Northwood took a depleted team to Barton with seven players missing, Most notably goalkeeper Mark Heath and skipper Tony Davies. Mike Harrison made his debut in goal and long serving defender Shaun Duxbury returned to help out manager
Northwood started quite brightly with a good move straight from the kick off, however as regards to the first half this was about as good as it got. Around the fifteen minute mark Barton were awarded a controversial penalty for hand ball which not only appeared to be not hand ball but also outside of the penalty area !
Mike Harrison saved the penalty well to his left, however the Northwood defense had fallen asleep and Barton’s striker followed up to put them one up. A couple of minutes later things went from bad to worse as a mix up in the box led to Barton scoring a second and giving Northwood a real up hill battle !
Northwood never really got a foothold in the game, one good chance from Nick McGraw was saved well by the Barton keeper and Dave Ottley had a shot blocked which seemed goal bound, other than that Barton had a relatively easy first half and it got even easier around the 35th minute when a Barton player went through the middle and finished well, giving Harrison no chance.
Half time came at a good time for town and gave manager
Northwood came out a different team and really got at Barton, A deflected shot off Dave Ottley brought a top draw save from the Barton keeper, Not long after Nick McGraw hit the bar with a good header which had the Barton keeper well beaten, unfortunately Northwood couldn’t make the break through and got hit on the break around the 75th minute which left Northwood down and out.
The full time whistle couldn’t have come quick enough after this stage and it was a welcome relief when it did. Northwood over 90 minutes had been well been and didn’t really deserve much from the game. A good effort from a side short of players but who unfortunately didn’t perform on the day.
Man of the match is a very hard decision to make basing on how poor the team had played overall. So due to the fact that he saved a penalty on his debut it’s awarded to Mike Harrison
Man of the Match
Mike Harrison
Team
Subs
Snape