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MATCH REPORT: BOREHAM WOOD VS LINCOLN CITY
By Nathan Hodge
A game in which the Wood had chances to take the lead and even win the contest ended in a 2-0 Lincoln City victory as Wood’s Trophy dream ended on Saturday afternoon.
There were good chances for both sides with the Wood rattling the woodwork but they could not find a way through the City defence.
Lincoln started the brighter of the two sides as they got the ball on the deck and started to create chances. They looked to keep possession and Hawkridge and Haberham looked to cause Danny Woodards problems down the Wood’s right-hand side, but the Wood defence held firm to prevent Lincoln from getting a shot away.
Habereham sent in a big throw looking to pick out a man but Grant Smith came to claim the ball – this ended up causing a bit of a scramble in the box in which both sides looked to gain possession but the Wood managed to clear the ball.
The first shot of the game came from Lincoln as a Hawkridge cross was met on the edge of the box by Joe Ward whose stunning volley towards the top left of Smith’s goal was met by an equally stunning save from the Wood keeper.
The Wood came more and more in to the game when Angelo Balanta and Morgan Ferrier started to combine to cause the Lincoln defence some problems. Finally, the Wood broke down the defence to get in a shot as Anthony Jeffrey shimmied past two defenders before finding Balanta in space on the edge of the box. Balanta then played
Bruno Andrade in on the right and his cross was met by Kenny Davis before Balanta struck the ball goalwards. Farman was equal to the effort though getting a glove on the ball and turning it onto the post and away to safety.
Hawkridge struck a shot from 20 yards out which forced a save by Smith turning the ball behind as Lincoln showed that they were still a threat. The resulting corner from Hawkridge’s effort was headed away by Davis whose clearance was met by Ferrier who beat his man before sprinting into the opposition half. He then played the ball to Andrade who dummied the ball leaving it for Jeffrey to strike but his shot was just wide of the goal.
The Wood then gained a free kick on the left-hand side and Andrade crossed the ball in which was met by Davis in space but he could only head it wide of Farman’s goal.
The Wood kept up the pressure as Woodards picked up a loose ball in the middle of the park and played it through to Andrade on the right-hand side before he delivered an outstanding ball into the six-yard box which was only met by a Lincoln player before being turned behind for a corner.
The first half came to an end with both sides having had a lot of good chances, however it was the Wood who had the best of the bunch and they will have been a bit annoyed at this point having not taken one of them and gone into the interval with the lead.
The second half started like the first with Lincoln getting an early bit of possession before Whitehouse got a shot away but it flew just over the Wood’s goal. Unlike the first half Wood got into the game early on as Matt Paine under pressure played a great ball into Ferrier who controlled it, turned then played the ball to Andrade on the right but the chance came to nothing in the end as no one could meet the cross.
Balanta in his own half miss-controlled the ball but still managed get away a brilliant pass across to Andrade who beat his man before striking it from 20 yards out which Farman was able to just tap around the post.
Moments later Lincoln made the breakthrough in the 62nd minute as Joe Ward found himself on the right of the box before running into the centre and slotting the ball across into the bottom left-hand side of Smith’s goal.
Not long after a mistake from Smith led to a Lincoln corner in which Paine met the ball but unfortunately couldn’t do anything with it other than steering it into his own net to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.
Wood tried to get a goal back but struggled to create any decent chances. It developed into a scrappy last 10 minutes with plenty of fouls but neither side being able to use the ball effectively. Lincoln looked the more likely to score in the end as Smith lost possession when trying to dribble clear but luckily for the Wood goalkeeper the shot was put wide.
A few Wood free kicks in injury time didn’t really come to much as Lincoln saw the game out 2-0 in a match which could have gone either way early on but Lincoln took their chances and made the Wood pay for missing theirs.