Northwood 0 Badshot Lea 3
Tuesday 24th October 2023
| NORTHWOOD | |||
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| 1 | Andrew McCorkell | ||
| 2 | Mikey Tierney (46m) | ||
| 3 | Deago Dunbar Bonnie | ||
| 4 | George Milner-Smith | ||
| 5 | Luke Tingey © | ||
| 6 | Harry Gallagher (46m) | ||
| 7 | Carl Stewart (76m) | ||
| 8 | Riccardo Alexander-Greenaway (46m) | ||
| 9 | Curtis Brown  |
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| 10 | Sam Jenkins | ||
| 11 | Osaretin Otote (46m) | ||
| Substitutes | |||
| 12 | Kofi Anokye-Boadi (46m) | ||
| 14 | Harry McCorkell (46m) |
||
| 15 | Romario Jonas (46m) | ||
| 16 | Dan Williams (69m) | ||
| 17 | Teddy Stacey (76m) | ||
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The Woods went into this League Cup fixture, meeting visitors Badshot Lea for the first-ever time, on a winless run of ten games over a 33 day-period while their opponents had recovered from a slow start to life at Step 4 for the first-time and had notched an unbeaten run of nine games themselves.
With Manager Ben Bukowski back from a two-week break, he made a 
number of changes from the side that had conceded four to Chertsey Town at the weekend with young Mikey Tierney returning for a second Woods game (he had played in the earlier round of the competition). Harry Gallagher started for the first time in a month while Curtis Brown started off up front with Dan Williams rested to the bench and recent signing Reece Cameron unavailable.
For twenty minutes there was nothing to separate the two sides but also little to report on as the visitors sat back, looking to soak up any early attacks which were few and far between.
After 21 minutes, the Baggies created the first effort on goal but George Milner-Smith produced a superb block for a corner. It started a period of dominance for Badshot Lea and there were in front seven minutes later when a quick counter-attack saw Anuar Ceesay broke through the middle, rounded Andrew McCorkell in goal and fired into an empty net.
The Woods worked hard at the back to repel several attacks but after 40 minutes, Gallagher lost possession to Mohammed Regragui and he quickly set up Ceesay who knocked in a second for himself and his side.
Two minutes later there was Woods first chance on goal with a good ball putting Brown into the box but his first-time strike was wide of the near-post and Northwood were two goals behind at the break.
That led to a string of changes to start the second-half. Off went Tierney, Gallagher, Riccardo Alexander-Greenaway and Osaretin Otote and they were replaced by Romario Jonas, Harry McCorkell, Kofi Anokye-Boadi and Williams.
It took a while for the replacements to make any impact but eventually there was some sense of attacking prowess. After 65 minutes, Sam Jenkins hit a shot from distance which deflected off a defender but the ball looped up kindly straight at goalkeeper Myles Bowman.
Three minutes later came the Woods best chance of the match so far as Anokye-Boadi’s ball into the box saw Bowman push it away. Brown was onto the loose ball and should have scored but fired over the crossbar.
It was just three minutes later that the tie was pretty much all over as Ceesay found himself unmarked in the box again. His first effort was blocked but it ran kindly back to him and he fired across McCorkell to complete his hat-trick.
Teddy Stacey replaced Carl Stewart for the final twenty minutes and soon after Williams saw an effort from 20 yards drift wide of the post and the Woods effort petered out. There was almost a consolation goal after 86 minutes when Deago Dunbar-Bonnie’s well-flighted corner was headed on by Harry McCorkell but it was headed off the line by a well-placed defender.
Six minutes of stoppage-time brought no further excitement and the visitors can be very happy with what was a most comfortable victory in a cup-tie which never really got going.
It’s back to League action now for the Woods as they look to win their first away League game since early March when they visit Thatcham Town on Saturday.
REPORT by Alan Evans
