Boreham Wood 2-1 Welling United - Tonight is not going to win or lose the league, says Jamie Day

BOREHAM WOOD  2-1  WELLING UNITED
Blue Square Bet South
Monday 19^th September 2011
Stephen McCartney reports from Meadow Park

WELLING UNITED manager Jamie Day complained about wasted opportunities and sloppy defending after the league leaders slipped to a surprise defeat at struggling Boreham Wood.

The Wings would have moved five points clear at the top of the Blue Square Bet South table after ten games had they won at third-from-bottom Boreham Wood – but they paid the price as two Darren Currie penalties sent the Hertfordshire side on their way before Ben Martin converted one of many chances for Welling.

“I’m disappointed, I mean from the fact that we can’t keep conceding the goals the way we have done,” said Day afterwards.

“Two balls.  We haven’t dealt with the first one and not dealt with the second one.

“As well as we played at times, we can’t keep giving people two goal leads and that’s the disappointing thing for me. If we keep doing that during the course of the season, we’re not going to stay where we are and we’re going to get caught up and we’re going to get beat by better teams.”

Unused substitute Day made one change from the side that defeated Maidenhead United 4-0 at Park View Road at the weekend, former Histon striker Zac Attwood came in to relegate Loick Pires to the bench.

“We felt that Zac needed a game,” explained Day.  “We’ve got four decent forwards that we want to try to keep happy.   We felt Loick’s done exceptionally well and he’s not in my eyes dropped.  We thought we could go with Zac and Luis’ done exceptionally well on Saturday, so we thought we’d just change it around and no doubt it will change around against Bromley.”

The Wings dominated large chunks of the game, which was played on a carpet of a playing surface and they should have opened the scoring inside six minutes when a cross from Jack Parkinson found Andy Pugh at the far post, but his low right-footed drive was blocked in a crowded six-yard box.

Midfielder Joe Healy then intercepted a Boreham Wood pass in the middle of the park and released Lee Clarke, who teed up another chance for the unmarked Pugh, but the ten-goal striker drilled a right-footed shot past the foot of the near post.

But Welling United gifted Boreham Wood a 12^th minute lead, through poor defending.

Instead of clearing their lines, Jack Obersteller and Martin felt the need to play the ball around their penalty area and they lost possession and Obersteller tripped David Bryant and referee Mr Chris Hicks pointed to the spot for the first time.

Currie stepped up and struck a right-footed penalty over the diving Daniel Thomas to give Boreham Wood a shock lead.

Day wasn’t best pleased with the defending that led to the penalty decision.

He said:  “We’ve not dealt with the first one.  We should’ve cleared it and we haven’t!  We tried to play in wrong areas and gave the ball away, we’ve not defended properly and we gave the penalty away.  It’s definitely a penalty, he caught him so I’ve got no complaints about that!”

After the halfway mark of the first half, Welling United’s strikers left their shooting boots at home as the Boreham Wood defence were torn apart.

Loui Fazakerley and Clarke produced slick passing down the right and Cumbers’ lofted a cross into the box but the unmarked Healey sent a looping header wide at the near post.

Left-back Obersteller then released Pugh down the left and he cut the ball back to skipper Parkinson, who sent Pugh on his way but after cutting inside full-back Charlie Hunter, the striker’s right-footed shot curled over.

Boreham Wood keeper Michael Jordan was finally called into action in the 33^rd minute when he made a smart low save to deny Healy from scoring on the turn after Fazkerley whipped in a first time cross from the right.

It was going to be one of those frustrating nights for Welling United as Cumbers unleashed a rasping left-footed drive over after Healy beat the offside trap with a penetrating run down the left.

Welling were guilty of missing a gilt-edged chance when Pugh played the ball inside to Healy, who released striker Cumbers, who capitalised on a mistake from central defender Charlie O’Loughlin, but the high number of visiting fans’ looked on in disbelief when the ball flashed agonisingly past the foot of the left-hand post.

Despite being outplayed for lengthy periods of the first half, Boreham Wood created a couple of chances just before the break.

Currie, who was playing behind lone striker Bryant, set up winger Nathan Koranteng, whose angled dink under pressure of a sliding challenge, bounced past the far post.

But Boreham Wood should have doubled their lead when Currie’s low pass saw Bryant turn his man before slipping the ball to skipper Justin Cochrane and the midfielder found Sam Lechmere, whose left-footed drive was saved comfortably by visiting keeper Thomas.

Reflecting on the first half, Day said: “We’ve had enough chances.  You look at the first half, we probably had eight clear cut chances and not hit the target with any of them.  That’s our problem tonight, is we’ve created enough and we’re not going to take our chances and we defend the way we have done then we’re going to get beat!”

Pires made his introduction within the second minute of the second half, as Welling maintained their attacking 4-3-3 formation.

But they were facing an uphill struggle as another penalty ensured Boreham Wood doubled their lead after 55 minutes.

Bryant was released down the left and despite Thomas advancing off his line, the striker sent a right-footed chip looping high above the keeper’s head and Anthony Acheampong did brilliantly to head the ball off the line at the last second.

Bryant, however, was laid out on the ground following Thomas’ challenge and referee Mr Hicks pointed to the spot, booked the Welling keeper, and Currie sent Thomas the wrong way with another right-footed penalty.

Day added: “For me one ball and the lad’s got in and that’s not good enough, especially from the two centre halves that we’ve got and I’ve said that right now (to my players’ in the changing room).

“It’s difficult for me to see but the referee’s given a penalty.  For us, it shouldn’t have got to that situation anyway.  We probably deserved what we got.”

Another chance went wide for Welling when Koranteng fell over on the ball and Clarke picked up the loose ball and burst straight through the heart of the Boreham Wood defence, but his low left-footed drive from 30-yards flashed wide.

Currie squandered his hat-trick chance in the 62^nd minute when Acheampong failed to deal with Jordan’s big punt straight down the middle of the pitch and Currie dragged his right-footed shot past the far post.

The final twenty minutes was a fractious affair, but Welling did pull a goal back in the 70^th minute.

Fazakerley floated in a free-kick which dropped to Healey on the by-line and his near post cross was headed home by Martin to the delight of the travelling fans.

Day said:  “We got one and we’ve probably had a lot of possession, but like I said if we don’t take our chances at the right times of the game and we don’t hit the target and we don’t defend properly and we don’t deserve to get anything!”

Boreham Wood stood firm for the remainder of the game as Welling went in search for the equaliser and Clarke almost grabbed the Kent side a point late on but his fierce drive was palmed away by Jordan.

Woking can rise to the summit if they win at Bromley on Tuesday night, but Day admitted tonight’s game would be tough with Boreham Wood scrapping for points at the wrong end of the table.

“I knew Boreham Wood would give us a problem on a Monday night,” said Day.

“If you look at the whole game we probably had a good amount of chances and not taken them.  If we’re going to defend like we have done and give teams opportunities like we have then we don’t deserve it.  We don’t deserve to get three points.  I’m disappointed because we’ve probably done enough to get something from the game.”

But to lose the game through two penalties was hard for the Welling manager to take.

“I think the 13 goals that we’ve conceded, not one team has actually opened us up.  It’s been our own mistakes, not dealing with balls, player errors.  Like I said, we can’t keep doing that.

“If you look at the stats – I’m not a great believer of stats – you look at it and we’ve had a decent amount of chances and we’ve not taken them.

“We’ve scored a lot of goals (27 goals in ten games) but for me looking at the games that we don’t score and we’ve got to keep clean sheets!

“We’ve kept two clean sheets out of ten games now and it’s not good enough!  We need to be keeping four or five, possibly six clean sheets so as a unit, not just the back four, as a group of eighteen players we need to start working on that and keeping clean sheets.”

Day added: “They’re third-from-bottom and they need the points as much as we do.  We’re top of the league and teams are not going to make it easy for us.”

Day wants Mark Goldberg’s Bromley to deny Woking top spot at Hayes Lane on Tuesday night – but will be looking forward to the double header against their Kent rivals – a Blue Square Bet South clash on Saturday, followed by a FA Cup Second Qualifying Round showdown, again at Hayes Lane, seven days’ later.

“We need to be consistent throughout the whole season and if we’re not teams are going to catch us up,” warned Day.

"We can’t defend and we can’t miss chances the way we have done tonight!

“We’re disappointed but it’s still an early part of the season and tonight is not going to win or lose the league or us being in the play-off’s just yet!”

Boreham Wood:  Michael Jordan, Charlie Hunter, Daniel Brathwaite, Justin Cochrane, Charlie O’Loughlin, Luke Wilkinson, Sam Lechmere (Pelly Ruddock 90), Chez Isaac, David Bryant, Darren Currie, Nathan Koranteng (Inih Effiong 77).
Subs: Simeon Akinola, Karl Beckford, Ruddock Yala.

Goals: Darren Currie 12 (pen), 55 (pen)

Booked: Daniel Brathwaite 70, Inih Effiong 78

Welling United:  Daniel Thomas, Loui Fazakerley (Andy Sambrook 88), Jack Obersteller, Joe Healy, Anthony Acheampong, Ben Martin, Jack Parkinson, Lee Clarke, Luis Cumbers, Andy Pugh (Loick Pires 47), Zac Attwood.
Subs: Jamie Day, Connor Hefferman, Jordan Johnson

Goal: Ben Martin 70

Booked: Daniel Thomas 53, Ben Martin 62, Zac Attwood 88, Anthony Acheampong 90

Attendance: 273
Referee:  Mr Craig Hicks (Sutton, Surrey)
Assistants: Mr Steven Rea (Hayes, Middlesex) & Mr Sam Lewis (Flitwick, Bedfordshire)