Brook House 0 (0) v Woodley United 0 (0)
Brook House won 4-3 on penalty kicks
In front of a crowd of 260, Woodley’s season came to an end on a sunny afternoon losing out on penalty kicks after ninety minutes of play had ended goalless.
United kicked off into the sun which saw them win a throw in and from there a corner kick, all in the opening minute. This set the scene of the opening ten minutes with both teams exchanging corner kicks.
During this period Woodley’s goalkeeper Joe Hill sustained an injury when landing to the ground having jumped to catch the ball. Notwithstanding this injury he went on to play the whole game and it is a credit to the Woodley defence that Brook House were unable to trouble the keeper with the exception of one shot which came in the twenty sixth minute from Ben Bell and required Hill to dive to this right palming to the ball round the goalpost for another corner kick.
Woodley’s Nico Cammock was instrumental in much of his team’s forward play in the first half down their left wing but it was from set pieces that United looked most likely to score from. Tristian Cambell saw his free kick headed clear by centre back Shawn Preddie and from a Campbell corner, Archie Simpson headed the ball back across the home goal where it was cleared Kian Leahy who shot over the cross bar. In between these set pieces, Brook’s Donell Mensah headed a corner kick straight at Hill.
The forty third minute saw Connor Suckling one on one with home keeper Adam Childs but the forward’s touch on a hard pitch saw the ball go towards the goal line making the angle of shot harder and able for Childs to cope with the danger. Four minutes into stoppage time Dontae Hamblin held off a challenge and played the ball low across the home penalty area but no Woodley players were able to capitalise on the opportunity.
The second half saw Woodley raise their game and looked dangerous in attack on both flanks through Cammock and Dylan Clark with Brook House working hard to block goal attempts and break play up. The home team’s only chance at goal during this period was from a United mistake that allowed their leading scorer Trey Pender-Brown to shoot over Hill’s cross bar.
Pender-Brown thought he had opened the scoring in the seventy sixth minute only for the goal to be disallowed for using his arm to control the ball. Five minutes later Childs denied Clark.
With two minutes of the ninety remaining Clark crossed from the left to the far post where George Day headed the ball back into the goal area only for Kaylum Barlow to shoot over the crossbar from close range.
Six minutes of added time were played and despite two long throw ins from Day into the penalty area to maintain the United pressure, the home defence scrambled the ball clear to take the match to penalty kicks.
All ten penalties were required, in keeping with the tightness of the match, with Woodley kicking first. Three saves were made by the goalkeepers with Brook House winning the game on the final and must score kick to prevent sudden death penalties.
Woodley’s penalty scorers were, Clark, Maroc DeSousa and Leahy.
Brook House travel to Bedfont for the play-off final while Woodley can look back on an outstanding season that saw them go eighteen games unbeaten and finish in fourth place, compared to last season’s forth from bottom.
Hill, Downes, Cammock (Day), Campbell, Leahy, Naicker. Clark, Simpson, Hamblin, Suckling (DeSousa), Collins (Barlow) Subs not used: Hannachi and Ojong