By John Mead
Wood travel to Cressing Road for their first fixture of the New Year this coming Saturday. The two sides recently met at Meadow Park, resulting in a hard fought 1-0 for Wood, courtesy of Anthony Jeffrey’s early goal after 7 minutes. Braintree have not played since that Boxing day fixture, whilst Wood returned from Woking two days later with a valuable point in a 0-0 draw.
Braintree Town are flying the flag for the part time clubs, enjoying their 5th season in the National League. Before that they spent 5 seasons, exactly the same length of time as the Wood at Conference South level. Their record is one that Wood can aspire to, however it has been tough going this first season at the top table of Non League Football for Luke Garrard’s side.
Yet a recent run of just two defeats in 8 outings has given Wood some hope of survival.
It will, much like all games this season be a tough ask to come away with maximum points on Saturday. If Wood do succeed it will be notably their first double of the season.
Our last visit to play the Iron was back in August 2010 , when the home side won 3-2 in a game of two halves, before going on to be crowned Champions of the Conference South.
The one stumbling block to increasing the points tally comes in the shape of the clay heavy Cressing Road playing surface. Pitch covers are being employed on the vulnerable sections of the ground in the hope of fulfilling this tie.
Town have seen five home games called off already this season and Wood fans are advised to check the website for news on the state of the surface prior to travelling.
Braintree Town v Boreham Wood.
Saturday January 2nd, kick off 3pm
The Avanti Stadium,
off Clockhouse Way,
Braintree.
CM7 3RD.
