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!

Boreham Wood 0 Havant and Waterlooville 1: Not good enough

The first day of a new football season brings about a wide range of emotions. Optimism, excitement, even despair - the spectrum of feelings is varied to say the least.

I awoke on Saturday morning extremely excited. In fact, I was so excited that I got up at 8am when I had been longing for a lie in all week. Not being able to nod back off, I got out of bed, showered, had breakfast and headed off to get my hair cut all before 9:30am. After my lethargy towards football over the final four months of last season, I was taken aback by just how thrilled I was that it was the opening day of the season. But that's what the opening day of the season does to you - it lures you in with a false sense of security that things are going to be different and then kicks you square between the legs and delivers the same old rubbish but on a different day in a different setting.

I'll make no bones about this - the 180 minutes of Wood vs Havant and Waterlooville followed by Newcastle vs Arsenal was absolutely offensive, but at least I was half expecting the first game to be pretty bad. I can only apologise to my companions for the day, who took the feast of bad football with good grace and never complained once.

Onto the game - Wood lined up with a couple of new faces in the side. With Mario Noto in the stands (and sporting a very smart suit), new player/assistant manager Darren Currie lined up in midfield to add a creative spark, and to my surprise, completed a full 90 minutes. Despite his aging legs, Currie looked very good and you could tell that he has that extra bit of class that comes with a long career in league football. He always appeared to have an extra few seconds on the ball, but was sadly let down by his team mates, and let his obvious frustrations show on more than one occasion, mainly at Ali Chaaban, whose constant need to take five touches too many seemed to grate on Currie.

He was joined in the side by Latvian Under 21 International Elvis Putnins, who returned to the club on loan from QPR, leaving Michael Jordan, who had largely impressed during pre-season, on the bench. Whilst his ability to come and claim crosses was far superior to what I have seen from Jordan, his distribution left a lot to be desired. In fact, on more than one occasion it was dreadful. When the home side were pushing for an equaliser, there were times when Putnins could not have gotten rid of the ball any slower, and it looked like his confidence had been knocked following a number of poor clearances.

Putnins didn't stand a chance with Havant's winner, which came after only two minutes. Lee Peacock, who I noted in my last blog as Havant's key dangerman, blasted the ball into the top corner from the penalty spot following Craig Braham-Barrett's cut back. It was the worst possible start, especially after Luke Garrard, captain for the day, limped off in the first minute after over exerting himself in a foray forward. Wood never really recovered from this early double blow, and with a well organised Havant side closing off play very effectively, the game was as good as finished within the first few minutes.

That's not to say it was all bad, just mostly. Luke Wilkinson impressed after taking the armband, and looked very composed on the ball and in the air, and even added a sense of urgency going forward when Wood began to chase the game. Despite a surprisingly quiet game, Daryl McMahon almost produced a piece of magic midway through the first half with a thunderous free kick that came off the upright with the Havant keeper scrambling across his goalmouth. Unfortunately he then spent the rest of the game committing a series of reckless fouls, culminating in an awful lunge from behind late on that should have really seen red. The more eagle eyed readers among you will have noticed that this isn't the first time I have said this about the Irishman. Needless to say tackling is not his forte, and no, I don't mean that in a chuckling 'Paul Scholes can't tackle' whilst he maimed another opponent - I mean McMahon really needs to watch his challenges if he doesn't want to watch more games from the stands.

The only other positives on the pitch came from the introduction of Olly Palmer for the largely anonymous Inih Effiong. Almost immediately after his introduction, Palmer created a fine chance for Pelly Ruddock with a deft movement away from his marker. Unfortunately Ruddock could only fire straight at the keeper. Palmer then had a couple of chances that resulted in him heading against the crossbar from about a yard out, which was less than he deserved for his industrious efforts after coming off the bench. I look forward to seeing more of the loan man in action.

Havant, to their credit, were an extremely well organised team and this was the difference between the two teams, with Wood largely playing like a team of strangers, with Noto especially missed from the side. Solid in defence, good on the break and adept at holding onto the ball, they were deserved winners on the day. They should also be commended for their travelling support, who brought a huge flag and were in good voice all through the game. One of them was even sporting a jester hat. This was probably my highlight of the second half. I think that if Wood had of played for another 90 minutes, they wouldn't have scored, and that is credit to The Hawks for a very solid display.

Another thing that dawned on me was that the difference between league and non league football is not just seen in the players or in the facilities - it also stretches to the officials. Even though it didn't end up having a huge impact on the game, the referee and his two assistants were absolutely dreadful. I mean, hilariously so. They felt the wrath of both managers on occasion, and it was entirely deserved. I don't advocate severe abuse or intimidation of officials, but I feel both managers were well within their rights to show their anger here. A truly inept showing.

Wood lined up as follows:

Team: Putnins, Sankofa, Brathwaite, Hunter, Wilkinson, O’Loughlin, Ruddock, Garrard (Sub – Chaaban 6 mins.), Effiong (Sub – Palmer 62 mins.), McMahon, Currie.

Subs (Not used): Yala, Lawal, Jordan.

Ian Allinson told the clubs official website that the game was “a reasonable score line given our first half showing. That said I felt we had the better chances whilst they had the majority of the possession and to their credit they closed us down well. We are missing five key players now and that possibly left us short in some areas. We did not play well, yet we did not get battered, in a game where we were forced deep and gave the ball away for fun.” A very honest assessment indeed.

All in all a very disappointing performance from Wood, with a few positives to take from the game. Wood will look to bounce back against Bromley tonight, a game I will be attending with Bromley man and Richard Browne lookalike, The Telegraph's own Thom Gibbs. I am hoping that Wood pick themselves up and do not subject me to a humiliating trip to deepest South London, and hopefully with a reshuffled side, potentially with Ollie Palmer up front, Wood can get back on track with a win. Bromley themselves have had an excellent start, winning away at Hampton and Richmond on Saturday, and will be looking to start their home campaign with a win. I'm just hoping that come the final whistle I won't be cursing myself for not staying in and watching Arsenal vs Udinese. But then again.....no, I won't get into that. It's far too late. Actually, I already covered Arsenal in a piece for Dodgy Knees Blog, so check that out.

Thanks for reading and as always, feedback is greatly appreciated. I can be found on here and on twitter @wearethewood. I've hopefully got some exciting things in the pipeline for this blog, but I'll keep them under wraps for now.

Until next time...

WE ARE THE WOOD!