Blue Square Bet South

 

Boreham Wood    0    Dorchester Town    0

 

by John Mead

 

Wood faced a totally different type of opponent compared to Wednesday’s excellent feast of football as defensive minded Town came and frustrated for the entire game.    The first half was uninspiring stuff.    Neither side managed to string a decent set of passes together and the ball spent most of the time out of play.

Alan Inns made his Wood debut in the centre of defence and the twenty-eight year old contributed to the ball boys busiest day of the Season with some rigid no nonsense clearances.

A rare sniff of the goal fell to Greg Morgan who was played through by Ali Chaaban.    With seemingly an age to shoot he decided to continue his run allowing the three defenders in attendance to smother the threat.

Mike Cestor, the young Leyton Orient Loanee playing at left back for Wood, had a solid afternoon and his well guided lob forced ‘keeper Dan Thomas to rush out of goal and clear to deny Chaaban a scoring chance.

The visitors failed to test Wood stand in ‘keeper James Reading until the last minute of the half, when he spilled a low shot, although Inns was on hand to blast the ball away from danger.

Morgan managed a rare shot on target as the second half momentarily threatened to turn into a spectacle.    A fine move by Wood ended up with Elliott Godfrey shooting wide of the target, before Chaaban was played through yet took far too many touches and his threat was inevitably smothered by the hoardes of Town defenders.

The Magpies slowed down play with every throw in and free kick and with the game going nowhere Ian Allinson introduced Ola Sogbanmu for Chaaban and the welcome return of Sam Hurrell for Nicky Nicolau.

Steve Devlin forced a fine save from Reading who blocked with his legs, before a rare Cestor mistake allowed Town’s main threat Ryan Moss a run at goal, which Reading read excellently and rushed out to bravely save at the centre forward’s feet.

Hurrell forced a save at the far post from a free kick after Godfrey was sliced to the ground, before The Magpies woke up in stoppage time.    Reading saved a low shot from Moss, before misjudging a bounce and completely missing a cross that Luke Wilkinson thankfully clawed behind for a corner.

With seconds left the visitors did hit the back of the net, albeit after the Referee had blown for a push in the box.

A frustrating afternoon for an out of sorts Wood who were outfoxed by a side who played for a point from the kick off and went home contented.

Ian Allinson remained philosophical after the final whistle, commenting, “We played poorly yet gained a very valuable point towards our goal of staying in this Division.    Fortunately most of our fellow strugglers fared badly on the afternoon.”    On the game he added, “We were extremely tired after pulling off a super victory against Farnborough on Wednesday.    Dorchester came to frustrate and they did it very well.”

Team:    Reading, Kamara, Cestor, Inns, Wilkinson, Noto, Morgan, Risbridger (Sub – Maledon 73 mins.), Chaaban (Sub – Sogbanmu 66 mins.), Godfrey, Nicolau (Sub – Hurrell 66 mins.).

Subs (Not used):    Moran, Lewis.

Bookings:    Hurrell.

Wood Man of the Match:    Mike Cestor.

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