Matthew Gets The Ball Rolling
Skrill South
Tonbridge Angels 0 Boreham Wood 2
by John D. Gill
Boreham Wood made a really impressive start to the new 2013/14 Season, with a thoroughly well deserved 0 – 2 victory against Tonbridge Angels at Longmead, in the Skrill South on Saturday.
Wood’s Manager Ian Allinson gave full First Team debuts to new signings, Matthew Ball, Matty Whichelow and Calum Willock, and named commanding central defender Charlie O’Loughlin as the new Team Captain. With Callum Reynolds, out injured, Luke Garrard played alongside O’Loughlin in the centre of defence.
An early ground shot from Tonbridge’s Lee Browning was easily saved by James Russell. Then Wood took control of the game with some creative attacking play. This was rewarded as early as the sixteenth minute, when Matty Whichelow started a move by passing wide to Greg Morgan on the right, he, in turn slipped the ball inside to Matthew Ball who shot wide of Clark Masters into the corner of the net, from just inside the Tonbridge penalty area.
Soon after the goal a Calum Willock goal bound shot was cleared behind for a corner to Wood. Midway through the first half a tremendous right wing run from Greg Morgan, which started in his own half ended with a cross that was cleared by the Tonbridge defence.
Wood kept the pressure on the home side and Mario Noto sent Matty Whichelow clear, but his twenty-five yard shot was brilliantly saved by the diving Clark Masters. Tonbridge really had no answers to Wood’s style of play and they created very few opportunities, all of which were dealt with by the dominating Wood defence.
Minutes before half time, Matthew Ball almost made it 0 – 2 with a shot from the edge of the penalty area that dipped inches over the crossbar. Then Matty Whichelow shot just wide of the far post.
Half Time: 0 – 1
The second half started with Wood still on the attack and Whichelow had a low ground shot saved by Clark Masters. A rare attack from Tonbridge Angels saw James Russell make a fine, blocking save to deny Nathan Pinney a scoring opportunity. At the other end another Matty Whichelow shot went just wide of the goal and Clark Masters just managed to tip a Greg Morgan shot over the crossbar. From the resulting corner kick after fifty-eight minutes, Tonbridge failed to clear the ball which fell kindly for Matthew Ball to score his second goal of the game.
Four minutes later Graeme Montgomery presented Ball with a chance to score his hat-trick, but his shot was saved and Matty Whichelow failed to score from the rebound.
Both teams made Substitutions but it had little effect on the overall Tonbridge performance, whilst Wood continued to control the game. Six minutes from time a Montgomery left wing cross was headed into the net at the far post by Whichelow, but was ruled offside.
Wood finished the game strongly and Substitutes Rob Hastings and Raheem Sterling-Parker both just failed to score, as the home fans drifted towards the exit.
After the match Ian Allinson commented “I was really pleased with our performance, we always knew it was going to be really tough coming here! Once we got the first goal we settled down and we could have come away with more goals, we missed some really good chances in the last ten or fifteen minutes.”
Team: Russell, Nunn, Jones, Garrard, O’Loughlin, Ball, Noto, Whichelow, Willock (Sub – Sterling-Parker 83 mins.), Morgan (Sub – Hastings 66 mins.), Montgomery.
Subs (Not used): Brown, Doolan, Courtnage.
Goals: Boreham Wood: Ball 16, 58.
Man of the Match: Matthew Ball.
