WOOD PEGGED BACK IN THRILLER
IN THE end, this six-goal thriller was all just a bit of history repeating itself.
Draw specialists Boreham Wood threw away a two-goal lead for the third time this month in a fixture which continues to guarantee goals.
And Wood manager Luke Garrard admitted: “I need shooting. I need to be put out of my misery. It’s the story of our season and I don’t know what to say. The manner in which we’re conceding goals at the minute is very poor.
“There’s so much frustration and it’s like we’ve got a weak underbelly – from the 65th minute onwards, there’s a two-goal buffer and we take our foot off the gas.”
A lively start for the hosts, in which Josh Rees had a shot cleared off the line by Gus Mafuta, was undone by a succession of defensive errors on 14 minutes as Boreham Wood punished Ryan Hall’s sliced clearance.
Tyrone Marsh’s clipped pass invited Kane Smith to burst into the box past a flat-footed Killian Colombie, and the low cross was diverted into his own net by Giles Phillips.
Ricky Miller, Phillips and Rees all failed to guide close-range chances on target, but it was the visitors who displayed the greater attacking threat. Marsh’s shot was blocked and Mafuta’s follow-up deflected narrowly wide, before Corey Whitely’s drive hit the diving Phillips.
Femi Ilesanmi produced a superb tackle to deny Miller a certain goal at the start of the second-half but soon the game exploded into life in a thrilling ten-minute spell. Harry Panayiotou ghosted past Krystian Pearce down the left and Edser turned in his pull-back at the nearpost to equalise, yet almost immediately Wood surged back in front.
Whitely drove inside from the left flank and, when a tackle failed to arrive, sent a brilliant shot across Hall into the far corner. The lead was further extended when former Shots loanee Kabby Tshimanga, having been needlessly fouled by Hall as the ball was running harmlessly behind, scored his 13th of the season with a confident penalty.
Yet the blighted script was waiting to be written for Wood’s 13th draw of the season and the continuation of a fixture which has now produced 16 goals in their last three meetings. Edser’s free-kick was only half-cleared and the ball sat up perfectly for Rees to hook the ball past Nathan Ashmore.
Edser again supplied Rees on 78 minutes. His floating cross from deep was missed by the backtracking goalkeeper on the corner of his six-yard box, and Mo Bettamer’s header invited the midfielder to equalise from eight yards for his tenth goal of a hugely influential season.
“They’ll be frustrated but I think on the balance of the game honours even is a fair result,” was Danny Searle’s understated response to a tumultuous 90 minutes which could have produced even more goals. “When you look at some of our play it’s two points dropped but we’ve shown great character to even get a point.”