GARRARD: “IT SHOWS WHAT CHARACTER WE HAVE IN THE GROUP”

Luke Garrard praised the character of his Boreham Wood side as they fought to a 2-4 over Torquay United at Plainmoor.

The Wood went 0-2 up against Torquay in the second half thanks to goals from Angelo Balanta and Bruno Andrade, but Torquay recovered to level the scoring shortly after.

However, their revival was short lived, as Shaun Jeffers and Bradley Sach put the Wood ahead once more, leaving Garrard proud of the mentality of his team.

Garrard told the official club website: “I am very happy, I feel that we dominated the first half and sustained pressure in their defensive third.

“Torquay came out strongly in the second half for five, ten minutes, but then we scored, admittedly against the run of play, and that took the sting out of their game.

“We are a very fit squad, you look at Shaun Jeffers coming in and starting his first game and he runs the line and the channels well and Bruno Andrade had another impact down the middle.

“For me, it is about the fitness levels, the baseline fitness that we got through pre-season, and I think that we are going to see that throughout the campaign.

“You look at the performances so far, especially the second halves, we get stronger and that is credit to the lads.”

Having seen the Gulls draw level, much of the Wood Army support were fearing the worst, but their lead lasted mere seconds, as Shaun Jeffers nodded past Ryan Clarke in goal.

Garrard continued: “I said it in the huddle afterwards, to go 2-0 up and be pegged back down to 2-2, and with a crowd of 2,000 behind the home team, I thought that Torquay would go on and get the win.

“The fact that we bounced back immediately and then went and got a fourth, it shows what character we have in the group and what belief we have in the group.

“I believe that if we can continue what we have done so far this season, then we will cause some problems.”

The Gulls were a Football League club just three years ago and Garrard explained his delight at seeing his side take the scalp of such a side so early into the season.

“Torquay are a massive club,” Garrard continued. “And I think that they have done some very good recruitment this year in terms of the bodies that they have brought in.

“But, I feel that the business that we have done has also been good and it has been clever, there has been a remit in terms of what we are looking for.

“We are looking for a certain calibre of personnel; fundamentally people and then players, and I think that you can see that in our performances, every single goal was celebrated by every single member of the team.

“Grant Smith ran near enough the full length of the pitch to celebrate and I can see a group who want to win for each other, play for each other and work hard for each other.”

The win against Torquay propelled the Wood into the playoffs for the first time this season, but Garrard said that he is only looking at the next match.

The Wood return to Meadow Park on Saturday when they welcome League leaders Aldershot Town, when the two will contend an early season top-of-the-table clash.

“Winning breeds habits, and for us it is about getting a winning habit. We have got back-to-back wins now, eight goals in two games, eleven in four, and that is something that we didn’t really have last year.

“Last year we were a one-in-two team, so it is pleasing. Can I be picky about the goals against, 100%, and I am going to dissect that.

“I feel that we need to nullify that a bit more, because there will be times where we have to rely on one goal and we will need to keep a clean sheet.

“But we have come away from home, we have scored four goals and we have got three points and we are going back to Borehamwood, a five-hour journey, very happy.”