Boreham Wood were delving into a new league at the start of the season after just about squeezing through via the play-offs in the Conference South. They had lost the man that carried them throughout last season in Les Angola and needed to sign quite a few players to get the squad to the level needed. Indeed, Ian Allinson managed to bring a pretty good pack of players as Scott Doe, Luke Howell, Charlie MacDonald, Joe Devera and Dave Stephens all joined from either Football League clubs or from a Barnet side that had won promotion from the National League at the end of last season. Given that the likes of Sam Cox, Ricky Shakes and Danny Woodards all had experience at this level too, there were reasonable hopes that the small club from Hertfordshire will be at least competitive and put a good fight against the drop. They started the season with a dream win over a decent Halifax side at the start of the season but found the league quite tough and demanding overall in the early weeks. They played some excellent football against strong sides like Forest Green and Gateshead, only to end up on the losing side. Yet the Wood showed their real potential with a wonderfully gutsy and efficient 2:0 win away at a Tranmere side that had been playing three divisions above them just over two years ago. It showed nicely how far have the Wood come in short time but they found it hard to show consistency as the grind of games took its toll. They lost five in a row during September but showed some signs of improvement after that and were still sitting clear of the drop zone. But they were stunned by the news of Allinson leaving the club after many years there, citing difficulties regarding the ability to share the duties with his other job. That meant that the pretty inexperienced assistant Luke Garrard took over as a replacement in what was seen as a bold move by the club. The new man in charge maintained the principles and system that Allinson have developed and Boreham Wood remained pretty much the same in most games. They certainly had clout and attacking quality in their tracks but the clear lack of experience and a bit of naivety was costing them at times. The Wood went on a rather disappointing run of one win in nine games after Garrard took over and it was hard to see them doing anything more than just scrapping for their place at the bottom end of the table. Goals remained a rarity and but the team at least tightened up considerably at the back around the turn of the year and enjoyed a good run of form. They managed five clean sheets in a run of seven games and defied expectations in holding strong sides like Cheltenham, Eastleigh and Grimsby to draws. Much more frustratingly for Garrard, the team also developed a habit of dropping points against lesser sides as home defeats to bottom two Kidderminster and Torquay hurt them badly. The team was a in a real dogfight at it reached the crucial stage of the season and a run of just a single win in nine games, against a strong side like Dover of all of them, meant that they were in real spot of bother before the final few games. Yet there was still fight left in that Wood side and they managed to bag huge wins away at Aldershot and then at home against direct rivals Guiseley to secure themselves a massive six points at the most crunch of times. They eventually finished the job with an easy win at Welling at the end. It meant that the newcomers are safe from the drop and that must count as a really good achievement by someone as inexperienced as Garrard.
