North Greenford Under 18 0  Northwood Under 18 5

Wednesday 8th September 2010

Northwood U18		FA Youth Cup Prelim. Rnd. Berkeley Fields, Greenford
Chezney Cassell	1	Kick Off
Reece Fallon	2	7.30 p.m.
Gbenga Adelana	3	H/T
Jonas Charles	4	3-0
Sean Hollowed	5	Scorers
Dwayne Cole-Parkes	6	Northwood
John Uche	7	Walker 4, Charles
Liam McGrath	8
Romaine Walker	9	N Greenford
Jack Hutchinson	10	n/a
Julian Smith	11
Callum Wright	12
Julian Cole (15)	14
Nathan McLeod (11)	15
Tommy Day	16
Zain Khan (7)	17

The Woods kicked off their FA Youth Cup campaign with a five-goal demolition of North Greenford, who will also be hosts to Northwood in the senior FA Cup in a few days time.

Yet it was the home side that started the better and after just two minutes they forced a corner and saw a good shot come back off the post with goalkeeper Chezney Cassell helpless.

Soon after, North Greenford went close with another shot that flashed wide of the post but the Woods managed to stem the tide of attacks and begin to settle into a rhythm of their own.

Romaine Walker has started the season in cracking goalscoring form, and after ten minutes he won a free-kick on the edge of the box and then took it himself with a fierce strike which crashed back off the underside of the crossbar and rebounded to safety.

Walker was soon causing all sorts of problems for the home side and raced onto a good ball from Jack Hutchinson before rolling a shot the wrong side of the post. After 17 minutes a superb ball from Gbenga Adelana picked out Hutchinson unmarked but the Woods striker also failed to hit the target.
Just a minute later the Woods were in front with Hutchinson turning provider with a square ball which picked out Walker who rolled the ball past goalkeeper Rory Mullane.

North Greenford were given no time to recover from going behind as Walker was brought down inside the box two minutes later and converted the spot-kick himself to make it 2-0. Cassell was brought into action on 26 minutes as he made a couple of comfortable saves from long-range shots as the home side tried to rally while Mullane denied Walker a hat-trick by diving to push his shot wide soon after.

But it was another pacy run from Walker that killed off the game just before the break as he raced onto a long-ball and held off a couple of challenges before slotting past Mullane to complete his hat-trick. Walker switched to a wider role for the second-half as the Woods bolstered the midfield with Nathan McLeod replacing Julian Smith and it turned into a feisty match with a liberal sprinkling of yellow cards being shown to both sides as the second-half progressed.

On the hour Adelana’s free-kick was met by the head of Hutchinson but he flicked the ball wide of the target and then McLeod was forced off with an ankle injury, replaced by Julian Cole. Zain Khan was also introduced, and the pace of the two new substitutes began to cause more problems for North Greenford.
After 77 minutes a corner fell to Walker just outside the box on the left and he fooled his marker before firing across the ‘keeper with a left-foot smash that gave Mullane no chance.

North Greenford thought they had pulled a goal back five minutes later but it was ruled out for offside and the Woods made them pay on 84 minutes when Jonas Charles met a Khan cross with a neat header just inside the post. Adelana came closest to adding a sixth with a surging run and a shot which Mullane tipped just over but the final minutes saw the Woods pick up a couple more unnecessary cautions, the only black spot on the performance.

The victory earns the Woods another away game, this time at Barking in two weeks time, in the next round of the FA Youth Cup.

Report: ALAN EVANS