As the promotion race reaches its final stretch, County remain in pole position going into the weekend as we host Boreham Wood at Edgeley Park, live on BT Sport.
Despite last week’s disappointing loss away at Yeovil Town, defeat later in the day for Wrexham at Woking means we require a maximum of nine points from our final five games to secure the National League title, and a return to the Football League.
Wrexham did manage to cut the gap in midweek after coming from behind to beat Weymouth 6-1 on Tuesday night, and could move within a point of County when they host Southend United earlier in the day. County, however, would have two games in hand.
The title could even be won as early as Monday at Chesterfield for County, should we win both our games this weekend and Wrexham lose one of theirs, against Southend or Boreham Wood.
For now, however, Dave Challinor’s message continues to be to remain calm and take things one game at a time, starting on Saturday evening in front of another big crowd at Edgeley Park.
Boreham Wood ended a ten game winless run last weekend by beating Bromley 2-0 at Meadow Park, but lost 1-0 to Southend on Tuesday night to leave them facing an uphill task to make the play-off places. They now sit ninth, ten points off the top seven with a game in hand, and just 15 points left to play for.
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Since we last met:
County could consider themselves perhaps unfortunate not to have emerged with all three points at Meadow Park earlier in the season, as Jordan Keane struck a post and Boreham Wood ‘keeper Nathan Ashmore put in a Man of the Match performance to hold us to a 0-0 draw.
That meeting came all the way back in September, and was part of a remarkable first-half of the season from Luke Garrard’s men that included an unforgettable cup run, and league form that saw them well placed to challenge for the title.
Notoriously difficult to beat, The Wood lost just two of their first 24 National League games, to Solihull and Chesterfield, to constantly keep in touch with the top of the table.
They were ultimately hampered by a heavy backlog of games, built up as a result of their extraordinary Emirates FA Cup run that saw them go as far as the Fifth Round, beating League One AFC Wimbledon and Championship promotion contenders Bournemouth, before losing to Frank Lampard’s Everton 2-0 at Goodison Park.
Going into that Everton game, the side were eight points behind County with three games in hand, and promotion very much in their own hands – with this fixture even being billed as a possible title decider at the time.
Since then however their form has collapsed at an alarming rate – just one win in their last twelve National League games, including eight defeats, has seen them quickly go from title hopefuls to play-off outsiders, with manager Garrard saying after the game on Tuesday that he believes his side have ‘hit their potential’.
It’s not difficult to see where the side have come up short so far this season. Despite boasting the second best defensive record in the division after Halifax with 32 goals conceded, the side’s 44 league goals is the lowest in the top 11 by some distance, and they have managed just eight in their last 15 league games.
Last weekend’s win at Bromley will have given them some hope of turning things around late on, but that defeat at Southend leaves them with a ten point gap to overturn, a trip to the league leaders coming up, and daunting games to follow against Wrexham, Yeovil, Grimsby and Solihull.
One to watch:
Despite their struggles in front of goal, one man that has at least found some kind of goalscoring form this season has been striker Scott Boden. The 32-year-old joined the club last Summer from Chesterfield and has scored 11 times so far – making up a quarter of the Wood’s league goals this season.
He was on the scoresheet again in that win against Bromley last weekend, and scored twice on his previous visit to Edgeley Park whilst on loan at Torquay United, in a 2-2 draw also shown live on BT Sport.
Match Stats:
- Boreham Wood have been something of a bogey side for County with just one win in the five previous meetings between the two clubs, although we are unbeaten in our last three games against them.
- Although we have lost our last three away games in all competitions, we are unbeaten in our last 17 games at Edgeley Park – winning 15. We have also kept clean sheets in nine of our last 11 home games.
- A win or draw on Saturday would see us set a new club record for most points in a single season (currently 85).
