PREVIEW | Boreham Wood (A)
THE DETAILS
Boreham Wood v Wealdstone
Vanarama National League
LV Bet Stadium Meadow Park
Tuesday 11th January, 7:45pm kick-off
TICKETS
Tuesday night's fixture is a segregated match, with Stones fans housed at the Brook Road end of the stadium. Tickets for the match are available to purchase in advance online and cost £20 Adults, £18 OAPs, £12 U16s and £6 U12s.
You can purchase your tickets in advance HERE and there's also a detailed ticketing post on the website HERE.
THE CONTEXT
Wealdstone will be hoping it's a case of after the lord mayor's show as they head to Boreham Wood for this midweek rearranged fixture, after the hosts dispatched of League One side AFC Wimbledon 2-0 in the FA Cup 3rd Round on the weekend. With the Wood currently sat in sixth but with three games in hand on the majority of their play-off chasing rivals the Stones will be making the short journey to Hertfordshire to grab a surprise win of their own. Wood manager Luke Garrard is clearly an admirer of Maynard's side, having signed three key Wealdstone players since this summer with a trio of National League South champions in Jacob Mendy, Connor Smith and Dennon Lewis looking to play against their former side.
TEAM NEWS
Stones boss Stuart Maynard is confident he will have a loan keeper in place to play the game as George Wickens plays out the final game of his three-match suspension. David Sesay is fit but away on international duty in the Africa Cup of Nations tournament for Sierra Leone. Andrew Eleftheriou and Rhys Browne are certain absentees as they continue their recovery, whilst Charlie Cooper and Jack Cook are suspended. Ryan Gondoh will be looking to make his second Wealdstone debut after signing from Hampton & Richmond Borough on New Year's Eve where Zach Dronfield continues his loan spell. Medy Elito, Nikola Tavares and Jaydn Mundle-Smith are all near a return and could feature.
FORM GUIDE
Stones:
Needham Market (A) 2-1 L (Buse)
FC Halifax Town (H) 0-1 L
Bromley (A) 3-2 L (Umerah, Cook)
Stockport County (H) 1-4 L (Jackson)
Dover Athletic (A) 2-3 W (Sweeney 2, Umerah)
Boreham Wood:
AFC Wimbledon (H) 2-0 W (Marsh, Clifton) Barnet (H) 0-0 D
Barnet (A) 2-3 W (Marsh 3) Woking (A) 0-2 W (K Smith, Mafuta) St Albans City (H) 4-0 W (Rees 2, Mafuta, Clifton)
WHAT WAS SAID?
Stuart Maynard: "It's a very difficult period for us, coming out of isolation to prepare for the game and it's a bit of an unknown for the lads who have had COVID coming back to training and continuing with the intensity and whether they can get through the game. We're behind on fitness and have a couple of suspensions, you can watch loads and loads of games but can't get it into the lads as they're self isolating. Rachel [Hill] gave all the lads programmes which they've all reported in and done so we've kept on top of it the best we can but it's a big unknown.
"Us as a group want to apologise for the first half performance at Needham Market, the level of that performance was unacceptable. I'll always be honest about our performances and the first half we gave ourselves too much to do but when you assess the performance we've made two errors that gave them two goals and in the second half we created nine clear chances to win the game of football and that's the key; we were poor in both boxes."
WHO TO WATCH FOR?
Jamal Fyfield: Boreham Wood under Luke Garrard have prided themselves in being a solid outfit and since joining the club from Gateshead in 2018, Fyfield has been pinnacle in delivering that. The 32-year old defender comes into the fixture with four clean sheets from his last five appearances, including the key 2-0 win over League One side AFC Wimbledon on the weekend. Won promotion from the National League with York City and also the FA Trophy in 2012, after his heroics against EFL side Wimbledon and being a mainstay in one of the National League's most stubborn defences he will come into this game in some career-high form.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played - 25
Won - 12
Drawn - 4
Lost - 9
LAST FIVE MEETINGS
Apr 2021 - Boreham Wood 3-1 Stones - (Mendy) Mar 2021 - Stones 1-0 Boreham Wood - (Smith)
Mar 2015 - Stones 0-1 Boreham Wood
Nov 2014 - Boreham Wood 2-1 Stones - (Wright)
Apr 2010 - Stones 0-0 Boreham Wood
Preview by Chris Woods