Blue Square Bet South

Boreham Wood    3    Lewes 0

by John Mead

Three separate players scored their first League goals of the Season as Wood continued their fine run of form.    This was anything but a dead rubber as the visitors were well aware that a win may hoist them to third bottom, a spot from where no team has ever been relegated from this Division due to the demise of other Clubs!

Luke Wilkinson picked up the quickest caution of the Season in the second minute for tripping David Wheeler to curtail his dangerous run.    Rory Hill went close with the resultant free kick, which Wood ‘keeper Elvijs Putnins may well have got a finger to.

Elliott Godfrey started and finished a fine sweeping move for Wood which earned a corner, before Ryan Moran almost doubled his League tally for the Season with a well placed low drive from the edge of the penalty area which needed a diving save at full stretch from Chris Winterton to keep the score sheet blank.    A superb forty yard pass from Mario Noto picked out Godfrey, who, although still behind three defenders managed to shape a shot that hit the base of the left hand post as Wood looked to break up the constant pressure from the visitors.

With no end of Season feel at all to the contest Mitchell Nelson headed just wide for the visitors from a free kick, then Godfrey played a fine one two with David Bryant in another dangerous Wood move that drew a fine stop from Winterton.    The action diminished somewhat until Gareth Risbridger headed home Noto’s left sided corner at the near post on the stroke of half time to give the game a different complexion.    It was his first League goal  for the Club, doing the midfielder no harm as next Season’s contracts become the focal point.

Lewes began the second half in a determined fashion.    A penetrative run down the left by Substitute Gary Noel caused havoc in the Wood defence.    His final ball needed a goal line clearance from Daniel Brathwaite, with Wheeler’s blistering curling follow up from twelve yards drawing possibly the save of the Season out of Putnins who rose to acrobatically tip the effort one handed over the bar.

From the resultant corner Greg Morgan managed to hook Chris Breach’s header off the line as the Rooks looked to keep their Season alive.    However two goals in three minutes brought a dramatic end to their brave fight.    First Godfrey’s free kick was met cleanly by Wilkinson to head home after 68 minutes, his first for the Club in his last game of his Loan spell from Dagenham & Redbridge.

If the names of Risbridger and Wilkinson on the score sheet shocked some, there was more to come as three minutes later Luke Garrard ghosted in down the right holding off the challenge of a defender to coolly slot home across Winterton.    It was his second ever goal on his 75th appearance for the Club!    Wood then inevitably took total control of the game.   Bryant struck the crossbar before  Moran went ever so close with a mammoth power drive from a free kick taken thirty five yards out as Wood closed out their final match in their first ever Season in the Blue Square Bet South in comfort.

The win achieved a remarkable fourteenth spot in the Division with 47 points, which considering their points tally in mid-January was just eleven from nineteen games!

Team:  Putnins, Kamara (Sub – Hunter 80 mins.), Brathwaite, Moran, Wilkinson, Garrard, Godfrey, Risbridger (Sub – Morgan 53 mins.), Bryant, Noto, Nicolau (Sub – Sogbanmu 59 mins.).

Subs (Not used):    Hurrell, Baker-Owers.

Bookings:  Wilkinson, Moran.

Goals:    Boreham Wood:    Risbridger 45, Wilkinson 68, Garrard 71.

Man of the Match:    Luke Garrard.

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