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MATCH REPORT:LINCOLN CITY VS BOREHAM WOOD
Wood fell to their fourth league defeat of the season, bringing to an end their unbeaten away run at Lincoln City’s Sincil Bank stadium as the Imps ran out comfortable winners by two goals to nil.
Goals from Nathan Arnold in the first half and Matt Rhead deflected shot, which looped over goalkeeper Grant Smith midway through the second half, sealed the win for the home side.
Luke Garrard made three changes from the victory over North Ferriby at the weekend. Ben Nunn, Daniel Uchechi and Anthony Jeffrey dropped to the bench. With Ricky Shakes, Conor Clifford and Danny Woodards restored to the starting eleven.
The evening started well for Wood, when a long ball over the top from Kenny Davis, between two Lincoln defenders, found Angelo Balanta who with an unreal first touch and first time shot towards the left hand corner forced Imps keeper Paul Farman into an early stop.
Soon after Harry Anderson skipped a challenge from Kenny Davis and by using Danny Woodards as a decoy, sent his right foot curler towards the bottom right hand corner. Wood stopper Grant Smith though was up to the task and palmed his shot to his left.
Wood left back Femi Ilesanmi, reacted quickest to the loose ball and cleared the danger away, before Imps top scorer Matt Rhead could tap into an empty net.
After twenty two minutes there was a nasty looking injury to Imps Lee Beevers, who went down in the box. You could see the severity of the injury as the Lincoln players immediately signaled for medical assistance and after a seven minute delay, Lee Beevers was stretchered off and replaced by Alan Power.
The delay seemed to upset Woods rhythm and a poor throw in from Femi Ilesanmi, allowed a Lincoln counter attack which resulted in a corner to the home side. Angelo Balanta only half cleared the corner but into the path of Sean Raggatt, who failed to settle himself and he volleyed over.
Kenny Davis who was often on the periphery, played a perfect ball over the top, once again Angelo Balanta’s first touch was immaculate. It took him away from his man, and with the ball sitting up perfectly he volleyed the ball over the bar with just Imps goalkeeper Paul Farman to beat and Woods best chance of the half was gone..
Worse was to follow in first half injury time, When five minutes into the allotted eight minutes of added time, Lincoln broke the deadlock, a deep cross was only palmed away weakly by Grant Smith. The ball was quickly recycled back into the box and was headed down perfectly by Matt Rhead into the path of Nathan Arnold, who finished easily past Grant Smith into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Luke Garrard made an enforced change at the break by injecting a bit more pace into the side. Ricky Shakes groin problem made it impossible for him to continue and he made way for fans favourite Anthony Jeffrey.
Luke Garrard made every effort to get back into the game, by introducing Jamie Lucas in place of Kenny Davis and switched to a 4-4-2 formation. But it never really worked, and it was Wood keeper Grant Smith, who was forced into a quick reaction save from yet another Matt Rhead header at the back post..
Rhead though quickly gave the home side the cushion they were looking for, with a second goal 17 minutes from time. Femi Ilesnami failed to deal with a ball to the far post and Rhead’s first touch was sublime, before his snapshot took a wicked deflection off Matt Paine, to loop up and over Grant Smith into the back of the net.
Wood tried their best to get back into the game with several corners and one or two half chances and even had a Danny Woodards effort cleared off the line but on the day it wasn’t enough and Lincoln City were worthy winners.
Boreham Wood: Smith, Woodards, Ilesanmi, Paine, Devera, Shakes (Jeffrey), Ricketts (Kuhl), Davis (Lucas), Clifford, Andrade, Balanta
Subs not used; Nunn, Uchechi,
Att: 3014 (30 away)
