Northwood Reds had an away tie in the second round of the County Cup that took them over to Enfield Town .
After last week’s impressive performance the bar was set for the boys to go and perform to the same levels that saw them win well last week.
The boys started really well again this week passing the ball well and keeping possession of the ball. Some early pressure on one of the Enfield defenders lead to a misplaced pass that Joshua pounced on 0-1 Northwood. This soon became 0-2 when a great pass from Ashley picked out Joshua again , with Joshua finishing well again.
The whole team was playing really well, with the defence never looking in much trouble and they were linking well with the midfield who were also keeping their shape & discipline. Ben B. won a loose ball in the middle of the field looked up and put a great pass through to Lewis Reid who beat his defender and finished well 0-3. Enfield did start to put some passes together and got some half chances but Rayyan was a match for them all.
The third goal started from the defence with a good pass from Dan who found Joshua who then put another great pass for Callum who beat the last defender and fired in to make it 0-4. You could now sense that Northwood were beginning to get on top of Enfield and were playing some really good passing football. Another well worked goal which was again made from the defence linking up well with the midfield finally saw Joshua pick out Declan for the first of his two goals. Shortly afterwards Josh again found Declan and it was 0-6 at halftime.
The challenge at halftime was to very much play in the same style as the 1st half but to keep the clean sheet and for the boys to keep discipline .
Northwood started the second half the same as the first by keeping possession of the ball and moving it from one side of the pitch to the other, at one stage the boys actually stringed about 9-10 passes together without Enfield touching it. Enfield were still trying to get their goal and were still attacking but were only getting long distance shots. From one of their attacks midway through the second half Lewis Ryan blocked a pass from one of the Enfield midfielders looked up & then put a great pass through to Lewis Reid who showed his pace again to beat the Enfield defence and put in a great shot to make it 0-7.
Then came Enfield's chance, to get their goal, the referee awarded them a penalty for I can only think was 2 Northwood players sandwiching the Enfield striker, even though he stayed on his feet but the ref pointed to the spot. Up stepped the Enfield striker who placed the ball on the spot he stepped back and stroked the ball to the right side of the goal, Rayyan dived to his left and saved it to cap his commanding player of the match performance in goal. The clean sheet was still intact .
The game was now petering out to what seemed to be an well-deserved victory for Northwood when Ashley went on another one of his powerful runs beating 3 defenders before the 4th one took him down ,Penalty Northwood. After what seemed a long discussion between the Northwood players I can only guess was about who would take the kick, Ashley stepped up and placed the ball into the right corner 0-8.
Not long afterwards the referee blew for full time and the boys now go into the 3rd round of the County Cup with a home tie against Explorers or Bessingbury Park Rangers.
Well done everyone a great result but more importantly another great performance.
