Wood 3 Dartford 1, Part 1: The Chairman Speaks, The Backroom re-shuffles

I bloody knew I should have tipped us to win in the preview blog…

I strolled into Meadow Park last Saturday (after negotiating a disgusting service from First Capital Connect) in a confident mood. Maybe it was because I didn’t have a hangover on a Saturday morning. Maybe it was because I was asked on the way in if I was the physio’s boyfriend (for the record, I am not). Or maybe, just maybe, it was because despite their respective positions in the league I fancied Wood to pick up all 3 points against Dartford.

For the first time this season I purchased a programme. I’m not normally a programme person, in fact I often find them a waste of time (I have been brought up on Arsenal’s ‘tow the line’ approach to programmes where nothing approaching an opinion is allowed in). However, with the recent soundbites of ‘disruptive influences in the dressing room’, I thought I would chance my arm and see if there would be any follow up to this. I was glad I did.

In a two page statement called ‘A Progress Report’ (I believe these appear regularly), chairman Danny Hunter got straight to the point in a manner not normally seen from club chairmen - complete honesty. Selected highlights from the article include:

'With myself and the staff at the club putting so much work into improving things in pre-season, perhaps I have, as Chairman, taken my eye off a few things since, and although I have observed situations of late that haven't been acceptable to bringing success on the field, I haven't dealt with them quickly enough'

'When I read John Mead's recent match report on our performance at Slough last week, it was emotive, provoking and passionate, but it also asked more questions than it answered...which got me thinking that our supporters needed to be kept informed of the clubs problems from time to time, as your understanding is essential. So perhaps what's needed is a dollop of truth, and perhaps it needed to be aired constructively, by myself, to the gaffer and to the dressing room.'

'As such we all had a very positive meeting here at the club on Monday evening prior to their training. We discussed expectations and the clubs ambition, the standards required, the consistency needed at this level and the problems collectively we've encountered this season. We discussed injuries, players making themselves unavailable and certain senior players and staff being disruptive, we discussed indiscipline and with some a lack of desire to progress with us as a football club.

'Apart from perhaps Woking, Dover and Dartford, we can compete with the other clubs in this division on a level playing field. No disrespect intended to Sutton United, Welling Basingstoke, Bromley, Farnborough, Havant, Salisbury, Eastleigh, Eastbourne or even Chelmsford, who I suppose are the next crop of contenders. As long as we are a united club, with a great changing room spirit, we can, with hard work and good players, challenge!'

'Yes, those clubs get 300 more than us, but that's 25 times a season, and this equates, at a rough £10 split, to around £70,000, which we can and do make up elsewhere. It's simple.'

'...we have a profitable club, we are also desperately trying to progress and we are ambitious enough to have a go!!'

'Quite rightly this week has seen some soul searching, certainly from myself, so I hope that everyone can now accept that we can all do a lot better from top to bottom with a clear resolve to improve things across the board.'

Quite the statement (and this was the abridged version) I think you’ll agree. Let’s look at some of the key points and ramifications:

‘Perhaps I have taken my eye off the ball/haven’t dealt with problems quickly enough’

Straight to the point – things had begun to fester at Boreham Wood, and the chairman has admitted that he has maybe not been as close as he should have been to nip this in the bud. The acknowledgement is the key part. No head in the sand here.

‘which got me thinking that our supporters needed to be kept informed of the clubs problems from time to time, as your understanding is essential. So perhaps what's needed is a dollop of truth, and perhaps it needed to be aired constructively, by myself, to the gaffer and to the dressing room.'

Two points here – firstly, the fans could be doing with being updated on a more regular basis, particularly with the high turnover in players we have had this season. It’s a tough job with a seeming revolving door at times at Meadow Park, but a few lines on the website or even a weekly re-cap of comings and goings wouldn’t go amiss (particularly for those of us who like to write about the team) . Secondly, I wasn’t too sure about the whole dishing out the truth message coming from Hunter himself, but in any case it seemed to do the trick on Saturday. I just hope that it doesn’t become too regular an occurrence!

‘We discussed injuries, players making themselves unavailable and certain senior players and staff being disruptive, we discussed indiscipline and with some a lack of desire to progress with us as a football club’

This is where the real changes started to be seen – it seems as if Darren Currie, who came to the club in the summer from Rushden as player/assistant manager, was the negative and disruptive influence in the dressing room, as he has been replaced by Daryl McMahon as assistant manager! Again, no statement has been made from the club regarding this, but it was a quick transition as I found out by looking at the squad page of the programme! Obviously I have no idea about the goings on behind the scenes when it comes to these matters, but his reaction to being taken off at Chelmsford (one which I mistakenly took for passion) was in hindsight an obvious example of his disruptive influence. As for players making themselves unavailable – Stephen O’ Leary being the obvious example, not showing up against Staines and then not being seen again, I can appreciate that it can be hard at times for players with other commitments be it work or study, but for those who flat out refuse or do not even show up, the club is far better off without them. It seems a hard line approach is now in place at Wood, with hungry young players looking for their chances to shine in the first team. With only 4 certain starters in the team, competition is rife and players cannot afford to be in any ways not giving 100%.

'Apart from perhaps Woking, Dover and Dartford, we can compete with the other clubs in this division on a level playing field. No disrespect intended to Sutton United, Welling Basingstoke, Bromley, Farnborough, Havant, Salisbury, Eastleigh, Eastbourne or even Chelmsford, who I suppose are the next crop of contenders. As long as we are a united club, with a great changing room spirit, we can, with hard work and good players, challenge!'

'Yes, those clubs get 300 more than us, but that's 25 times a season, and this equates, at a rough £10 split, to around £70,000, which we can and do make up elsewhere. It's simple.'

'...we have a profitable club, we are also desperately trying to progress and we are ambitious enough to have a go!!'

This was a very interesting few paragraphs, as it’s not often you see a chairman come out and explicitly talk about financial matters, especially when it comes to how better off you are than a lot of your rivals! Whilst I don’t think it will do Hunter’s reputation amongst rival fans much good (and I suppose if you make comments like these you are hardly likely to care), it does give Wood fans reassurance that Wood can and will compete with the majority of the league. I know the injuries have been talked about again and again, but it has been very cruel this season, and with a full squad to pick from I’m sure we would be pushing at least the play offs now. With key players returning at Christmas and with the club seemingly turning a corner, this could be the start of something good at Meadow Park. It’s just a shame that we have to rely on outside business interests and not people through the gate to help us compete…..

All of this made for fantastic and encouraging reading before the game, which I will be reviewing in Part 2 of this blog (I didn’t want to smother you with 10,000 words) along with a preview of Wood’s trip to Hampton and Richmond this Saturday.

Until then….

WE ARE THE WOOD!

Pre-Season Continues: Effiong signing ignites local rivalry, Currie delivered to Meadow Park

I tell you what, the timing of this blog has been poor to say the least. Anyone who has been through the process of moving home knows what I mean - from viewings to sorting all your stuff out, it never seems to end. Add into this a few days of riots across London, and you get one delayed blog. Anyways, on with the show - thankfully my new home looks like it follows one of my original rules for following a team, as it is an easy commute into Borehamwood (a DIRECT train! Imagine that! This will likely never run on the weekend but one can dream, can't they?), so win win all round.

This Saturday sees the dream begin in earnest, as Boreham Wood start their league campaign against Havant and Waterlooville. I will post a full preview tomorrow, as there has been much a brewing in the world of The Wood.

Firstly, and most importantly - I was thanked on the club's official website for the purchase of my season ticket! Boreham Wood, let's face it, are not going to be drawing up waiting lists any time soon, so it's a nice touch for those who have decided to invest their time and money into seeing them to get a thank you in return. I think the most you would get from Arsenal is 'your money is due in 5 days, pay up in full now or we'll take it off you'.

Now, onto more pre-season business…

'Tapping Up' is a phrase that I associate with the Barcelonas, Real Madrids, Chelseas etc of the footballing world. It's certainly not a phrase I would ever expect to hear in the Blue Square South, which is why the accusations made by St Albans towards Wood were surprising to say the least. Let's have a look at the situation…

Over the last couple of weeks, Boreham Wood completed the re-signing of Inih Effiong from local rivals St Albans City.Having already featured in pre-season, Inih is a young, pacy, exciting striker who has shown both for and against Wood that he can be a real danger in the box. 19 years old, and a local lad (just up the A1 in Hatfield), the announcement of his signing was met with joy from Wood fans, and anger from St Albans City chairman, Ian Ridley.

You may remember Ian Ridley for a number of reasons. You may remember him from being a football journalist for amongst others, The Daily Mail. You may remember him from writing, in conjunction with Tony Adams, the excellent 'Addicted'. And if you are a Non League fan, or in particular a Weymouth fan, you may remember him from taking over the seaside club in 2003, appointing Steve 'Contrary opinion for Cash' Claridge as player/manager and almost getting promotion to the Conference in the process. As previously mentioned, Ridley is chairman at local rivals St Albans City, who are currently languishing in the horrifically named Evo-Stick League Southern. Effiong's departure to Wood, and not Farnborough as they expected, brought out quite the reaction in Ridley, who, assumingly using his links, began to intimate through the press that there was foul play on Boreham Wood's behalf in their quest to sign the youngster. The St Albans City FC official site carried the following statement:

"Supporters, quite rightly, will be wondering what has happened to Inih Effiong and the club feels the time is right to explain as fully as we can, given the limitations of proceedings that are in motion.

At the start of pre-season training, the player made it clear that he no longer wished to play for St Albans City FC.

We were disappointed about that, especially as we believed that the player would make good progress under our new manager David Howell, who has a track record of bringing on young players and helping them find places in the full-time professional game, to the benefit of all parties.

Nevertheless, we respected the player’s wishes and allowed him to talk to, and train with, other clubs. The understanding was always that these clubs were aware that St Albans City were due compensation for the player under Football Association regulations, since the player was Under 24 and had been offered terms for re-engagement at the end of last season.

The player began training with Farnborough, who conducted themselves correctly and contacted St Albans City FC. Acceptable compensation was amicably agreed between the two clubs.

We have now had it confirmed, however, that the player has signed for Boreham Wood FC.
Not having received an offer of compensation for the player, we have now taken the decision to report the matter to the Football Association and we expect a tribunal to be established that will rule on the level of compensation that St Albans City FC is owed. "

Ooof. Strong words indeed, and the threat of FA involvement and a possible tribunal was surely a worry. However, there was something which I believe St Albans did not understand - the difference between a player being out of contract and a player being offered 're-engagement' terms. Now, don't look at me as I'm likely as confused as most of you, so please consult the following link for The FA's wording . Still confused? Don't worry.But this seems to be the crux of the argument- was Effiong was under contract, offered re-engagement, accepted re-engagement or a whole mixture of all of them?

Wood chairman Danny Hunter responded to these claims, which were fast spreading across non league websites, papers and messageboards, with a quite brilliant lengthy statement aimed at Ian Ridley in particular, with the aim for quashing these rumours once and for all. The full statement can be found here, but here are some choice cuts:

“It’s very simple really, Inih’s contract ran out on April 30th 2011, which was confirmed by the Football Association. St Albans say they offered him re-engagement terms, which is totally different to a player being on contract. If Inih was offered re-engagement terms, he did not accept or respond. Which means that 28 days after any re-engagement offer, a player is free to speak and sign for who he pleases – in Inih’s case, he chose us!”

“Let’s be clear about Boreham Wood’s conduct, we only spoke to the player in mid July, ten weeks after the end of last season. Unfortunately since then I’ve had nothing but phone calls and threats of malpractice from St Albans City Chairman Ian Ridley, who doesn’t seem to want to listen or understand the rules set out by the F.A.”

Continuing on , and in regards to Ian Ridley, this was my personal favourite passage:

“Mr Ridley has also left me messages on my phone accusing my secretary of falsifying a pre season team sheet at Billericay, which again is nonsense. Mr Ridley has accused BWFC of illegal payments to Inih, which after last year’s payment problems at St Albans City, is rather rich.”

“Their Chairman clearly has to grasp, that it is not in anyone’s interest for Boreham Wood Football Club and St Albans City, not to have a reasonable relationship, as we are neighbours for God's sake!”

Finally, speaking in regards to youngster Lee Close turning out for St.Albans after being offered re-engagment terms, Hunter stated;

“All I’ve asked of Lee is that he speaks to whoever he is eventually going to sign for and let them know BWFC have offered him re-engagement terms, as laid out by The F.A… Unlike Mr Ridley, I did not begin to verbally bully a youngster. I certainly did not begin a website or media circus and I did not wrongly claim that I had a player contracted, when we are talking about re-engagements.”

This will probably sound extremely childish on my behalf, but I absolutely love stuff like this. Accusations of tapping up, falsification of documents, public statements denouncing each other, it all makes for a very entertaining read. The fact that it involves our local rivals, in my opinion, makes it even better. Now this isn't me using a platform to stoke up rivalries to get people to act in a stupid manner, it is just that I think most people enjoy local rivalry, and things like this, however frustrating they may be for the losers, should be taken at face value and well... just laughed off a bit. Of course if this was the other way round I would probably be outraged, but for now I can enjoy the pantomime surrounding a 19 year old's transfer from one non league team to another. And at the end of the day, it is more exciting then the whole Cesc Fabregas transfer saga, eh?

Effiong's controversial re-signing meant that Wood's other recent dealings in the transfer market went largely unnoticed. Over the summer months, Wood have brought in eleven new players to Meadow Park, of varying experience but comparable abilities. The latest signing is perhaps their biggest coup of the window altogether, which is saying a lot considering the caliber of some of the arrivals this summer. Following the news that Jason Goodliffe had to sadly stand down due to family and work commitments (something that is oft overlooked at this level - most players and staff still have to work), Wood announced that Darren Currie would be taking his place as Player/Assistant Manager, and also joining Luke Garrard, Super Mario Noto and Daryl McMahon as part of the PASE coaching team.

Currie brings league experience to Wood, having played for Shrewsbury, Plymouth, Barnet, Wycombe, Brighton, Ipswich, Coventry, Derby, (sadly) Luton, Chesterfield and finally Dagenham and Redbridge. Like Daryl McMahon, Currie is a playmaker and his experience will be invaluable to a team looking to push forward this season. How many games he will play in his duel role remains to be seen, but you would imagine someone with such talent and experience would appear more often than not, despite his aging legs. Welcome aboard Darren, and all the best in your time at Meadow Park. For the rest of you, here is a youtube compilation of Darren.


In pre-season friendly action, Wood rounded off their campaign with defeat at Tooting and Mitcham on Saturday. I don't think I can quite match the official sites report in terms of hilarity, so I won't bother. The report can be found here.

That's all from the latest round up of pre-season news and feuds from me, join me tomorrow for a preview of Wood's first home game of the season, which brings the visit of Havant and Waterlooville. As always feedback is appreciated, and please continue to share this blog amongst friends and other fans. Although it's a small number, we have surpassed the 1,000 views mark which was very pleasing to me. I can be found on twitter @wearethewood, as well as the comments section below.

Until tomorrow….

WE ARE THE WOOD!