Boreham Wood 4-0 Stockport County
Saturday 21st September 2019, Meadow Park
Vanarama National League
Star man Kabongo Tshimanga bagged a brace during Boreham Wood’s impressive 4-0 victory against Stockport County. A dominant performance by Luke Garrard’s men saw The Wood secure all three points for the second home game in a row.
A poor performance from Stockport County led to their third defeat on the bounce as they looked for their second away victory of the season. Boreham Wood seemed invincible in defence during a game where Stockport couldn’t find a way through The Wood back three having only two shots on target.
After 15 minutes of play Boreham Wood started to make good use of their wing backs which led to two corners in quick succession.
Tshimanga broke the deadlock after 20 minutes. Good pressure from Murtagh paid off as he won the ball in the Stockport half, powered through and released a perfectly waited through ball into the path of Tshimanga who stayed composed, rounded the keeper, and passed the ball into an empty net.
The goal seemed to have sparked some life into Stockport, who went straight on the attack after the opener and created their first chance of the game, albeit briefly as Wood regained dominance. Just six minutes after the first goal, Sorba Thomas doubled Boreham Wood’s lead with an excellent left footed finish into the far corner from outside the box. It was Tom Champion who won the ball back for The Wood after he intercepted play on the half way line and played a firm pass into the feet of Thomas, who then took a touch to compose himself and unleashed an excellent strike into the bottom left corner from over 20 yards out.
Not long after the second goal, Gannon had seen enough and made a substitution which saw Huddersfield Town loanee Ben Jackson make way for the experienced Sam Miniham. This meant Stockport changed their shape converting from 3-5-2 to a 4-3-3 in attempt to create more in the final third.
Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard predicted the change of shape and was quoted in a post- match interview saying, “we knew before the game they could change shape at some point, it was just a matter of when they would do so.”
After an overload of chances for Boreham Wood, Tshimanga scored his second after a great run, beating the offside trap which allowed the striker to take his time, compose himself, and finish calmly, beating the keeper at his near post.
Stockport started the second half brightly creating a few early chances, but again lacking quality in the final third to create any real goal scoring opportunities.
However, it wasn’t long before Boreham Wood started to find their rhythm again, with Murtagh and Thomas finding space in between the lines which proved difficult for the Stockport midfield to deal with all afternoon. Thomas continued to show his class finding more space in the midfield and created several chances for The Wood. In the 65th minute a corner whipped in from the home side led to the Stockport defender pulling down Boreham Wood’s captain Mark Rickets in the penalty area resulting in a spot kick. However, Tshimanga failed to convert the penalty after a good save from Ian Ormson down to his right side.
The game then saw a scrappy period for 15 minutes with not a lot of chances created, this favoured the home side as they looked comfortable seeing out the victory, which allowed Garrard to make several changes with Tuesday night’s fixture against Notts County in the back of his mind.
The changes saw Justin Shaibu come on in place of Tshimanga and it wasn’t long before he showcased some superb individual play beating three Stockport players and eventually off loading the ball into the feet of Tyrone Marsh, who had the simple task of tucking away Boreham Wood’s fourth of the game to make it 4-0 to the home side.
The back three for Boreham Wood were solid throughout and manager Luke Garrard was quoted after the game saying, “we were pleased with the clean sheet, I thought the back three were superb and shut down anything that Stockport threw at them.”
Boreham Wood: 1 Gregory, 3 Ilesamni, 4 Ricketts, 5 Champion, 6 Stephens, 9 Tshimanga, 10 Murtagh, 11 Marsh, 12 Fyfield, 14 Thomas, 19 Smith. Subs: 7 Mingoia (Replaced Thomas), 8 McDonnell (Unused), 15 Shakes (Replaced Smith), 16 Thompson (Unused), 20 Shaibu (Replaced Tshimanga).
Goalscorers: Tshimanga(2), Thomas, Marsh
Stockport County: 13 Ormson, 4 Turnbull, 5 Palmer, 6 Keane, 7 Thomas, 8 Walker, 10 Osborne, 11 Leesley, 16 Bell, 18 Arthur, 21 Jackson. Subs: 23 Gorst, 2 Minihan (Replaced Jackson), 3 Cowan, 9 Mulhern (Replaced Osborne), 17 Dimaio (Replaced Thomas).
Goalscorers: None
Attendance: 744 (370 away supporters)
Report by Joe Karadzas (BWFC Press Assistant)
