A superb Glenn Hawkins hat trick gave Woodford a share of the spoils at Soham Town on Saturday.
With only 25 minutes on the clock Woodford looked dead and buried as poor defensive errors allowed
Soham to take total control, firstly on 12 minutes Ross Harris was caught in possession which allowed
Johnson to break clear and as he fired across the six yar box, Luke Carnell was unfortunate to deflect the ball into his own net. Dubi Ogbonna immediately doubled the advantage, again hesitancy by Parkinson allowed the home striker in on goal, Goode in the Woodford goal did well to block the effort but could do nothing about the follow up as Ogbonna tapped home.
Woodford were certainly not on there game, and 2 goals in the next 10 minutes by the lively Deakin Napier looked to have ended the encounter, even though the game was only 25 minutes old. Woodford made an immediate change, Simon King replacing Nathaniel Liburd looking to stop the threat of Napier down the left.
The change had an immediate effect as King set Gordon away, who crossed to Hawkins to slot home to give Woodford a slight glimmer of hope.4-1 down at the interval, Woodford certainly needed an improved performance after the break if they was to have any chance of getting back into the game, Although the home side helped the cause by convincing everyone that it was possible to come from 4 goals down to gain a point, as they had done that the previous week at Leighton Town
If the first half could be classed a Woodford's worst performance for some time, the the second was a complete turnaround, When Hawkins rose superbly to head home a Nicky Gordon cross 15 minutes in it looked possible, 5 minutes later though the task was made harder when Simon King was dismissed for his second Yellow card after a melee had broken out in the Soham technical area, the unfortunate King looked to have received a kick from one of the Soham staff has he tried to retrieve the ball.
Down to ten men a 2 goals behind, Woodford somehow took control and with 15 minutes left on the clock, Hawkins added a 3rd when he turned his defender and fired home. Soham were now struggling to combat the Endeavour of Woodford and never looked like making the extra man advantage count, as they gave the ball away at every opportunity. Then with 2 minutes left Lewis Travers forced his way into the box and fired past the advancing home keeper to level the scores. Woodford maybe should have won it when Fountain rose well in the box, but somehow headed over from a Kinch corner.
Unbeaten in their last 3 games Woodford will be looking to improve their defending as they take on Atherstone at Byfield Road next Saturday..5th December