Chipstead 0 Northwood 1
Saturday 20th November 2021
| NORTHWOOD | |||
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| 1 | Daniel Purdue | ||
| 2 | Matt Surmon  |
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| 3 | Andy Lomas | ||
| 4 | Keagan Cole © | ||
| 5 | Tommy Boxer |
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| 6 | James Gurteen | ||
| 7 | Ryan Young (66m) | ||
| 8 | Teddy Stacey | ||
| 9 | Sydney Ibie (87m) | ||
| 10 | Micah Jackson (84m) | ||
| 11 | Carl Stewart | ||
| Substitutes | |||
| 12 | Matteo Esposito | ||
| 14 | Joakim Ehui (87m) | ||
| 15 | Aaron Petch | ||
| 16 | Pablo Velasco (66m) | ||
| 17 | Tecane Shrowder (84m) | ||
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The Woods’ new-look side, under new management and with eight changes from the previous weekend, pulled off their first away Isthmian League win for nearly two years. Only Daniel Purdue, Matt Surmon and James Gurteen kept their places in the starting line-up with six debutants plus two former Northwood defenders Andy Lomas and Tommy Boxer returning after previous spells.
And it was the Woods who were quickly on the front foot against a Chipstead side who boasted an unbeaten home record this season.
There had already been three forays into the final third, mainly involving Ryan Young, with one Keagan Cole free-kick being nodded well wide by Boxer, when the visitors took a ninth minute lead.
Teddy Stacey played a ball into the feet of striker Sydney Ibie and he started his spell with the Woods with a quick turn of his marker before steering a fine strike into the top corner of the net, giving the Chips goalkeeper Matthew Kerbey, on loan from Sutton United, no chance.
Chipstead were struggling to get a foothold in the game with the Woods pressing well throughout the team and striker Andy Kabuikosomo picked up the first yellow card of the game for a late challenge on Cole after 18 minutes.
It took 28 minutes for the Chips to finally threaten as first Dan Moody and then Kieran Lavery fired shots in from the left but both were wide of the far post. But it was the Woods who finished the half strongly. Ibie’s run and cutback almost set up Young but a defender just intercepted for a corner and then Lomas got forward for a shot that flew only just over the bar.
The home side knew they needed to change things and they made a double-substitution to begin the second half. But it was still Northwood who were on top as another driving run from Lomas set up Stacey and his excellent strike had Kerbey flying across goal to tip the ball against the post and wide.
The context of the game changed soon after though as the Referee rather harshly showed Boxer two yellow cards in the space of ninety seconds, the first for taking too long over taking a free-kick and the second for a minor foul and suddenly it was ten men for the last half hour.
Photos by JAMES BROWN
Young was sacrificed to get Pablo Velasco on to bolster the defence with Surmon moving back into the centre and within a few minutes Chipstead threatened with Kabuikosomo’s header being comfortably saved by Purdue.
But the defence wouldn’t be breached as it stayed solid to repel anything the Chips had to offer with just a couple of scares. Purdue earned his clean sheet with a great reflex save to deny Kabuikosomo again and a very late free-kick which was allowed to bounce in the six-yard box before finally being cleared.
A great start for the new regime and the Woods are back off of the bottom of the table!
Report by ALAN EVANS
