ON THE ROAD TO WEMBLEY
HE HAS won National League titles with Mansfield Town and Lincoln City – now Matt Rhead is after a promotion hat-trick after keeping Boreham Wood’s Football League dream alive.
The burly 36-year-old striker headed in the winner ten minutes from time to complete the turnaround for Luke Garrard’s side and send them into a semi-final clash at Harrogate Town this Saturday.
Yet at half-time their playoff campaign could well have been all but over after underdogs FC Halifax Town led through Tobi Sho-Silva and were twice denied by goalkeeper Grant Smith.
It was another Smith in the Wood ranks, right wingback Kane, who also played a major part by scoring the equaliser shortly after halftime via a big deflection off Shaymen centre-back Nathan Clarke.
Then, Rhead, who had struggled to impose himself in the tie, glanced in the winner from Sorba Thomas’s corner.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” he told The NLP. “It just shows the character of the lads today. We stuck at it, we were nowhere near where we’ve been in previous games but it was expected with the break we’ve had.
“Character is what you need to get out of this league. Every team I’ve played in that has been successful has had massive characters.”
Halifax had won the very first battle, turning Boreham Wood round at the toss to play with the wind and put the sun into the hosts’ eyes.
Both sides, officials and staff took a knee at the sound of the referee’s whistle to show their support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
A crunching tackle from Halifax’s Josh Staunton echoed around Meadow Park, serving as an early reminder of the match being played behind closed doors.
Without supporters, the physicality and competitiveness of the game became more apparent with the force of each clash audible and every decision disputed – usually accompanied by a swear word.
Halifax wing-back Michael Duckworth had the first shot in anger which flew off target following claims for handball when it looked like Rhead had handled when helping out his defence.
Silky Wood midfielder Keiran Murtagh bent a shot wide and then the Shaymen’s Cameron King also fired off-target from a well-worked corner routine in a frantic opening ten minutes.
Wood threatened throughout from corners having clearly worked on a number of routines – their first one leading to Jamal Fyfield getting a shot away which was blocked.
But FC Halifax had more fluency to their game than the hosts in the first-half and the Wood back three struggled to contain Jamie Allen and Sho-Silva.
However, it wasn’t an incisive move that led to the opening goal, only a routeone drop kick from goalkeeper Sam Johnson.
Fyfield missed his header, perhaps losing sight of the ball in the sun, and Sho-Silva nipped in to turn the ball past Smith, who was slow to come out.
Halifax were on top when the drinks break arrived in the 23rd minute – warranted after a non-stop opening on a warm evening – but they were caught out by Murtagh shortly afterwards as he slipped a pass into Kabongo Tshimanga, who was denied by Johnson.
Halifax looked more together, more in-tune and their work-rate was summed up when striker Allen tracked Murtagh all the way back into his own area and took the ball off him.
Wood keeper Grant Smith, on loan from Lincoln City, had been largely untroubled until he saved from Duckworth’s free-kick, initially spilling but managing to gather the ball at the second attempt.
Then he made the best, and most crucial save, of the match in injury time by tipping over Sho-Silva’s fierce shot.
It might have been easy for Garrard to have panicked at
half-time, taken off the ineffectual Rhead and ripped up the plan he had been working on for so long, but he stuck to it and it paid off.
Thomas – one of the NonLeague game’s hottest properties – soon came into his own and became a menace and his delivery ricocheted back to full-back Smith, whose shot through a crowd deflected in off Clarke.
Johnson looked like he would have made a comfortable save had it not been for the intervention but it was a moment to savour for Smith, who had injured his ACL two years ago at the same stage when Wood went on to reach Wembley. The goal appeared to drain the energy from Halifax and quickly Wood were causing more problems.
Tyrone Marsh saw his freekick saved by Johnson but it was only a temporary respite as Thomas delivered a pinpoint corner for Rhead to head home.