Woodley United 1 v Bovingdon 4 1st August 2026
In the first ever meeting between the two clubs, as they did in their previous match Woodley took an early lead. Pele Hagger took a free kick to the right of the visitors’ penalty area that saw Leo Smith, in Bovingdon’s goal parry the ball which fell to Nathan Mindomba to bundle the ball into the net from close range in the third minute.
After a small delay for Smith to receive treatment, the game restarted and Bovingdon equalised in the sixth minute from Ben Baldwin’s penalty after the same player had outrun the home team’s defence and was deemed to have been fouled by Harry Wardle’s challenge.
Undeterred United was positive in their play with Mindomba on the right and Ollie Noyes dangerous on both wings and Max Laschok dangerous in his forward position and Bovingdon’s Matt Clark clearing Mindomba’s goal bound shot of the goal line.
The twenty ninth minute saw a rare Bovingdon attack which again resulted in Wardle being penalised for his penalty area challenge, which enabled Baldwin to score his second spot kick.
Woodley’s task was made harder when midfielder Pele Hagger was dismissed in the forty first minute for a petulant kick at an opponent, but this did not deter United who were denied a late first half equaliser when Noyes had a shot cleared of the goal line.
The second half stated with good Woodley play which saw Smith push Jack Webb’s header from a corner around the post, substitute Enow Ojong shoot wide of Smith’s left hand post and man of the match Jamie McCourt making good runs from full back while defensively George Hurneyman in the home goal had little to do.
The decisive goal came in the seventy fourth minute when Kadeem Gutzmore attacked down his side’s right hand side before playing the ball to their left wing. Gutzmore continued his run into the Woodley penalty area to meet a crossed ball and head it into the home net. Two minutes later Gutzmore scored his second when a long ball split the home defence allowing him to round Hurneyman and roll the ball into an empty net.
Eight minutes from full time Ojong had a shot blocked for a corner and from the resulting kick Mitch Cooper headed into Smith’s arms which was followed by Dan Santos-Keskin having a goal disallowed for offside.
The heroics of McCourt prevented a fifth Bovingdon goal when he cleared of the Woodley goal line with visitors’ cheering for what they thought was a goal.
While the result was disappointing the performance was not given playing the second half with ten players.
Hurneyman, McCourt, Riley (Eade), Hagger, Cooper, Wardle, Mindomba (Penhallurick, Cox, Webb (Santos-Keskin), Laschok (Ojong), Noyes Sub not used: Carolan