Boreham Wood 0 – 0 Barnet
Sunday 2nd January 2022
LV Bet Stadium Meadow Park, Vanarama National League
WOOD BEGIN 2022 WITH A POINT
The change of year saw football return to the LV Bet Stadium Meadow Park after three weeks away, as a goalless draw with local rivals Barnet prevented the Wood from completing the hat-trick over their neighbours.
Some enforced changes saw James Comley make his first start in a Wood shirt in an unfamiliar role at the left of a back three, alongside Jamal Fyfield and Mark Ricketts, the latter also filling in at right side centre half. In came Dennon Lewis in place of Kane Smith, who narrowly missed out after picking a knock up in training this week, whilst there was a place on the bench for latest recruit Danilo Orsi who arrived this week on loan from Harrogate Town for the remainder of the season.
It took under a minute for the visitors to produce their first opening, as a free kick from Rob Hall led to a goal-mouth scramble that needed to be cleared. Opportunities were at a premium for much of the early stages, with half chances falling to Gus Mafuta for the Wood and Jamie Turley for the Bees being the closest either side went to scoring early on proceedings. Josh Rees was keen to add to his seven goals this season as he had the best chance of the half, with Aston Oxborough needing to be at full stretch to prevent him from breaking the deadlock after the midfielder was picked out from the left. From here the Wood began to grow into it. An agonising cross from Mendy evaded everyone in the box before Jamal Fyfield headed wide from a corner, but it wasn’t enough to open the scoring as the two sides went into the break goalless.
The Wood looked to continue as they left off, with Rees going close immediately after the second half got underway after he was played through by Dennon Lewis, with Turley needing to be alert enough to block his effort for a Wood corner. The visitors would have been disappointed to not take the lead when a fierce cross by Jordan Thomas whistled across goal begging for somebody to tap into the empty net, but nobody was there to get a deciding touch. New signing Danilo Orsi got involved entered the game with fifteen minutes to play and showed why Garrard chased him signature with some bright sparks in the closing stages. Jacob Mendy Mendy would have one final chance of the afternoon for the Wood to steal all three points with a few minutes to go after Orsi smartly played him in on the counterattack, but Oxborough got down well to claim his effort when Mendy perhaps should have squared it to the debutant.
The Wood’s unbeaten run in all competitions increased to ten games as a valuable point was earned after yet another resilient defensive display with an 11th clean sheet of the season. The likes of Comley, Fyfield and Ricketts impressed at the back, while Mafuta, Raymond and Rees once again worked tirelessly in midfield. There will be a hint of disappointment at not being able to leapfrog those at the top of the table, but with a handful of games in hand still to play, there is still opportunities to make up ground on the rest of the promotion-chasing pack.
Boreham Wood: Ashby-Hammond, Ricketts, Comley, Fyfield, Mendy Mendy, Lewis, Mafuta, Rees (Orsi 74’), Raymond, Boden, Marsh.
Subs not used: Roach, Clifton, Ranger.
Barnet: Oxborough, Turley, Taylor, Richards-Everton, Thomas, Woods, Brundle, Beard, Hall (Fonguck 86’), Marriott (Tasdemir 79’), Bloomfield.
Subs not used: Askew, Granville, De Havilland.
Star Man: James Comley.
Match report written by BWFC Media Intern Aaron Bennis.
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