Glen Harrington
2:56pm, Fri 1st Apr 2022
Boreham Wood vs Woking
Vanarama National League
Saturday 2nd April 2022
Darren Sarll will be in the Woking dugout for the first time on Saturday as the new Cards’ boss takes his team to Boreham Wood for a match which will be shown live on BT Sport.
The Cards were unfortunate to come away with nothing from their last outing, twice taking the lead against play-off chasing Solihull Moors, before eventually succumbing to a 3-2 defeat. Inih Effiong scored twice to take his tally for the season to 15 in all competitions, whilst only an injury to Moussa Diarra, which forced caretaker boss Ian Dyer into a major defensive reshuffle, arguably stopped the home side from shading the match over their inform opponents. Woking remain in good form themselves, with 10 points from their last five games, and will be hopeful of continuing that run with Sarll now joining Dyer, back in his previous role as assistant manager, in the dugout.
Woking’s defensive availability crisis will be eased by the returns of David Longe-King, following his one-match suspension, and Louie Annesley, who has been on international duty with Gibraltar. Diarra is a doubt after limping off on Saturday, whilst the game might come too soon for Kyran Lofthouse, as he continues his recovery from a month-long lay-off. Further up the pitch things look more settled, although it will be interesting to see whether Nicke Kabamba or Jamar Loza gets the nod as part of the front three, alongside Tyreke Johnson and Effiong.
Opposition Watch
Despite an indifferent recent run, which has seen them take just two points from five league games in March and go without scoring a goal in their last three outings, Boreham Wood will no doubt be full of confidence against a team that have failed to beat them in any of their last 10 league meetings. In fact, it’s been almost five games since the Cards even managed a goal against the Wood, stretching back to Kane Ferdinand’s early strike in September 2019.
Their recent form has seen Luke Garrard’s side fall out of the play-off places – they currently sit in eighth place with 58 points from 32 games, one point outside of the top seven, albeit with between two and four games in hand on the teams above them. They’ve lost as many games in the last month as they had done in the first seven months of the campaign combined, with their slide seemingly linked to their prolonged FA Cup run, which came to an end at Premier League Everton four weeks ago.
Garrard still has an extremely talented squad at his disposal, one which boasts the best defensive record in the division and includes such names as Scott Boden and Josh Rees. Their former Woking contingent includes captain Mark Ricketts, who has been absent since good off injured against Everton last month, and Dennon Lewis.
Recent Meetings
• Woking
0-2 Boreham Wood – 11th December 2021, National League
• Woking
0-0 Boreham Wood – 9th March 2021, National League
• Boreham Wood
1-0 Woking – 27th October 2020, National League
• Boreham Wood
1-0 Woking – 30th November 2019, National League
• Woking
1-2 Boreham Wood – 28th September 2019, National League (Ferdinand)
On the Day
Ticket information can be
found here. Away tickets cost £20 for Adults, £18 for OAPs, £12 for Under-16s, and £6 for Under-12s. If you can’t make it to the match the Laithwaite Community Stadium is hosting a viewing party with doors opening from 4pm. Find out
more here.
