The Woods slipped to a second successive league defeat with a disappointing performance at in-form Chertsey Town, who notched their seventh win on the trot in all competitions. Danny Dyer and Junior Osborne returned to bolster the defence while Aaron Lansiquot started in preference to skipper Oliver Hawkins up front and the Woods started brightly and full of confidence.

They knocked the ball around well with Wayne O’Sullivan poking an early shot wide but they failed to really take advantage of their early possession and domination with the final ball failing to cause any real damage to the home side.

Then, after 22 minutes, Chertsey took the lead with virtually their first attack. A neat ball found Phil Page in the box and Osborne may well have been penalised for a clumsy challenge if not for an advantage being played, which saw Dan Bennett cross and Eddie Smith slot home.

Northwood almost levelled two minutes later as O’Sullivan floated a free-kick into the box which dropped kindly for Lansiquot but his shot failed to beat burly goalkeeper Lee Pearce.

The home side’s were looking more dangerous in front of goal and they added a second goal after 41 minutes as a long ball from Miles Smith found Page at the far post and he cushioned a neat header back across the face of goal and inside the far post.

The Woods responded with Romaine Walker breaking through but firing over, but the Curfews should have added a third goal seconds before the interval when Bennett’s solo run saw him break through the defence but then slide a shot wide of the post with just Sean Thomas to beat.

Gary Meakin responded at half-time by replacing Peter Lyall with young midfielder Jack Hutchinson and Craig White dropped back into an unfamiliar central defensive role. After 54 minutes Osborne went on a marauding run out of defence which took him past three challenges and ended with a shot that Pearce pushed away, with the loose ball cleared for a corner.

Jonathan Constant replaced an out-of-sorts O’Sullivan shortly after and, on the hour, Pearce pulled off an excellent one-handed stop to deny Lansiquot with the rebound again being cleared by an alert defence. Bennett chipped a chance over the top for the home side and then Hawkins replaced Walker as the Woods went three up front in the hope of salvaging something from a game that was slipping away.

After 66 minutes, Northwood were awarded a free-kick on the edge of the six-yard box after Pearce instinctively picked up a mishit back-pass and the ball was laid off to Constant whose shot clipped the angle of post and crossbar.

Oliver Burgess crashed a shot well over the bar after latching onto a defensive block by Osborne while, at the other end, Garry Senior got his head to a Ronayne Marsh-Brown chip but was unable to get any power on it.

The Woods were almost out of it when the impressive Miles Smith cut in from the right and let fly with a good strike but Thomas pushed the ball over the bar and Northwood finished the game strongly. A corner dropped to Constant, whose goalbound shot was blocked for another corner, and from that Lansiquot headed wide at the far post.

It was in the final minute of the game that the Woods were awarded a free-kick and Constant curled the ball around the wall and inside the far post to reduce the arrears. But it was too late to save the game with just a few minutes of added stoppage-time for Chertsey to survive and that did that comfortably.

Report by ALAN EVANS

Photos by James Brown