Boreham came in to this season opener full of confidence following two solid pre season victories under their belts and encouraging team news. During the close season, Boreham had confirmed two new signings in the shape of Andy Stammers and Jay Dale as well as adding end of season signees Chris DeVito and Neil Charter to the squad from the off. With just Players’ Player, Sam Aberdeen the only major loss. The management team have a squad of 20 now signed on so strength in depth is there in abundance.
The 14 that made the squad for this game, were indeed very strong, which did not include Powell, Walsh and Chittock, all of whom will be keen to impose themselves on upcoming games. So the starting 11 was arguably one of if not the strongest starting
Line ups Boreham could field. The unfortunate 3 on the bench were Smith, Bigland and Carter. Which left the starting XI of McGlynn in goal, Captain for the day Parsons, Charter, Stammers and Simpson making up the back four, Ince, Dale, Rush and Goodchild across the midfield and De Vito and Cowcher up top.
The game started well for Boreham, who immediately highlighted a weakness in the Orient side. Ince was having all sorts of joy down Boreham’s right wing as the Orient left back appeared to struggle to cope with Ince’s Pace and trickery. A few chances were created down the right as well as from one or two nice through balls from Rush. Ince, Cowcher, De Vito and Dale were all guilty of missing chances which were by no means sitters but still efforts which they may have expected to do better. As the half time whistle blew it was Boreham who had the better of the first half, although Magsy in goal did pull off a very neat save to deny the Orient striker in what was their only real chance of the half.
Unchanged for the 2nd half Boreham started a bit slower then how they finished the first. They were not enjoying as much possession and were finding it tough to bring in the wide players as much as they were in the 1st half. As a result of this, Orient began to control the game a bit more without really threatening Boreham’s goal. Orient did put the ball in Boreham’s net with quite a sweet strike but Graham Dines had already flagged. The ref, after discussing with the linesman, correctly disallowed the goal as the Orient striker who set up the goal received the ball from an off side position.
Boreham threw on a couple of subs in an attempt to mix things up, Smith replaced Ince and Bigland replacing De Vito. Neither sub had much of an impact on the game and with time running out the game looked set to finish goalless. The last incident came in the dying seconds when Dale raced on to a clearance and was bundled over by the centre back. The ref awarded a free kick but bizarrely did not book or even send off the defensive culprit – strange decision from the ref even if there was only a few minutes to go. Rush stepped up to take the free kick but saw hit effort palmed behind for a corner.
The full time whistle blew and the game finished 0-0. Both teams probably satisfied with a point. Boreham may not get that many tougher fixtures this season but would certainly expect to have a few easier ones. All bodes well for the season, a season which sees the mighty village of Boreham celebrate their centenary year.
