Hillingdon Borough 1 (0) Woodley United 2 (1)
Woodley made it three wins in four outings to remain in the final promotion play-off position thanks to a fourth minute of second half stoppage time own goal by Hillingdon’s Carl Adiku.
On a bumpy pitch which made playing football difficult due to the uncertainty of how the ball bounced and playing into a cross wind Woodley made light of the conditions to take the lead in the fourteenth minute. Beforehand Dylan Clark and Dontae Hamblin had combined well with Clark seeing a shot blocked while Hamblin was crowded out by defenders when he made a run into the home team’s penalty area. In between time Borough’s Jamie Pitt, who provided Woodley’s defence problems with this long throw, shot over the visitors’ cross bar.
The opening goal was scored by Hamblin after good skill in the penalty area enabled him to shoot past Mateo Dos Reis in the home goal.
Goalscoring chances were few and far between for the rest of the half with Woodley defending doggedly and neither team being able to master surface with the ball changing direction after hitting a divot.
Clark shot wide in the thirty ninth minute as did Borough’s Sam Wood two minutes later but with no further score Woodley went into half time with a well earned lead.
However, the match was level two minutes after the restart when an inswing Hillingdon corner saw the ball enter the net and Woodley goalkeeper Brody Popp’s had punched it onto a goal post.
This led to a Hillingdon revival as they moved the ball forward quickly to substitute Toj Ladipo whose pace was a threat to Woodley’s defence but which it was able to contain.
With the game entering the final fifteen minutes of normal time United started to exert pressure in the home team’s half of the pitch as Hillingdon tired in the conditions with Hamblin, Clark and Nico Commack enjoying possession on both wings that resulted in a number of corner kicks being won.
In the fourth minute of added time Hamblin took a throw in on Woodley right hand side to Enow Ojong, who played the ball back to Hamblin who crossed into the penalty area where a collision between Dos Reis and a teammate allowed the ball to hit an unsuspecting Adiku and enter the net. A further minute of played followed before United won a valuable three points.
Popp, Simpson, Collins (Commack), Campbell (Ojong), Leahy, Naicker, Clark, Hannachi (Downes), Hamblin, Suckling, (Oates), Van Spall (Barlow)