Evo-Stik Southern Division One                                           

Sat 29^th Oct 2011

by BenFisher                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Burnham F.C 1

Northwood 2                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

This was a must win game at The Gore for Burnham, and they started the brighter of the two sides, and were very much in control of the first ten minutes of the game asking all the questions. In particular through Adam Dickens and Ashley Smith who delivered one or two very dangerous free kicks into the Northwood penalty Area only to be comfortably claimed by Northwood's keeper David Lewis. This was the case at both ends as Northwood had their fair share of  free kicks aswell, mainly from the left taken by Jonathan Constant, who posed a great threat from set pieces in general all afternoon. The first real attempt at either goal came from a Burnham corner when Dickens delivery was headed out to the edge of the box to Lee Togwell who chested the ball down out of the air, took one touch out of his feet, and struck the ball cleanly to David Lewis's left, a fraction wide of the upright.  Burnham dealt very well with every ball that was being thrown at them from the other end as Northwood were resorting to route one through the middle over the top, and Will Dunlop and Jon Munday were very much in control, heading every ball away freely. Although there were some nervous moments when Chris Robinson let the ball bounce, only to be caught in possession by Oliver Hawkins who was starting to chase down any loose ball that dropped behind Burnham's rear guard.  Burnham's keeper Jackson was becoming more and more involved in the game, as his dead ball and drop kicks were always finding heads of Kieron Knight and Jordan Dowdican, who were starting to find Smith and Dickens runs down the flanks on more than one occasion, only Burnham just couldn't come up with the final ball to break Northwood Down. Ashley Smith and Adam Dickens were starting to pull the strings for Burnham, and looked the most inventive with a nice one two which resulted in another strike on goal but once again didn't trouble David Lewis in the Northwood goal. For all Burnham's dominance in midfield and creation going forward, they were left to rue missed chances on the stroke of half time when Chris Robinson brought down Northwood's Jonathan Constant on the edge of the area and was booked for the challenge. Constant took the free kick himself and bent it to Jacksons left who made a firm stop, but straight into the path of  Liam Fowler who put away the easy chance from close range.

Burnham reacted well in the second half and were rewarded in the 59^th minute when a Ben Hudell throw in to the box was flicked on and somehow made its way through to Keiron Knight in acres of space to blast it past David Lewis from a tight angle with his left foot to equalize for Burnham. Burnham then made a change replacing Robinson with Kevin Mealor. Burnham then started to raise their game when a slick move found Smith who fired his shot over the bar inside the box. But once again despite all Burnham's hard work they caught on the break, against the run of play once again. In the 65^th minute a long ball up the field was brought down well by Northwood's Oliver Hawkins inside the box, who hit a scuffed shot which seemed to creep into the left hand corner in slow motion past Jamie Jackson who was left helpless. Although they were 2-1 down Burnham's attitude was right once again and they hit back with several attacks mainly created by Lee Togwell in the midfield, who by this stage was a strong contender for Man Of The Match, but without really carving out any clear cut chances. In the 69^th minute Burnham then made a second change, replacing Jordan Dowdican with Matt Seedel allowing Ryan Byrd to join Knight upfront, and the aerial threat became evident immediately, as they created a string of chances for Ashley Smith and Adam Dickens to get crosses into the box whilst  in plenty of space on either flank. In the 85^th minute Burnham made their third and final substitution replacing Adam Dickens with Hanif Boyle. Burnham continued to pile pressure on Northwood in the closing stages, but their back line stood strong and cleared everything away. Towards the end Northwood replaced Gary Senior with Jack Hutchinson.

A much improved performance from the Blues but not the result they so badly need at the moment.