Romane Walker scored four in last night’s FA Youth Cup tie.
North Greenford United 0-5 Northwood
The FA Youth Cup sponsored by E.ON
Preliminary Round
7.30pm, Wednesday 8 September 2010
Berkeley Fields, North Greenford United FC
Click here for fixtures
Romane Walker, wearing No.9, was a four-goal hero as Northwood swamped their Middlesex rivals in yesterday’s Preliminary Round tie in Greenford. The Woods now face a trip to Barking, who beat Staines Town 3-2 at home last night, in the First Round Qualifying.
The visitors survived a whirlwind start by the hosts, in which they struck the bar following a corner in the third minute and fired two other shots narrowly wide. On ten minutes, Walker first showed his outstanding ability to run with the ball at pace; he was hauled down for a free kick and blasted it against the top of the far post.
The pattern of the game changed in three crazy minutes, the 17th to the 19th. The diminutive Jack Hutchinson missed a simple chance to open the scoring from right in front of goal but quickly made amends by sliding the ball across for Walker to fire into the bottom corner.
Almost immediately, another slippery run from Walker was ended by a foul, this time inside the box, and he netted the penalty himself for 2-0. North Greenford’s attacking intentions, so clear in the first few minutes, became somewhat inhibited from then on.
Walker simply couldn’t be stopped and he rode two crude lunges to poke home a third goal just before the break. The home side must have sensed it wasn’t going to be their night but they kept trying to play football and kept it tighter at the back until the 76th minute.
Then Walker sold the full-back such an outrageous dummy that he may have had to pay to get back in the ground and hit a blistering left-footer that sped past the ‘keeper at his near post. North Greenford had a goal disallowed by the referee after consultation with an assistant, compounding their frustration, and Jonas Charles glanced in a header for 5-0 six minutes from time.
Attendance: 57
