Boreham Wood v Wimborne Town
Saturday 24th October 2020, 3.00pm
Meadow Park, Emirates FA Cup – Fourth Qualifying Round
THE CONTEXT
On Saturday, Wood host Southern Premier Division South side Wimborne Town in the Fourth Qualifying round of the Emirates FA Cup at Meadow Park.
Wimborne come into this fixture off the back of a 2-1 win, away from home, against Weston-Super-Mare in the league. This victory means that the Magpies are now five games unbeaten in all competitions.
Wood’s last fixture was away from home against Solihull Moors and an uninspiring performance meant we left Damson Park on the receiving end of a 1-0 defeat.
Unfortunately, this fixture will be held behind closed doors, however there are several ways for fans to stay-up to date on proceedings including the BWFCtv live stream, or Wood’s twitter and Instagram.
THE FORM GUIDE
THE WOOD
Previous six games (in all competitions and friendlies): –
Solihull Moors (A) | VNL | 0-1 L
Kings Lynn Town (A) | VNL | 0-3 W
FC Halifax Town (H) | VNL | 0- 0 D
Wrexham (A) | VNL | 2-1 L
Welling United (A) | PSF | 0-1 W
Peterborough United XI (H)) | PSF | 2-0 W
On Saturday, Wood matched up against Solihull Moors where Luke Garrard named an unchanged starting XI from the impressive 3-0 away win at King’s Lynn.
Solihull defender Darren Carter saw red after 20 minutes via two yellow cards, but unfortunately, we failed to capitalise and could not convert our chances despite having the extra man advantage for 70 minutes of the match.
Prior to the sending off, Wood were the better side and dominated possession in the opposition’s final third with notable goal scoring opportunities falling at the feet of Corey Whitely and Zaine Fracis-Angol.
THE MAGPIES
Previous six games (in all competitions and friendlies): –
Weston-super-Mare (A) | SPDS | 1-2 W
Maidstone United (H) | FA CUP | 2-2 (3-1 on penalties) W
Farnborough (H) | SPDS | 2-1 W
Melksham (H) | FA CUP | 0-0 (5-4 on penalties) W
Dorchester Town (A) | SPDS | 0-0 D
Chesham United (H) | SPDS | 0-1 L
Wimborne are unbeaten in their last five games of all competitions, including two penalty shoot out wins against Maidstone and Melksham, both in FA Cup qualifying rounds.
However, it was a worrying start to the 2020/21 league campaign for the Magpies as they lost on their opening day of the season 5-0 away from home against Tiverton Town. And only a week after their 5-0 thumping, the Magpies lost their opening home fixture of the season 1-0 against Chesham United.
Despite sitting 12th in the league standings, the Magpies have managed to score only four goals in their opening six league fixtures, which is the joint fifth worst goal scoring record out of the 21 teams in their league.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
“THE DESTROYER”
DAN STRUGNELL
Strugnell came through the youth ranks at Bournemouth after he got scouted at 12-years-old. The defender signed his first professional contract with Bournemouth in May 2011 at just 19 years old. Later that year, he joined Wimborne Town on a three-month loan deal.
In 2012 Strugnell made his professional debut for the Cherries in League 1 coming on as a substitute against Rochdale. First team football was lacking for Strugnell at Bournemouth and therefore ventured out on loan again. This time is was for Havant & Waterlooville, Strugnell then went on to sign a permanent deal for the Hawks after impressive performances during his 21 appearances while on loan.
Strugnell then spent six enjoyable years with the Hawks notching over 220 appearances for the club before departing in 2019 to sign for Dorchester. The defender spent one year at Dorchester prior to his Wimborne return, where he signed with the Dorset side at the start of the 2020/21 season.
“THE PLAYMAKER”
LUKE HOLMES
Luke Holmes is the Nephew of joint manager Danny Holmes and re-joined the Magpies at the start of the 2020/2021 campaign.
Holmes spent his youth career at Bournemouth but failed to make a first team appearance before leaving in 2015 to join the Magpies. At just 18 years old Holmes featured 17 times for the Magpies in the 2014/15 campaign before signing for Poole Town in the following season.
The midfielder featured just ten times for Poole before moving on to Dorchester, for the remainder of the season, where he appeared 25 times in all competitions. Holmes then departed from Dorchester and went on to spend a further 3 and a half years at Wimborne before he then re-signed for Poole Town half-way through the 2019/20 season.
Uncle Danny Holmes managed to convince Luke into his third spell for the Magpies at the start of this season as he searched for regular first team football.
“THE FINISHER
AIDEN SHEPPARD
Aiden Sheppard is a local lad who has come through the youth ranks with Wimborne when he joined them at U13 level.
The 19-year-old’s final youth game for the Magpies was against Andover Town in the Hampshire Cup where he scored and got an assist helping his side win the trophy in 2019.
Sheppard recently scored an impressive brace for his side against Farnborough in the league which included an 89th minute winner.
PRE-MATCH WORDS
STAY HOME, STAY SAFE
LIVE STREAM
Unfortunately, no fans will be allowed to attend this fixture, however, you can watch the game live by purchasing our BWFCtv Match Pass – WATCH LIVE HERE
LIVE UPDATES
Alternatively, you can keep up with the action via our Twitter and Instagram, where there will be regular updates throughout the course of the match.
Instagram: @boreham_woodfc
Twitter: @boreham_woodfc
OUR CLUB. OUR TOWN. OUR COMMUNITY.
Match Preview written by Joe Karadzas (Press Assistant)
