High and mighty
OAKWOODB WOODFORDWANDERERS
FOOTBALL DARYL Kay praised match-winnerAndyLevyafterWoodford Wanderers surged to the top of the table with a hard-fought win over promotion rivals Oakwood.
Super-sub Andy Levy settled a gripping contest in which Oakwood were reduced to 10 men following the dismissal of Daniel Selwyn.
AlexAviramputWoodfordaheadwith a superb long-range strike before Daniel Seligman fired home an equaliser for an Oakwood team who played the final 60 minutes a man down. But Levy had the final word to send the east Londoners a point clear of the chasing pack and move a step closer to a return to the Premier Division.
Kay, the Woodford joint-manager, commented: “We didn’t dominate the game as much as we would have liked to, but we did just about enough to deserve the victory.
“Oakwood pegged us back with 10 minutes to go but the boys showed great hunger to go on to win the game.
“All 14 boys played their p a r t a n d we want to give a special mention to Andy Levy who came off the bench to score the winning goal. He has always had that killer instinct in front of goal.
“It’s never easy playing against 10 men but in fairness to Oakwood, they battled well and made it hard for us to take advantage of the situation.”
Kay insists Woodford are taking nothing for granted during the run-in. “I’m confident we are good enough to win this division, but only time will tell whether we are the best team or not,” he said. “We have put ourselves in a fantastic position to achieve what we set out to do at the beginning of the season.”
Oakwood boss Jason Stein was delighted by the “courage and fight” of his team but admitted that “playing with 10 men for that long is very hard”.
Steinsaid:“Mydisappointment stems from us then losing the game, because we’d done the hard part by equalising.
“I imagine if you asked Woodford’s management, they’d count themselves fortunate to have come away with two wins from our two evenly matched games.”
Stein felt aggrieved by the dismissal of Selwyn. “It is what it is,” he said. “I can understand why the referee has given it, but it was a devastating blow. I feel to send someone off in a title-decider after 30 minutes, it’s got to be absolutely cut and dried and for me it wasn’t.
“Fair play to Woodford, though. I know how highly they rate us because everytimeweplayoneanother.starman Mitch Hahn rocks up. In both games, Daryl and Jerome will have thought they have had the game won and twice we’vecomeback.Buttwicewehavebeen taught a harsh lesson.”
Woodford host title rivals Brady Maccabi on Sunday.