Boreham Wood v

Stevenage Borough

Pre-Season Friendly,

Tuesday August 8, Meadow Park. Kick off 7.30pm

For the first time since their departures last year, Phil Wallace and Bob Makin return to Meadow Park as Conference giants Stevenage Borough arrive for what is sure to be a searching examination of Wood's new-found health.

Wallace, club owner and chairman for nine years, was instrumental in steering the club from the old amateur ethos into the harsh business realities of modern non-league football, and in Makin, Wood's most successful manager, he found a man who could realise his ambitions on the field.

A record-breaking First Division Championship win in 1995 was followed by a third and runners-up berths in the Premier Division, as well as regular cup finals and great adventures in both the FA Cup and FA Trophy.

Conference football was never achieved however, and Wallace left 14 months ago to take on the challenge at Stevenage, a club with a fantastic recent track record, but heavily in debt.

When Makin resigned the Wood manager's post in November, Wallace wasted little time in appointing him chief executive at Broadhall Way.

With the restoring of Paul Fairclough, Borough now have a boss to chase their ambitions, and pre-season results have been encouraging.

Stevenage defeated Peterborough's first team 1-0 on Monday evening, after a draw with Millwall and a 0-3 loss to Sheffield Wednesday.

Borough have added to their squad this summer with the signing of ex-Slough keeper Paul Wilkerson and former Hayes defender Nathan Bunce. Doncaster paid £50,000 for striker Carl Alford, with Neil Illman making the opposite trip down the A1, and forward Darren Hay has joined Stevenage from Woking.

One man who will not feature however is midfielder Christian Metcalfe, who enjoyed a loan spell at Wood last term, as he suffered a knee injury on Monday.