Boreham Wood 0

Bishop's Stortford 3

(Ryman League division one)

BOREHAM WOOD manager Graham Roberts acclaimed Bishop's Stortford as the best side in the division after his team were taken apart by the Blues on their own turf on Saturday.

A seventh victory in eight games lifted Martin Hayes' men to eighth in the table, just six points behind third place with two games in hand.

The home side started brightly and created an opening for Brian Hammatt who shot straight at Mickey Desborough.

But Stortford opened the scoring in their first attack. Tyrone Hercules broke free on the right and his cross was deflected to Glen Southam who tried a shot from 20 yards. Home stopper Noel Imber parried it straight to Vinnie John who tapped in for his 22nd league goal of the season.

John Lawford might have equalised after being put clean through but his shot cannoned off the near post.

Paul Kyriacou had a superb game in defence and his block just before half time denied Hammatt a certain goal.

The Blues looked more and more comfortable as the game wore on and John might have made it 2-0 on 62 minutes after collecting a Hercules pass but he shot wide.

Three minutes later, Wood were reduced to ten men as Paul Kelly was shown a straight red card for a vicious foul on Southam.

Stortford, playing on the counter-attack, had several chances to kill the game of but didn't take advantage.

And they nearly paid for it on 81 minutes when Andre Delisser's shot looped off Desborough on to the crossbar, then Tony Samuels' follow-up hit the same spot on the woodwork.

The visitors made the points safe on 87 minutes when Troy Braham poked a pass through to Trevor Paul and the striker's shot flew in with the aid of a deflection.

Lively substitute Martin Hayes wrapped it up in the 90th minute, following up to score after his initial shot had been tipped on to the post.

Hayes said: "If we can show that kind of commitment every week then we will be up there at the end of the season. We have the ability to outplay teams like Boreham Wood.

"There are 17 games to go and plenty of points to play for. All we can do is keep winning and hope others slip up."

Stortford host Romford at Woodside Park on Saturday.

STORTFORD: Desborough, Risley, Kimble, Taylor, Fannon (sub: Endersby 90min), Kyriacou, Hercules, Southam (sub: Hayes 83), John, Paul, Braham.