| Ashford drew their third game in succession drawing 2-2 away to Northwood, who are also unbeaten so far this season. The squad was boosted by five youth team players, three of whom started the game, plus Tom Betts and Mark Bitmead who both impressed for the youth team in midweek. The Ash Trees again started brightly, dominating possession from the start to the frustration of their opponents whose tackling left a lot to be desired. Ashford should have taken the lead when after a right wing cross that the keeper could only parry, Munir Dar headed the ball onto the inside of the post. Ashford continued to pass the ball well without regularly producing the killer pass to unlock the Northwood defence, which was frustrating as both Nathan Turner and Dar seemed to have the beating of the Northwood backline. Northwood did however start the second half well and went 1-0 up after a mix up between Guy Hollis and Thomas Nyarko. They continued to pile on the pressure until after another late challenge, the referee gave a second yellow card to the Northwood culprit reducing them to ten men. The Ash Trees again took control of the game and some good link up play between the impressive Ben Jones and George Baldock, deadly Dar nipped in to slot the ball past the keeper. It seemed like only a matter of time before Ashford would take the lead, however after a breakaway, Steven Collins was adjudged to have fouled their forward in the box and a penalty was given, with the result that the visitors were now 2-1 down. With nothing to lose the Tangerines went with a 3 man forward line with 20 year old Junior Bushri coming on for his debut, he immediately broke free in the box but failed to shoot before being tackled. This seemed to be the pattern until Nick Hardy swung in a delightful ball in behind the Northwood backline that Turner pounced on and headed past the oncoming goalkeeper. With eight minutes left a win was still in sight and Turner was to get another chance to score but this time his effort missed the target and minutes later, the final whistle was blown. A good effort from the youngsters with several impressive individual performances however, more cutting edge is required if they are to turn draws into wins. Team. 1. Lee Elliot, 2. Nick Hardy, 3. Jacob Joseph (Junior Bushri 75min), 4. Thomas Nyarko, 5.Guy Hollis (capt,),6. Ike Chuckwudum (Steven Collins 65min), 7.George Baldock, 8. Enoch Aojepone-Akosay (Tom Betts 60min), 9.Munir Dar, 10. Nathan Turner, 11. Ben Jones. Subs not used. , Tom Snowdon, Mark Bitmead. | 
Saturday, 04 February 2012
