STORMING WOOD LEAVE BLUES UNDER THE WEATHER

CHESTER’S winless run extended to four games, whilst Boreham Wood consolidated their promotion aspirations with a solid if unspectacular victory they thoroughly deserved – but the overall winner on a wretched wind-blown afternoon was the weather.

Wood’s goals came in a seven-minute spell towards the end of the first period from Shaun Jeffers and the in-form Bruno Andrade. Chester’s consolation, which was their first goal in four outings, came via a stunning strike from substitute Nyal Bell 13 minutes from time.

Both managers were in agreement that the conditions made free-flowing football extremely difficult, but the visitors’ boss Luke Garrard was naturally the happier of the two, saying: “It was a hardfought win, the weather was shocking, we had to roll our sleeves up, but it was a good three points.

“We knew they would come out strongly after the defeat at Kidderminster last week. However, I thought we deserved the win.

“The first ten or 15 minutes they came at us, but then we steadily got on top, and in that first half I thought we could have gone in at the break leading by more than the two goals we actually did.”

Chester manager Marcus Bignot reflected: “I thought we did well at the beginning of the game, but then gave away a needless corner which led to their first goal, and you could see that some of the heads dropped. “We have got to build the confidence of some of the group, and cut out the silly mistakes. I hope to bring in one or two new players prior to Tuesday night’s match against Barrow, because it is plain to see that we need to take one or two of my squad out of the firing line.” Chester had a fairly bright opening to the proceedings with Harry White bringing out a save from Grant Smith, and Tom Shaw and Offrande Zanzala both going wide with efforts from 15 yards. The deadlock was broken after 31 minutes when Lathaniel Rowe-Turner needlessly gave a corner away when under no pressure. The resulting corner kick taken by Andrade was firmly headed home by Jeffers, who found oceans of space on the Chester six-yard line as the home defenders tamely looked on. Andrade doubled his side’s advantage after 38 minutes – Kane Smith easily beat Rowe-Turner down the right flank, his cross was intercepted by Ryan Astles, but the ball ricocheted to Andrade who had a relatively simple job to score from six yards. Substitute Bell reduced the arrears with a stunning 15-yard effort after 77 minutes, following a cross from the left. Chester tried to pinch a point in the dying embers of the game, with efforts from Kingsley James and Shaw, but both opportunities went wide of the target.