TEN-MAN WOOD ADD TO DOYLE’S DILEMMA
ANGELO Balanta’s firsthalf winner was enough to hand ten-men Boreham Wood a crucial victory over a Woking side, who slipped second from bottom in the table.
Balanta fired his side in front just before the quarter-hour but Wood were forced to play for over 50 minutes with ten men after striker Lee Ndlovu was sent off by referee Aji Ajibola following a collision with Dion Kelly-Evans.
It sealed a first win in five matches for Wood, and boss Luke Garrard said: “Every three points from now until the end of the season is going to be huge.
“I looked back at the incident and it definitely wasn’t a red card. But we were well-organised which we adapted to their change of shape really well.
“I always speak about talent and ability, but now, we’ve got 15 cup finals. I want to see an identity that represents our club which I felt we showed today. This division waits for nobody and has to ensure we get our maximum points return.”
The hosts dominated the opening exchanges and could have taken the lead after a diagonal ball on the left was touched on by Dennon Lewis who teed up Lewis Walker but he was superbly shackled by the Wood backline.
Wood, however, remained patient and got their reward on 14 minutes – Portuguese international Balanta half-volleying into the roof of the net after Chris Bush nodded on Erico Sousa’s free-kick.
Woking played with great urgency in the final third and a ball was threaded to Charley Kendall who launched an audacious shot from outside the box flew over Wood keeper Nathan Ashmore’s goal.
Woking were further boosted by their numerical advantage following Ndlovu’s sending off and they conjured up a good opportunity just before half time when Jayden Luker tried to catch Ashmore out by firing at the edge of the box, with the Wood keeper was too wise and saved crucially.
Michael Doyle’s Woking came out on the front foot in the second half and were seeing plenty of the ball without creating too many clear-cut opportunities.
And it was Wood who went closest to adding to the scoreline with Sousa launching a dangerous cross into the penalty area, finding David Agbontohoma, but he could only head straight into the arms by Andre Jr.
Woking regained their dominance with Walker seeing his effort nestle into the side-netting before Ashmore pulled off a string of saves in quick succession to deny substitute Ricky Korboa and Walker.
Doyle said: “Disappointed to lose the game on a set piece and struggled with our link up play in the first half.
“[Curtis] Edwards was brought on to fill that role to open the game more in the middle which he managed to do. He will help us a lot going forward.”