The Woods were left stunned when their first home league match ended in a whopping defeat at the hands of newly-promoted Chalfont, who enjoyed the freedom of the park to notch their first victory back at the higher level.

After the disappointing narrow defeat at Ashford Town (Middlesex) at the weekend, the Woods were further hit by an injury to Junior Osborne that ruled him out of the line-up. Peter Lyall stepped up to take his place in the centre, while Liam Hind came in, having joined from Hendon to take Aaron Silcott’s place at right-back.

The Saints stormed forward from the start, with Lewis Cumber shooting wide in the very first minute. Three minutes later, goalkeeper Tony Russell was penalised for handling the ball outside the area and from the resulting free-kick Danny Hughes curled a shot round the wall and in for the opening goal. A bad start got worse quite quickly. A quick break saw Adamson Ajayi set up Terrell Lewis who turned well but shot over from a good position. Then, with just ten minutes on the clock, Hughes knocked in a free-kick from the right after Lee Grant was penalised for a foul, and John Carroll rose stole in unchallenged to powerfully head home a second goal.

The Woods rallied, with Oliver Hawkins poking a Ben Alexander cross wide of the target when a header seemed the better option, and then a good move involving Wayne O’Sullivan and Sam Sharples led to another Hawkins effort which lacked the power to beat goalkeeper Mark Oliver. After 16 minutes Hawkins headed on a long-throw from Hind and Alexander headed over from close range before Murray Williamson had a long-range shot headed wide.

Eventually the tide turned, and after 29 minutes Lyall pumped in a free-kick and when Oliver failed to gather under pressure from Hawkins, Craig White pounced to fire home the loose ball.  A minute later a good run from Sharples took him into the box only to see his shot blocked by Bedel Guei, but Chalfont still looked more dangerous on the break and Lewis had the ball in the back of the net after 32 minutes only to be ruled out for an offside flag.

Having worked hard to get back into the game, the Woods’ defence slipped again as Ajayi’s run down the right flank left Grant standing, and he knocked in a simple square ball which Hughes diverted neatly past Russell and into the corner for his second of the game.

Northwood almost pulled a goal back straight away when Hawkins met an O’Sullivan cross with a good strike that came back off the inside of the post with Oliver nowhere, but then the Saints twice went close to a fourth before half-time. Russell spilled yet another free-kick and Hughes saw his goal-bound shot cleared away, and then a well-struck free-kick from Carroll was touched over by the Woods beleaguered keeper.

Half-time was chosen by Gary Meakin to ring the changes, making all three substitutions, Silcott, Romaine Walker and Garry Senior replacing Grant, Williamson and Alexander. Craig Carby moved to left-back, Liam Hind into the middle of the defence and Silcott slotted in at right-back as efforts were made to stem the flow of Chalfont attacks.

It seemed to work for a while, and it was Walker and Sharples who notched the only efforts at goal in the first ten minutes of the second- half, but it was important not to concede again and that idea went out of the window on 63 minutes when another free-kick was given by an increasingly picky Referee always looking to stop the game to become the main focus of events. Hughes stepped up again and once more took the opportunity to curl his shot around the wall and just inside the post; lessons clearly not learned quickly, and a hat-trick for the Saints dead-ball expert.

From then on it was messy and at times bizarre. There was just one further goal; another free-kick, given for a supposed hand-ball, Lyall booked for it, and Hughes notched number four with probably his best strike of the three successfully converted dead-balls.

By the end the Woods had picked up seven yellow cards and an automatic £250 FA fine, and also a red card for Carby, presumably for “intent” to tackle substitute Charlie Connor as there was no actual contact. Still, no matter how provoking events may be, the current crop of Northwood players will need to decide whether they are prepared to improve their discipline after this serious blip as it won’t be tolerated.

Report by ALAN EVANS

Photos by James Brown