Thurlow Nunn Division 1 South - Saturday 17th January

Rayleigh Town 4-1 NW London

Tommy Sykes 15' (Rayleigh Town)
Tommy Sykes 25' (Rayleigh Town)
Tommy Sykes 45+1' (Rayleigh Town)
Matthew Bumpus 69' (Rayleigh Town)
Gherardo Luchessini 86' (NW London)

NW London's winless run continued with a defeat away to play-off chasing Rayleigh Town.

The game was switched to the 3G surface at Bowers & Pitsea to avoid any possible postponement at the original venue.

Wasseem Guemar made his debut in midfield after signing from Hillingdon Borough — a tall, technical 19-year-old who added presence to the middle of the park. Another teenager, Abeeb Salami, replaced Devin Mills at centre-back for this fixture. In fact, there was a youthful look throughout the squad, with nine teenagers named in the 16-man squad.

The game started with openings for both sides. Tesfameskel fired straight at the Rayleigh goalkeeper, while Town had a shot slashed wide after intercepting possession. The contest felt evenly balanced, with NW London enjoying more of the ball, but Rayleigh looked dangerous on turnovers and loose passes.

A controversial moment after 18 minutes appeared to change the trajectory of the match and left NW London visibly aggrieved. After the referee accidentally intercepted the ball while NWL were in possession, the restart was awarded to Burcea. As he paused due to a Rayleigh player standing close, the referee allowed play to continue. With NWL players seemingly confused, Rayleigh broke forward, and Tommy Sykes beat both centre-backs before squeezing his shot past Barker to give Town the lead, despite NW London's protests.

Further decisions that frustrated NW London soon followed. A foul throw was awarded against NWL, and shortly after they were denied a foul, which led to a sequence of corners. From one of these, Sykes headed against the bar before nodding in the rebound to make it 2–0.

There appeared to be a lifeline when a Rayleigh Town player was sin-binned towards the end of the half, but NW London failed to capitalise, with Burcea firing wide after cutting inside.

Just before half-time, with Rayleigh restored to eleven men, they made it 3–0. Burcea blocked the initial effort, but Sykes powered the follow-up emphatically into the net from outside the box to complete his hat-trick.

Into the second half, Rayleigh hit the woodwork on a quick counter-attack before NW London cleared the danger. At the other end, Krasniqi had NWL's best chance to get back into the game, but a stunning fingertip save pushed his effort onto the bar.

Rayleigh put the game beyond doubt from another corner, which was headed back across goal, and Okoko was beaten to the ball as the hosts scored their fourth.

There was a silver lining late on as returning forward Lucchesini was put through and finished well off the post, but it proved only a consolation.

In the end, NW London will feel they were hard done by in a tight early contest, particularly due to a peculiar incident that led to the opening goal. However, their failure to defend two set pieces ultimately proved decisive, allowing Rayleigh Town to secure the points.