Blue Square Bet South
Boreham Wood 1 Bromley 2
by John Mead
After controlling the game Wood were undone by two sucker punches in the last eight minutes to lose a game they should have won at a canter. Bromley ended a run of eight defeats whilst Wood again failed to finish off bottom half of the table opposition. It is a disappointing end of the Season for Ian Allinson’s side who has won just one of their last seven matches to drop to ninth in the table, their lowest position of the whole campaign.
Wood welcomed the return of Lewis Toomey from his successful Loan spell at Hitchin Town and with Michael Thalassitis, Cliff Akurang and Charlie Moone all starting it was an extremely attack minded formation.
Indeed it was Wood who played on the offensive for the majority of the game, thwarted by a star performance from Bromley central defender Moses Swaibu who was outstanding throughout. Thalassitis headed just wide after Moone and Toomey combined, before Thalassitis almost screwed in a shot from a tight angle after Chez Isaac set up the Stevenage Loan forward.
It needed a fingertip save from Joe Welch to keep out a fierce drive from Thalassitis after Charlie O’Loughlin had headed down into his path. O’Loughlin himself then headed just over from the resultant corner. Elliott Buchanan saw his effort deflected behind at the other end before Graeme Montgomery made the pass of the match, a seventy yard cross field ball that allowed Thalassitis to get beyond Sanchez Ming before firing hopelessly high.
Wood continued to control the game with O’Loughlin again heading over from a corner before Akurang had his shirt pulled by Swaibu when through on goal yet nothing was given.
James Russell was called upon to make a superb reaction save when Pierre Joseph-Dubois turned neatly in the box firing goal wards from just eight yards out.
Toomey then struck a low volley just wide before Joseph-Dubois failed to finish a fine counter attack at the other end with a wayward shot.
The second half continued in the same vein with Moone beating the visiting ‘keeper to a spiralling ball setting up Akurang whose power drive from just yards out was repelled by a defender who threw himself in front of the goal bound effort.
The intense pressure on the Bromley goal finally yielded a prize after seventy-two minutes. A cross from the left bobbled up off the boot of Akurang allowing Moone to react the quickest forcing the ball home beyond Welch, his first for the Club.
Bromley almost forced an equaliser through Ming who had three shots in quick succession from inside twelve yards, with Russell saving twice and the defence mopping up in between.
Akurang almost put the game to bed when, with seemingly nothing on he turned sharply inside the box before firing towards the right hand corner of the net, only for Welch to pull off an acrobatic save. Moone then went close with a dipping drive that soared inches past a post. Joseph-Dubois in a rare attack for the visitors went clean through down the middle with Russell making a full stretch save for a corner. The ball swung over from the left and was well defended to the edge of the area where Substitute Louie Theophanous hit a low drive through a crowded area which beat Russell at his left hand post.
Then in stoppage time Buchanan won a corner which was again defended to the edge of the area where Danny Waldren struck the ball into the ground towards goal. It was deflected past Russell by Joseph-Dubois whose star jump to apparently avoid the ball as he was in an offside position failed to prevent the ball deflecting off his inner leg leaving Russell no chance. The Assistant Referee who had been reticent all evening did not react and the goal proved to be the sting in the tail for Wood.
For Ian Allinson it compounded, “An extremely disappointing end to the Season. We were undone by two sucker punches, both from set pieces where on both occasions we defended to the edge of the area and then switched off. We worked hard to get in front and should have gone on to put the game beyond doubt. We need to finish this Season off on Saturday and come back refreshed.”
Team: Russell, Nunn, Garrard (Sub – Jones 68 mins.), Moone, O’Loughlin, Reynolds, Toomey (Sub – Hastings 78 mins.), Isaac, Thalassitis, Akurang, Montgomery.
Subs (Not used): Morgan, Doolan, Knight.
Bookings: O’Loughlin.
Goals: Boreham Wood: Moone 72. Bromley: Theophanous 83, Joseph-Dubois 90+1.
Wood Man of the Match: Chez Isaac.
