Glen Harrington
8:19am, Sat 12th Nov 2022
Boreham Wood vs Woking
Vanarama National League
Saturday 12th November 2022
Darren Sarll returns to the venue of his first game in charge of Woking on Saturday as the Cards travel to Boreham Wood in National League action.
It was just over seven months ago that Sarll took charge of Woking for the first time and claimed a rare and surprise win at Meadow Park thanks to a Max Kretzschmar penalty. The Cards have progressed rapidly since then and come into this game above their hosts in the league table after picking up 13 points out of 15 from their last five league matches. In fact, Sarll’s side have lost just one of their last ten in all competitions and are enjoying their best start to a season for more than two decades. The Woking boss has spoken about needing to keep the club grounded at still such an early stage of the campaign – but positivity and optimism are high after such an impressive run of results.
On Wednesday evening, the Cards claimed three points in another tricky away trip, winning away at Bromley for the first time since 2011. Reece Grego-Cox and Rhys Browne, both second-half substitutes, scored the Woking goals to take their tallies for the season to eight and nine goals respectively. They were also welcome returns to the squad after both missing the last two games through injury. It means that Luke Wilkinson is the only absentee still in the squad – although new centre-back pairing Scott Cuthbert and Joe McNerney are on a run of three straight clean sheets.
Opposition Watch
Boreham Wood are in their eighth season in the National League following promotion in 2015. Manager Luke Garrard took over the club a couple of months into their first season in the fifth tier and recently celebrated seven years in charge. In that time he has secured two play-off finishes, in 2018 and 2020, losing in the final at Wembley on the first of those occasions to Tranmere Rovers. Under Garrard, the Wood have twice reached the third round of the FA Cup and made the fifth-round last season – beating Wimbledon and Bournemouth before going out to Everton. They finished their last league campaign in ninth place after a poor end to the season.
This season, they again look likely to be challenging for a top seven position, and currently sit in seventh place with 28 points from 17 games – five points behind Woking with a game in hand (which if they were to win, they would be in fifth, one place behind the Cards). Their recent form is poor however with no win in four and just two wins in nine in the league. A lack of goals has held them back, their tally of 23 is the joint-lowest in the league’s top ten, and they have drawn seven games this season. However, their 17 goals conceded is the joint-least in the whole division with Notts County, and they have lost just three times, most recently away to Chesterfield.
Their squad includes many familiar names, including former Woking captain Mark Ricketts, now 38, as well as fellow ex-Cards Dennon Lewis and Bruno Andrade, who recently returned for a second spell at the club after a successful period between 2016 and 2018. Other recent additions include Notts County full-back Dion Kelly-Evans, Grimsby winger Erico Sousa, and two strikers who enjoyed success in National League North last season – Brackley’s Lee Ndlovu and Boston’s Danny Elliott. The former is the club’s top scorer so far this campaign with six.
Recent Meetings
• Boreham Wood
0-1 Woking – 2nd April 2022, National League (Kretzschmar)
• 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
Tickets
Ticket prices are £20 for Adults, Concessions £18, Under 16s £12, Under 12s £6. For more information and to book your ticket please
click here.
