Non-League and Academy football writer

In game-week two of the group-stages of this season’s Somali British Champions League, Wood Lane faced Hilltop at Shooting Starz Sports Club on Sunday evening, in a group A fixture. Step 7 side Wood Lane had lost their opening group game 1-0 to Newmont. Step 5 team, Hilltop, had drawn their opening game of this edition of the prestigious SBCL, 2-2 with OIR. on Sunday evening it was Hilltop who managed to win this game, 2-1, courtesy of a very late winning goal from Michael Panford.

Right from the very start there was a very good intensity to this game. Wood Lane would definitely create the better of the early goalscoring chances, however. After Rayan Haddi had got to the ball on the left-hand side of the Hilltop penalty area, following an initial cross into the box, the Wood Lane player would hit a powerful effort against the woodwork. Around five minutes later, Rayan Haddi would receive the ball on the edge of the Hilltop penalty area, and his resulting whipped effort on goal, which was heading for the top right-hand corner of the goal, was really well tipped over by Hilltop’s goalkeeper, Ahmed Omar.

As the first half progressed, Hilltop started to play their passing game to greater effect, against a Wood Lane side who were pressing Hilltop really well off the ball. After Hilltop player Hussein Mahdi’s free-kick effort from a difficult angle on the edge of the Wood Lane box, had gone around the home team’s wall, the Wood Lane goalkeeper, Ahmed Hassan, would make a really smart save to turn the ball behind at his near post. A couple of minutes later, and Wood Lane defender Jay Hines would make a crucial block from Jibril Mahdi’s effort, from inside the home team’s penalty area.

The remainder of the first half continued to be very well contested. Next, and following a lofted Wood Lane ball to the back post of the Hilltop goal, there was a collision involving a Wood Lane player in front of the goal, with Wood Lane just unable to finish into the goal. Thankfully Ahmed Omar was fine to continue, after a short pause in play. Soon after play had resumed, Wood Lane player Omar Dirow (from the edge of the Hilltop penalty area) would hit a low effort wide of Ahmed Omar’s right-hand post. 

The final action of the first half came in the final minute of the half. With Anis Assoweh hitting his free-kick effort from the edge of the Wood Lane box, against Ahmed Hassan’s crossbar, as Hilltop came very close to leading at the break. Wood Lane, in similar fashion to the first half, would go on to start the second half of this game positively. After Wood Lane player Ahmed Kadiye had ran onto a lofted pass in behind of the Hilltop defence, he would skilfully lift the ball over their outrushing goalkeeper inside of the penalty area. However, Hilltop defender Hussein Hussein would manage to get across well to stop Ahmed Kadiye from managing to hit the goal, as his resulting effort went over.

Still relatively early on in the second half and a significant moment in the game would occur. As Kvar March-McKenzie was shown his second yellow card of the game by the referee, for a challenge on Wood Lane forward Ramy Bouhiaoui down the right-hand side of the pitch. Shortly after that sending off for Hilltop, Wood Lane would take the lead. Ramy Bouhiaoui would get to the ball following a misplaced Hilltop pass to the right-hand side of the pitch, and after going forwards with the ball for a short distance, the former QPR academy player would play a clever pass in behind the defence. Finding the run of Abdisalam Yusuf, who had met the ball down the right-hand side of the Hilltop box, this would result in him clinically finishing across goal, low into the bottom left-hand corner of the net, 1-0.

The game had definitely started to really open up during the second half, as the ten men of Hilltop really tried to use all of their experience to get something from this game. After Hussein Mahdi and Hilltop substitute Michael Panford had combined on the edge of the Wood Lane box, Hussein Mahdi would see his low effort on goal from inside of the penalty area, be really well kept out and then gathered by Ahmed Hassan. At the opposite end of the pitch, from a well delivered Abdisalam Yusuf corner-kick into the centre of the Hilltop box, the run across goal from Jay Hines would see the Wood Lane defender glance a header just wide of the goal.

Late on in this game, and Hilltop did manage to draw level. Shyon Davis would receive a short pass across to the left-hand side of the Wood Lane box, and in a bit of space he would finish low into the bottom right-hand corner of the goal, 1-1. In what proved to be a highly eventful final couple of minutes of this game, influential Wood Lane player Rayan Haddi would curl a really fine effort across the Hilltop goal, from the right-hand side of their penalty area, but his effort was really well matched by Ahmed Omar, who managed to make a hugely important save.

It would be a heartbreaking end to this game for Wood Lane, whose players had given absolutely everything out on the pitch, against the current holders of the competition. A successful Hilltop counter with the ball, which started with Shyon Davis, who managed to go past a couple of players with the ball close to midfield, would result in him playing the ball out to Jibril Mahdi, who was in a lot of space down the right-hand side of the pitch. Jibril Mahdi would continue forward with the ball before delivering a low cross to the onrushing Michael Panford, who from the left-hand side of the Wood Lane box, would finish low and calmly into the goal, 1-2.

Firstly I’d like to say that Abdiaziz Dirrie’s Wood Lane side were for so much of this game very good, I thought. They are a very youthful side who are currently playing their first season at step 7 of non-League football. Their energy and desire to win this game, was really admirable. And although they lost so late on in the game, they can all be proud of how they competed against a very good and experienced Hilltop side. Wood Lane still have a chance of reaching the knockout stages of the competition, but they must beat OIR in their final group-stage fixture to have any chance of achieving that goal.

Hilltop are such a good and talented side, whose experience, even with ten men during the latter stages of Sunday’s game, proved to be invaluable, as they managed to get that important victory right at the end. My overall player of the match award on Sunday goes to Hilltop’s consistently impressive central-defender, Hussein Hussein. He read the game really well, and he really did lead by example at difficult moments from defence. I also thought that Shyon Davis, Jibril Mahdi and Ahmed Omar were all contenders for the player of the match award. For Wood Lane, I thought that Rayan Haddi was their player of the match, with Omar Dirow, Jay Hines and Ramy Bouhiaoui just some of the other contenders for their player of the match award.