Hadley Wood & Wingate 0 - 2 Wodson Park

By Nikhil Saglani

Hadley Wood & Wingate were well defeated by a Wodson Park side on Saturday afternoon, without the visitors needing to get out of second gear. A sloppy start to the game summed up the entire affair, with the wet and windy conditions impacted both sides’ ability to play football.

Nathan Henry had the hosts’ first chance but his effort from the edge of the box was deflected wide for a corner on 14 minutes. Four minutes later, Bobby Smith prevented the visitors from taking the lead with a smart save to his left from Craig Knightly’s shot. The Blues’ first clear cut chance came on 25 minutes when Karl Stevenson found Henry, who played a one-two with Andreas Kyprianou – but the latter’s shot was well saved by Simon Dent.

Wodson Park nearly opened the scoring in fine fashion on 32 minutes when Robbie Green’s thumping effort from the edge of the area struck the underside of the bar but stayed out of Smith’s goal. However, Green found the net 12 minutes later – this time from further out – as his effort from 30 yards out beat Smith and put the visitors ahead on 44 minutes.

The second half began with Cameron Lyttle nearly equalising – but his shot, whilst being fouled, flew over the bar and the referee saw no reason to pull play back. A minute later, the visitors doubled their lead and arguably put the game to bed. On the counter attack, Knightly found Jordan Halls in plenty of space on the penalty spot and squared to him – with the striker making no mistake on 53 minutes.

A lengthy injury to Wodson goalkeeper, Dent tested players’ concentration and Smith was required to rush off his line to stop Ollie Babbage from scoring a third for Wodson. Lyttle almost pulled a goal back on 74 minutes but sliced his effort, with the goal gaping, out for a goal kick – an effort that summed up Hadley Wood’s day. The Blues did find the net with five minutes remaining but Brandon Dujon’s finish was ruled out for offside after he pounced on an error from Dent.

Time ran out for the hosts to gain anything from the game, in arguably the most disappointing result of the season so far.

HWW: Smith, Stevenson, Walton-Owen, Agyei-Danquah, Marriott, Forbes, Lyttle (Dujon, 74), Sharpe ©, Healey (Osenie, 88), Kyprianou, Henry (Hadjithemistou, 53).

Unused: Casey, Kouroushi.

Wodson: Dent, Sawyer, Tolley, Ardiles ©, Towers, Ellis, Knightly, Green, Bishop, Babbage, Halls.

Subs: Bushell, Stevenson, Lloyd, Palmers, Tuzzeo.

Ref: John Nettleton

Attendance: 40