Last Thursday evening's loss to the reigning Ryman League champions meant little in terms of the result, giving Wood boss Graham Roberts ample opportunity to run the rule over several of his new signings.

With Dave Rainford and Julian Capone given their first starts, and striker Neil Selby linking up with Gary Dixon for the first time, Wood produced some neat football without causing the wonderfully monikered Chuck Martini in the Farnborough goal much to worry about.

A chill blustery evening at Meadow Park saw the floodlights on from the start, and only the immaculate pitch reminded the sparse crowd that it was in fact still mid-July.

Boro midfielder Scott Bennetts, who spent a brief spell on loan at Wood last term, was a constant threat alongside England man Gary Patterson in the centre of the park, and he went close in the tenth minute when his curling shot bounced off the top of the bar.

Eight minutes later however, Bennetts put the visitors ahead as he ended a well-worked four-man move by chipping the ball high and wide of the debuting former Bromsgrove and Stevenage keeper Chris Taylor.

It took the hosts half-an-hour to extend Martini as he gathered Dixon's low shot, but the Wood defenders were constantly kept on their toes by the pace and guile of Boro's forward line of Rocky Baptiste and Gary Crawshaw.

Some of the challenges stretched the evening's friendly billing a little far, and the beleaguered referee had to step in on several occasions to remind the players that there were no medals at stake.

Casual play at the back cost Wood a second goal after 63 minutes, as they failed to defend a low ball from the left and Tony Taggert drove home.

Substitute John Lawford pulled one back for Wood with a powerful low shot from 20 yards, but Roberts' men could not find an equaliser in the seven remaining minutes.

He said afterwards: "We played too much fancy Dan football in the first half, our midfield played the ball sideways too much and we couldn't open them up. But later on we put the balls in the right area and put Farnborough under pressure."

Ignoring the fact that his men have faced Conference and indeed Premiership opposition in their pre-season so far, Roberts moaned: "We've conceded four bad goals in our two games, and we've got to learn by our mistakes."

WOOD: Taylor, McDonald (Meah 79), Engwell, Wotton, Harvey, Capone (Rainford 65), Rainford (Delisser 46), Mason, Selby (Lawford 46), Dixon (St Hilaire 46), Meah (Pye 46).

Sub: (not used) Minors.

Boreham Wood 1

Farnborough Town 2

Pre-season Friendly

July 25, 2001 12:44

By DAVE RAWLINGS