FA Cup third qualifying round

"The minnows can take the plaudits but we'll take the draw for the next round.>

Cool Al's spot on

Royston Town 0 Boreham Wood 2

FA Cup third qualifying round

"The minnows can take the plaudits but we'll take the draw for the next round."

So Wood boss Bob Makin summed up Saturday's cup tie which saw his men have to dig for victory at Garden Walk against a determined, if limited, opposition.

Wood have been rewarded with a home meeting with the winners of Tuesday's Sutton United-Ford Sports replay in the final qualifying hurdle before the competition proper, and Makin said: "I'm pleased to be drawn at home at this stage...it's likely to be Sutton and, if so, I'll expect the usual blood and guts on Saturday week."

Despite his men's progress, the Wood boss remained troubled. "We played some of our best football for a long while against Billericay last week and lost, against Heybridge. We had a reasonable first half and ended up drawing but today we played diabolically and won!"

Formed in 1872, Royston Town are as old as the FA Cup itself, and in that time have never gone beyond this stage of the tournament. The stage had been set for a potential upset with all the usual ingredients in place.

A bright, blustery day, the crowd pinned against the touchlines and a bumpy pitch sloping to one end. The hosts included a Wood reject with something to prove in the form of striker Damon Miles -- but his former team mates restricted this potential headline in waiting to one off-target effort.

The general conditions meant that this was never going to be one for the purist and no doubt Makin could identify with Glenn Hoddle's trials and tribulations in Luxembourg recently as he too was on a hiding to nothing in a game Wood were expected to win comfortably.

Despite some plucky early play from Royston, the visitors carved out openings through their midfield dominance. Mark Xavier, put through by Bruce Sewell, mishit a shot straight at the keeper Simon Dobson and Daniel Miles cleared a Garry Nisbet header off the line before the inevitable goal arrived on 21 minutes.

Junior Samuels' pass up the line to Sewell saw the home side appealing for offside, but with no flag forthcoming, Xavier crashed his shot against the bar and then, as Jason Shaw drove the rebound back towards goal, the grounded Xavier steered it into the net from close range.

With two sets of brothers and the chairman's son in their line up, the Crows now required a true family effort to get back into the match but Wood restricted them to one on-target shot from skipper Mark Smith, safely held by Taylor.

With the wind getting close to gale force in the second half, one failed to see why both sides insisted on launching the ball through the air. The ground passing, on the rare occasion it appeared, remained ragged and possession was conceded far too offen.

Visiting nerves were finally settled with 12 minutes left as Xavier beat his man on the left of the box and saw Town's flying Dobson brothers deny him with a fine demonstration of their sure handling.

Unfortunately for younger sibling Joff, he is not recognised as a goalkeeper and, having been booked in the first half, had to take the long walk for an early shower.

Up stepped Alan McCarthy and he expertly despatched the spot kick -- his first ever goal for the club.

With a ten man opposition, more goals looked likely in the closing stages, especially after defender Steve Sanders had been switched successfully to midfield, but Dobson saved well from Xavier in stoppage time.

Makin said later: "There is no real reason for us to lose to teams like that, they only had one shot on target in the whole game. But there are still serious problems that we're developing that are not easy to solve. Action definitely needs to be taken and there are lots of factors involved.

"We must work harder to try and sort them out."

BOREHAM WOOD: Taylor, Sanders, McCarthy, J Shaw, Nisbet, Brown (Hatchett, 68), Grime, Xavier, Heffer, Samuels, Sewell. Subs not used: Dixon, P Shaw, Makin, Bethal.

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