Ashford Town Under 18 1  Northwood Under 18 2 

Wednesday 2nd February 2011

Northwood U18		Ryman Youth League Cup Short Lane, Stanwell
Chezney Cassell	1	Kick Off
Reece Fallon	2	7.45 p.m.
Gbenga Adelana	3	H/T
Jonas Charles	4	1-1
Sean Hollowed	5	Scorers
Liam McGrath	6	Northwood
Zain Kahn	7	Khan, Cole
Jack Hutchinson	8
Romaine Walker	9
Julian Cole	10
Youcef Ouyahia	11
Ricky Finucane (4)	12
Johanan Adjei-Dawkins (10)	14
Callum Wright (11)	15
-	17
-	18

It was third time lucky for the Woods as they progressed in the Lucas Fettes Isthmian Youth Cup against opponents that had already inflicted two defeats on Northwood this season. Romaine Walker returned up front after his spell on trial at Reading FC, but the Woods were missing the defensive presence of Dwayne Cole-Parkes with Liam McGrath dropping into the back-four and proving an able deputy.

The two sides are fairly evenly-matched and it was Ashford Town who had early chances but Chezney Cassell was equal to both shots on goal. The Woods soon settled, though, and Jonas Charles had a shot deflected straight at the keeper after 13 minutes and a minute later Northwood were in front. Walker bamboozled the home defence on the left and chipped into the danger area, where Zain Khan neatly headed home. Khan almost returned the favour after 25 minutes as his corner dropped in the box and Walker’s attempted overhead-kick flashed just over the bar.

But on the half-hour, Charles dived in with a challenge in the box which gave away a penalty and Perry Luckins tucked away an equaliser from the spot-kick. The Woods needed to bounce back after the break and they looked sharper from the restart. Julian Cole shot wide from an angle after a cross from Khan and then the Ashford ‘keeper did well to save at the feet of Jack Hutchinson.

Another cross from Khan saw a defender only just steer a defensive header over his own crossbar as the Woods continued to apply pressure on the home side. The home side still looked dangerous on the counter-attack and they had a shoot on sight policy which led to Cassell making several comfortable saves but one effort did flash only just wide of the post. Sean Hollowed sliced a shot wide on a rare foray up front for the central defender but after 76 minutes the Woods scored the all-important second goal as Hutchinson raced onto a through-ball and then cut it back perfectly for Julian Cole to slot home from the edge of the box.

Ashford had little response and play was held up for six minutes when Northwood skipper Jonas Charles was stretchered off with an injury but victory belonged to the Woods on this occasion and they take their place in the Third Round of the competition.

Report: ALAN EVANS