Ruthless Moors punish Wood
SOLIHULL pounced on defensive mishaps to ruthlessly put to the sword previously unbeaten Boreham Wood and bag a third National League win on the bounce.
Free-scoring Joe Sbarra got his seventh goal in six outings, making the most of keeper Nathan Ashmore’s rare slip, with Danny Newton notching his first Moors goal just before the half-hour.
Jacob Mendy Mendy had halved a two-goal deficit just before half-time and the visitors then enjoyed their best spell of the match only for Newton’s second shortly after half-time to take the sting out of the game.
An unlikely opener arrived when Ashmore misjudged a ball over the top, his attempted adjustment causing him to slip on the edge of the box to gift Sbarra an empty net.
Strike partners Newton and Andrew Dallas ruffled feathers from every ball that came forward and it paid dividends again in the 28th minute. A Will Evans header ricocheted off the back of Dallas’s head and Newton reacted, nudging inside Ashmore’s near post while Jamal Fyfield dallied.
Wood steadily recovered and scored when Scott Boden pinched the ball in the middle and stroked out Mendy Mendy who drilled low inside the far post from the left corner of the box.
Tyrone Marsh’s blast was pushed around the near post by Ryan Boot and Josh Rees walloped the side netting as the visitors threatened a leveller before half-time but the bubble burst within two minutes of the restart, Callum
Maycock driving forward to find Newton to run across the box and somehow squeeze a shot back across goal and into the bottom far corner.
Boot was forced into a wonder save from Boden’s powerful downward header on the hour but Moors astutely managed the game.
“I didn’t think this would be a game for the purist,” admitted home boss Neal Ardley. “We did our homework on Boreham Wood. The reason they had not been beaten this season was because of the intensity they play with, I thought it would be our biggest test so far.
“It was a game for us to play super-high intensity stuff, get them on the back foot and try to get momentum going their way.”
Opposite number Luke Garrard was in no doubt over why his side lost.
“We played a massive part in them getting the win,” he said.“You cannot defend in that manner or concede the goals we did but we will wipe our mouths and move on.
“If Tyrone Marsh had scored just before half-time then the team talk would have completely changed completely but we still felt we were in it.
“To concede like we did early in the second half, where he ran across the 18-yard box, was not good enough. We will be looking at that and ensuring we don’t repeat it this season.”