Northwood Under 18 1  Clapton Under 18s 0

Thursday 7th October 2010

Northwood U18		FA Youth Cup 2nd Qual. Rnd. Chestnut Ave., Northwood
Shiraj Shah	1	Kick Off
Reece Fallon	2	7.45 p.m.
Gbenga Adelana	3	H/T
Jonas Charles	4	2-0
Sean Hollowed	5	Scorers
Dwayne Cole-Parkes	6	Northwood
John Uche	7	J Cole 21
Liam McGrath	8
Julian Cole	9
Jack Hutchinson	10
Lamin Cole	11
Prince Umah (11)	12
Romaine Walker (4)	14
Zain Kahn (9)	15
Tommy Day	16
Ricardo McNeil	17

Northwood’s youngsters moved into the final qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup with this narrow victory over Clapton and are now just one game away from a possible clash with a Football League side.  The visitors were a bit of an unknown quantity for the Woods as they had got to this stage by virtue of a bye and a walkover but they proved hard to dispose of despite Northwood’s dominance for much of the ninety minutes.

With Romaine Walker having played in two FA Trophy fixtures for the first-team in the previous few days, he was left on the bench while there was a debut between the sticks for Shiray Shah.

The Woods started brightly with Jack Hutchinson shooting wide after being set up by Julian Cole and then Lamin Cole found space for a shot which goalkeeper Gytis Kazlauskas clawed away for a corner. Julian Cole’s pace was causing the visitors plenty of problems and he jinked his way down the right, cutting in and poking a shot just wide of the far post.

The crucial goal came after 21 minutes and in simple fashion. It was from a Clapton corner that a long clearance sent Julian Cole on his way and he simply raced ahead of a static defence and fired past the ‘keeper in clinical style.  The visitors had little to offer in attack and Northwood missed several chances to increase the lead before the break. Sean Hollowed headed a John Uche free-kick wide of the target, Kazlauskas made another good save and then another effort was cleared off the line before Hutchinson skied the loose ball.

Walker was introduced for injured skipper Jonas Charles at the start of the second-half and the Woods did appear to lose their dominance for a short while without their midfield playmaker.
But Clapton were unable to make inroads against the dominant Northwood back-line and the Woods eventually started to threaten again. Hutchinson knocked a good ball in to Walker who turned his marker with ease but then saw Kazlauskas make a brilliant diving save to keep his shot out.
Lamin Cole forced the ‘keeper into another good stop soon after and from the resulting corner, Hollowed had a free header but again missed the target.

It was after 74 minutes that Clapton had their chance when a ball in fell to Joshua Rowe but he was too slow to take advantage and his shot was blocked by Shah in goal.

After 82 minutes, the Woods were awarded a penalty when Walker was brought down in the box. In fact, the ball had rolled away and had been put in the net just as the referee blew the whistle but the spot-kick was given and Walker saw Kazlauskas deny him yet again with an excellent save from his penalty.

Liam McGrath, Walker and Hutchinson all went close in the closing stages but in the end the Woods had to settle for victory by just the one goal and can be pleased with a clean sheet at the back.

An away tie at Camberley Town on Monday, 18th October now awaits the Woods in the Third Qualifying Round after the Surrey side notched an impressive 5-2 victory at Lancing. The Krooners have a 100% record in their Southern Youth League campaign this season and had also previously won 6-1 at Horsham in the FA Youth Cup so it looks like being a real test for the Woods youngsters.

Report: ALAN EVANS