Openibo double gives United a win against visiting Royalists

Woodley made it two wins in five days with a comfortable win against Windsor in a match that saw both teams end the game with ten players.

The visitors kicked off but quickly found themselves on the back foot as Woodley looked to get the ball forward and into the opponents half as quickly as possible. This nearly brought early joy but Alex Donville saw his shot from the right hand side, following Manny Abu-Essah pass, narrowly go wide at the near post and John Openibo shot wide of the far post following a pass from Ornildo Shehu from the left wing, both in the opening fifteen minutes of play.

Woodley had a scare in the twenty second minute when a long ball by Windsor saw Conor Clark come out of his penalty area to attempt to clear it only for Nat Green to reach the ball first and round Clark. However, Green’s shot was weak and wide of the goal allowing Woodley to clear comfortably.

A minute later Rafa Brandao found Openibo with a free kick but the Woodley forward was adjudged off side with only Windsor’s keeper Leighton Rudd to beat.

Defender Noah Coates, with his first goal for the club, opened the scoring for United when he was allowed unmarked to head Connor Richardson’s corner inside Rudd’s right hand upright in the twenty seventh minute. Two minutes later another Richardson corner was met by Coates but this time the goal bound header was deflected clear for another corner kick.

Two minutes before half time Woodley doubled their lead. Defender Kasper Hok made a strong run from defence before passing to Donville who in turn split the away defence with a pass that put Openibo through on goal one on one with Rudd. The United forward rounded the keeper before firing into an unguarded net.

Openibo scored his second goal six minutes into the second half. Good play by Donville resulted in Rudd blocking the midfielder’s shot which fell to Openibo to score from close range.

The match proceeded to go through a scrappy spell with both team struggling to keep possession on a heavy pitch. The introduction of Mo Davies in the seventy sixth minute brought renewed energy to the Woodley attack and on three occasions he was denied goals as goal bound shots were blocked while he put wide in the sixth minute of stoppage time with only Rudd to beat.

A minute before the end of normal time the visitors’ Will Smith was dismissed for a second yellow card and was to be followed five minutes later with Woodley’s Kevin DeBarros also receiving a second caution. Between these dismissals Sam Healy scored Windsor’s consolation goal when United having initially cleared a corner kick failed to respond to a loose ball that allowed Sam Healy to poke into the net.

Clark, Abu-Essah, Jeczalik, Creech, Coates, Hok, Richardson (Maadini), Brandao (Nwokobia), Openibo (Albanese), Shehu (DeBarros), Donville (Davies)