On Tuesday evening, after the team’s second journey to Northamptonshire in the space of three days, North Greenford United returned toWest London having secured a 1-1 draw against fellow strugglers Woodford United in an enthralling match.
The result takes the club up to the psychologically important 40 point mark in the Evo-Stik Southern Central Division table, nine above second from bottom Fleet Town with just five games remaining.
As it turned out, in Tuesday’s game Greenford should actually have bagged all three points! Having made what was probably the side’s best start to any league game this season, Greenford dominated the early exchanges and created enough chances to have won the contest in the opening twenty minutes.
The first of these fell to left wing-back Sean Roberts when the ball fell to him on the end of one of several telling deliveries into the danger area, but he scuffed his shot which was easily gathered by Woodford keeper Matt Finlay.
Anthony O’Connor, playing up front alongside Ricky Pither, could have had a hat-trick, twice when, through on goal, he was denied by Finlay who was keeping his team in the game, and once with a close range header that narrowly scraped the wrong side of the Woodford post.
Greenford’s breakthrough finally came just after the match had passed the half hour mark. On this occasion referee Sam Lewis adjudged that O’Connor had been fouled in the area as he again tried to get behind the home defence and had no hesitation in awarding the penalty. As he has done in recent games, centre back Liam Hind took responsibility for the spot kick and made no mistake with a clinical strike into the corner.
Within minutes another great chance to extend Greenford’s lead fell to Pither when Sean Hillier passed the ball across the Woodford area but the Blues striker was unable to turn the ball into the net and, as with O’Connor’s early effort, his shot narrowly missed the target.
From this point on Woodford, playing a long ball counter-attacking game, began to threaten the United back line and continued to do so when play resumed at the start of the second period.
The home side’s equaliser came on sixty-five minutes when Aaron King found the net on the end of one such counter-attacking move, and the home side could actually have won the game had their finishing been better.
Despite the introduction of Zak Joseph and new loan signing Hanif Boyle to add a further dimension up front Greenford were unable to match their first half display and rarely tested Finlay. The commitment was still there and the players worked hard to ensure they weren’t going to leave Woodford empty-handed, but they couldn’t break down the home defence who were equally determined to do the same.
The match ended in controversy as a loud Greenford penalty appeal in additional time for what appeared a blatant handball in the Woodford area was turned down by referee Lewis, and the two sides left the pitch having to settle for a share of the spoils.
Greenford have now equalled last season’s points total and will be looking to put more on the board to improve on that in their remaining games. These begin this Easter weekend with two tough fixtures against near-neighbours Burnham on Saturday at Berkeley Fields and an away game against local rivals AFC Hayes on Easter Monday. The following Saturday (14th April) the team are at home to Rugby Town.

North Greenford United FC

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