on and Slough fans were left incensed behind the goal. After 60 minutes Eddie brought on Seedel and Carbon for Steer and Saulsbury; Seedel’s first touch was to smack the ball over from 12 yards after good link up play from Haddow and Hodge. Veli Hakki was next to threaten the Northwood goal but a last ditch tackle from a Northwood defender stopped him as he advanced on Bullivant. In the following 20 minutes Harris fired just wide, Haddow rounded 3 defenders before having his shot blocked, and Ian Hodge received an excellent Michael Murphy through ball but his shot was cleared as it was rolling in. With ten minutes remaining, after some ‘pinball football’ in the box, a low Matt Seedel shot was cleared off the line and the final attack also fell to ‘Seedy’ who shot just over from 10 yards out. To summarise, both teams played poorly and Slough could have stolen at least a point in the 2nd half with better finishing.

 

Man Of The Match: Michael Murphy: Some great tackles and some very good through balls.