Boreham opened up their home campaign with a visit from newly promoted St. Clere’s Reserves. Not a lot was known about their opponents other than they were 3-0 victors the previous week. It was another scorching September day with the conditions perhaps playing a part to the cagey nature of the game.
Boreham welcomed back former skipper Powell but were without Simpson at the back. Carter was also unavailable but Chittock was back in contention following his absence last week. The team remained almost the same as for the previous week, the forced change of Smith coming in for Simpson with Dale partnering Stammers at the back and Smith taking his familiar role of Left Midfield. The rest of the team was unchanged which left Powell, Bigland and Chittock on the bench.
The 1st half was quite even with both teams struggling to really create any clear cut chances. De Vito went close early on but his effort was pulled wide. A few other half chances fell to Boreham but nothing of any real significance. St Clere’s created even less with Magsy in goal not having a save to make.
The half time whistle blew with the game goalless and all to play for in the second half. One change was made for the second half, Ince made way for Powell with Powell slotting in a centre back, releasing Jay Dale to take Ince’s place wide right.
The second half was a similar story to the first, not many chances from either team and as the game went on it appeared that the visitors were looking to shut up shop and play for the 0-0. In the last half hour Boreham did not want to settle for a draw and did create three decent chances to score. Firstly, great energy and work from Goodchild saw Boreham quickly break from a St. Clere’s corner, Gooders had burst down the right wing and had time to look up and pick out Cowcher at the back stick with a pin point cross, unfortunately for Boreham, Cowcher’s header went well over from 10 yards out. The bright shine of the sun was heard to be an excuse from the Boreham front man. With about 10 minutes to go another decent chance fell to the home team, this time great work from De Vito on the right hand side saw his low cross heading towards the marked Cowcher, Smith was lurking unmarked behind, Cowcher’s dummy left Smith with a decent opportunity to score but his effort was closed down by the recovering full back. Five minutes later, it was De Vito’s turn to miss a chance, a neat through ball from Rush found the striker through on goal with the keeper advancing, De Vito appeared to rush his attempted lob seeing his effort pulled tamely wide. It looked like all their second half pressure would yield no rewards with time ticking away.
On 88 minutes a throw in from Dale on the right found Goodchild who managed to flick the ball towards Cowcher in the 6 yard box, Cowcher’s touch appeared to brush off the centre back’s toe and bobble in to De Vito’s path, with just the keeper to beat from close range, De Vito poked his effort into the corner of the net to cue wild celebrations from the men in yellow and green. De Vito was mobbed by his ‘Boreham Brothers’!
With just minutes remaining, Boreham shut up shop themselves and limited their opponents to one 25 yard shot which just went just over. The full time whistle blew, heartache for St. Clere’s but on the balance a play Boreham will feel they fully deserved the win. The 1-0 victory leaves Boreham sitting nicely after a solid start from their opening two games against decent opposition and still yet to concede a goal.
Next week sees a break from the league as Boreham entertain Division One outfit Stifford Town in the Dave Strachan Cup 1st round. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the management to decide their best XI... but a great headache to have!
