Northwood Reds 3-2 Brady Maccabi Reds
Player of the match Saihaan
On a blustery afternoon Northwood Reds banished the poor performance of last week with a well-earned win against Brady Maccabi Reds.
With Rayyan pulling out at of the game due to neck pains in the warm up, George had to stand in for him in goal.
The wind and the pitch were always going to make this game a difficult test for the boys and after the early exchanges a mix up in the Northwood defence left the Maccabi striker through1 on 1 with George and he finished well to give Maccabi a rather undeserved lead.
The boys were finding the conditions difficult but did enjoy most of the territory & possession but the final passes were just not quite finding their intended recipients. Finally one of the passes did find Joshua who finished with one of his trademark lobs over the advancing Maccabi goalkeeper 1-1.
The game was being fiercely contested in the now very cut up centre of the pitch with the wind also adding to the test. After one of the many midfield skirmishes the ball broke to Joshua who saw his shot hit both posts and somehow stayed out, the half came to an end with the score locked at 1-1.
The second half started in pretty much the same tempo as the first with Northwood now kicking up the hill, hoping that the ball would hold up more for the front 3 to capitalise on the fine passing coming from the midfield quartet. It was one of these great passes that Lewis Reid latched onto beat his defender and fired in from a tight angle to give Northwood the lead for the first time. This did seem to kick Maccabi back into life again as they made it very difficult for Northwood to get out of their half. After more of this pressure there was a mix up at the back and Maccabi pounced on it to make it 2-2.
With less than 10 minutes to go the boys went out looking for the winner putting more and more pressure on the Maccabi defence. This lead to a free kick midway into the Maccabi half. Lewis Reid stepped up struck a great kick that the Maccabi keeper, who was having a very good game could only parry but to the feet of the advancing Saihaan who finished well from close range to put Northwood back in the lead 3-2.
With only about 5 minutes left the boys saw the game out to a well-deserved victory.
Today’s player of the match Saihaan played in a new position to him but as he did so well could find himself being asked to play there again.
Well done to all the boys a much, much better performance than last week and here hoping that Rayyan's neck pains are on the mend ready for next week when we play in the last 16 of the County Cup.
