Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard stated that his side’s performance in the first half against Aldershot Town on Saturday was as good as he has seen in his time at the club.
The Wood got their third win in as many matches against the Shots, as they dispatched Gary Waddock’s side 2-1 at Meadow Park.
First-half goals from Bruno Andrade and Shaun Jeffers gave the side a two-goal lead, before Cheye Alexander pulled one back for the Shots in the second-half, with a vicious 25-yard strike.
Garrard stated: “If you look at our performance in the first half, I felt that man-for-man, they delivered on everything that we asked of them, and 2-0 to the good, could have been three or four.
“I don’t like to say it normally, but that is some of the best football that I have seen us play and I felt that we caused them a hell of a lot of problems.
“It is irrelevant that they are the league leaders; it is four games in, they are a team in-form, so they were coming here with their peckers up.
“It was very much about us doing what we can do, and if you look at the front three; Shaun Jeffers, Bruno Andrade and Angelo Balanta; they were very good in their detail out of possession today.
“The front three enabled us to get the ball over Aldershot and to get the ball down the side, which is where we felt their weaknesses were.”
Prior to Saturday’s match against Aldershot, the Wood’s best performances had come in the second halves of matches.
Garrard had called on the side to start performing for the full 90 minutes, and duly praised his side for achieving this against the Shots.
“We have said to them about marrying up two 45s,” Garrard explained. “If you saw the performances against Dagenham and Solihull, and the first half against Torquay, that is the best that we have played today.
“I felt that our first half performance, in-and-out of possession, was very good. We scored two goals; Keiran Murtagh was a little bit bright with a dead ball and Bruno got himself a great goal.
“We’ve then scored from a ricochet in the box, but luck runs for you and it will weigh itself up over the season, I am over the moon with the performance.”
Gary Waddock made a double change at half time, bringing on Jim Kellermann and Shaun Okojie and the away side equalised shortly before the hour mark.
However, the Wood showed grit and determination to hold onto their lead against the Shots, seeing out the remaining 35 minutes.
The 31-year-old continued: “I said to them at half-time that they are going to change it, he has to change it, whether that is personnel, shape or both.
“They have then gone and scored an absolute worldie on the 55-mark, which could have changed the game.
“Their fans then got really behind them, but for me, our management of the game was superb.
“The back-three, the two wing-backs and the two in midfield, as screeners, they dealt with a lot of balls into them and I felt that their game management was superb.”
Garrard’s side now have a week before they travel to Tranmere for their next National League fixture, where the former defender hopes to welcome back a fully fit squad.
He continued: “We have hopefully got a few more bodies coming back in, Dean Wells is now fully training with us and it would be nice to introduce him back into the squad.
“This week will be about maintaining what we are doing and continuing with the work that we have put in so far. We want to build on that, and if we can, then I feel that this group can progress.
“The lads know and understand that yes that is a win today, but that it’s parked and we move on.
“For us, Tranmere is the focus, not Wrexham on the Monday, Tranmere. Hopefully we can go up there with a positive performance and come back with a positive result.”
The Wood reshaped their squad in pre-season, with no fewer than nine new signings arriving at Meadow Park, and Garrard praised the togetherness of the new-look side.
He finished: “If you look on Tuesday evening for example, Keiran Murtagh tracks an 80-yard run from Luke Young after going 2-2, now he didn’t have to chase that ball, but he did.
“That shows that there are people in there fighting for the cause and there are people in there fighting for each other. There is a group in there who believe in themselves and what we are doing.
“I believe that there is a demand from the group, they demand from each other and they demand from myself and the management.”
