On a glorious September afternoon, United gave a much improved performance compared to the previous Saturday but went down to an eighty eighth minute goal by last season’s league leading goal scorer Charlie Silkstone when he found himself unmarked with only James Stroud to beat in the Woodley goal.
The visitors started well and it was Silkstone who had the first effort on goal after twelve minutes to be denied by a one handed Stroud save for a corner. A clash of heads that saw Town’s Jake Smith suffer a broken nose coupled with a series of free kicks saw the half stop and start but gradually Woodley found their rhythm although their chances were few and far between with the best being a fine run and shot by Ben Anderson and Max Laschok firing over the cross bar.
Sam McDermaid hired wide of Stroud’s goal five minutes before half time while Woodley’s Bailey Hill had a free kick tipped over the visitors cross bar by Camben Laver.
United started the second half strongly with Anderson seeing a powerful shot rebound of the upright and Laschok getting into a good position only for the ball to get trapped beneath this feet. Stroud kept the match goal less when he parried a shot that he saw late after sixty four minutes. Hill saw a second goal bound free kick parried away by Laver while Stroud again saved and Conor Clarke cleared on his goal line as the game became stretched with both teams looking for a winner.
Woodley survived a scare with fifteen minutes remaining when Town’s Ben Taylor hit the post while good play involving Laschok and Anderson saw the later shoot wide.
With the game edging towards a stalemate and penalties, United became stretched in defense allowing Silkstone to score the decisive goal.