Saturday 3rd May 1975
NORTHWOOD DASH THOSE GRAND SLAM HOPES
NORTHWOOD 2 YEADING 1
Yeading’s hopes of doing the grand slam this season by winning the Middlesex League, the Middlesex Intermediate Cup and the Middlesex League Cup disappeared at Hillingdon Borough F.C. when Northwood's skipper Barry Gould picked up the Middlesex League Cup.
Northwood produced a display of guile and endeavour to prevent the Yeading machine from achieving what would have been a magnificent treble. Each Northwood player ran until he dropped and the last ten minutes of the game had more drama in it than the complete works of Shakespeare rolled into one!
The match opened with Yeading pushing the ball around with their usual calm assurance, but they were unable to create any clear-cut chance for their strikers to feed on. The Woods’ back line was in fine form and the midfield threesome of Tidd, Evans and Stone provided the springboard for a series of Northwood attacks.
Gary Cooper came the closest to scoring in the first half hour but when the referee blew the whistle after the first 45 minutes play the score stood at 0-0.
The Woods appeared to suffer a major blow at half time when their midfield general Robin Tidd limped off injured but he bravely came back in the second half and played a big part in the victory.
Within minutes of the restart Northwood were in the lead when the previously quiet Nigel Franklin found himself loose on the right and evaded four men before crashing home an angled drive that was well out of Bennett's reach.
Yeading were clearly shaken by the goal and they never really managed to get their game together, so it was no real surprise when Northwood went further ahead with 20 minutes left. Again it was Franklin who created space, and he crossed for Tommy Evans to pop up and nod the ball past Bennett and a despairing Peploe.
Ironically the 2-0 lead stunned the Woods as much as Yeading as the prize that they had worked so hard for was now in reach. Had a superb volley from Cooper gone in instead of hitting the bar then the tension would have disappeared from the Woods’ game, but Yeading aren't champions for nothing and they raised their game for the last quarter of an hour.
They threw attack after attack at the Woods, and Kessell made an incredible save from Frape. Gould and Heslop were magnificent and Mills was doing a fine job on Norman Frape.
With ten minutes left Burt for once slipped his leash and hit a superb angled shot past Kessell. This set the stage for an unbelievable last ten minutes that had everybody on the edge of their seats. Yeading attacked in waves but Northwood pulled everyone back and Kessell made several fine saves.
When the final whistle blew the Northwood fans rushed on to the pitch and the celebrations began that lasted well into Sunday morning.
Northwood: Richard Kessell, Geoff Mills, John Harman, Barry Gould (Capt.), Norman Heslop, Tommy Evans, Nigel Franklin, Robin Tidd, Paul Byrne, Harry Stone, Gary Cooper, sub. Don Dibbens.
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