Pre-Season Friendly
Arlesey Town 1 Boreham Wood 3
by John Mead
Goals from Ben Nunn, Graeme Montgomery and David Hutton were enough to ease past Town in this final Pre-Season encounter, leaving Ian Allinson to declare, “We are ready!”
It could have been an even greater margin as the gulf in class between the two sides was evident throughout the whole afternoon.
A fine move involving Omer Riza, Chez Isaac and Montgomery who found Nunn on the overlap almost led to the opener. Nunn went for goal from a tight angle with players queuing up in the box shooting just over. This proved to be a marker for the recent signing from Chelmsford City who opened the scoring in fine fashion after twenty-three minutes. Inih Effiong chested down for Isaac who played Montgomery through down the right. He played back into the path of the advancing Nunn who masterfully hit a low drive from thirty yards which Nathan Abbey in the Town goal failed to get down to.
David Galbraith finally gave James Russell some practice five minutes later recording Town’s first on target effort.
Montgomery went close as Wood continued to pepper the Town defence, with the giant Ryan Frater by far the best Town player on show, holding the defence together. He himself then almost snatched an equaliser from a Phil Draycott free kick, he was left alone by the Wood defence, his header coming back into play off the right hand post.
Montgomery then served up one of his specialities in first half stoppage time. Effiong’s header bounced kindly allowing the ex-Eastleigh player to send a superb lob over Abbey from twenty-five yards out, leaving the ‘keeper no chance.
The second half continued in the same vein. Nunn’s telling ball down the right played Riza through on goal. It needed a timely intervention from Draycott who snubbed out a certain third for Wood.
Wood increased their lead thanks to a visionary up field clearance from Elliott Buchanan for Riza to chase. He managed to cut the ball back towards goal where Hutton was on hand to apply the finishing touch sending the ball beyond Abbey into the bottom left hand corner.
Riza and Hutton combined again a minute later, this time Abbey produced a fingertip save.
Wood continued to work hard for their victory and when Substitute Lee Close crossed from the right for fellow Sub. Harvey Scott-Morris, it should have been four, yet the shot was weak and Abbey atoned to smother the point blank effort.
Town, to their credit, kept battling, Frater again went close with his head, before another Substitute combination led to a consolation goal. Aston Goss crossed from the right, Cameron Baker-Owers stayed on his line and Kim Forsyth duly headed home in the final minute.
Wood Manager, Ian Allinson declared, “We played very well today and this was a good confidence booster going into the Season. We could have scored a lot more given our dominance. It has been a hard six weeks and thankfully we will be injury free going into the Eastleigh game. The fixtures have served up a mouth watering opener given that Eastleigh are the bookies title favourites and we are relishing the challenge.”
Team: Russell (Sub – Baker-Owers 82 mins.), Nunn (Sub – Close 78 mins.), Jones, Noto, O’Loughlin, Reynolds, Hutton, Isaac, Effiong (Sub – Buchanan 59 mins.), Riza (Sub – Scott-Morris 76 mins.), Montgomery.
Goals: Arlesey Town: Forsyth 90. Boreham Wood: Nunn 23, Montgomery 45, Hutton 73.