The Woods stormed back from falling behind to a goal within the first minute to pick up another three points on the road with this hard-fought victory at lowly Egham Town. With Sam Tring’s loan spell coming to an abrupt end with his transfer from Kings Langley to Wingate & Finchley, interim manager brought in youngster Imran Uche on dual registration from Farnborough to take his place in the centre of defence while Max Holland made his first start since his return to the club.

There was less than a minute on the clock when a ball was pumped down the right and despite Matt Cooper looking favourite to win the race to clear, he faltered and when Brandon McCarthy stole in ahead of him he also finished well to put the home side in front. On a pitch that was sticky in the middle but solid on the flanks, it took a while to settle but the Woods were seeing plenty of the ball and they drew level after just 11 minutes. Ben Pattie stroked in a neat free-kick from the right and Sam Jenkins met it with a neat header that flew inside the near post for his first Northwood goal.

Five minutes later and an excellent move involving Dan Pett and Chris Gosling saw Pattie into the box on the left. His strike flew wide across the goal and Andrew Ofosu then saw his follow-up shot blocked on the line but a flag was up for offside and the chance was gone.

Egham were still looking dangerous too. Rhys Rabess headed a corner wide of the target and then some good work by the impressive Ryan Hill led to Kezie Ibe turning Cooper and getting in a shot but Luke Sheldrick blocked his effort at close-range. It was still end-to-end stuff as the Woods won a corner on 24 minutes and when Gosling swung the ball in, goalkeeper Matt Nolan, who made one appearance for Northwood last season, was unable to stop it curling in at the far post despite flapping a hand at it. It was another first goal for the club for the young midfielder.

Having gone ahead, Northwood appeared to go more into defensive mode and managed to shut the game down more as the first half progressed. Egham picked up the first yellow card of the game when Harry Tucker dived into a tackle on Kieran Asumadu-Sakyi who did well to take evasive action but it was also Tucker that went closest to levelling before the break when he headed a Hill cross straight at Sheldrick.

Egham had won only their second league game of the season when last in action, beating Cheshunt 2-1 and in the second half they went looking to continue that form as they had the Woods pegged back for long periods. On 55 minutes Rabess failed to control in front of goal when Ibe slipped a ball across to him and then the same player slalomed his way past two defenders before seeing his strike expertly saved from Sheldrick who spread himself well.

More good work from Hill led to McCarthy firing wide on 62 minutes before the dangerous Curtis Ujah headed a corner down in the danger zone but Darren Abbey launched his effort well over the bar as the rain teemed down and the Woods continued to struggle to get out of their own half. Both Jenkins and Asumadu-Sakyi picked up yellow cards, while Leigh Stevens and Dan Newton brought fresh legs as they replaced Gosling and Holland but on 75 minutes Sheldrick was called upon again as Rabess turned well in the box but then shot straight at the Woods keeper.

Having defended stoutly, as the game advanced into the final ten minutes Northwood finally began to ease some of the pressure with a couple of attacks of their own. Pattie forced Nolan into a save with a good shot on the turn after 82 minutes but normal time was running out for Egham when Pattie’s corner dropped neatly for Newton to fire home his first league goal for the Woods and make the three points safe.

The victory sees the Woods climb to eighth place in the table, just three points off the play-off places and with a game in hand. Next up is a home game against fellow Middlesex club Hanwell Town who are managed by ex-Woods favourites Chris Moore and Wayne Carter. After an excellent start to the season, Hanwell have slipped to a mid-table position just behind Northwood so it should be an interesting contest.