It was back to reality for players and supporters of Wealdstone after the FA Cup venture ended just the two days before with the Rotherham defeat. This is no reflection on Boreham Wood who, under the stewardship of Ian Allinson, have developed into an attractive passing side, but the Ryman League Cup has in recent years failed to capture the imagination of the supporters.


And so it proved with the game being played out in front of a sparse crowd which made the contrast to Sunday still more vivid. Great credit must be lavished on both sets of players as they produced a lively and entertaining encounter. Stones started the brighter with Ryan Ashe continuing his terrific form shown against Rotherham prompting from midfield and stretching the Wood’s defence. It was no great surprise when the home side opened the scoring after 14 minutes with Chris Ellebeck taking advantage of defensive hesitancy to stroke the ball past James Courtnage. It wasn’t long before Ellerbeck doubled his tally and the lead when he drove past Courtnage in impressive fashion following a wonderful run and pull back from Keiron Forbes. With Forbes on the right and Danny Spendlove on the left running at their opponents more goals looked to be on the cards, but the visitors clawed their way back into contention via a superbly struck free kick from Chris Watters that gave Sean Thomas no chance in the home goal. This visibly lifted The Wood and allowed their midfield to feed lively forwards Leon Hunter and Jamie Richards to greater effect as they finished the half in the ascendency.

The second half saw the visitors take the game to a visibly tiring home team. On several occasions impressive right full back Mario Noto found Watters with angled raking passes that stretched the Stones defence and Thomas in goal was forced to be alert on more than one occasion. However, The Stones always looked dangerous on the break with both Ellerbeck and Spendlove testing Courtnage from distance. Mark E’Beyer was brought on for a exhausted looking Ash, Marvin McCoy for a tiring Forbes and Jamie Osbourne for Ross Lafayette. This livened up the home side and Ellerbeck completed his hat-trick after Spendlove crossed to the near post. Osbourne dummied the ball to allow Ellerbeck to score from close in.

This was not the end of the action. Thomas saved brilliantly from Hunter while a driven cross was smashed against Thomas’s crossbar by the onrushing Watters. Courtnage also performed heroics when he brilliantly pushed aside a thunderous shots from both Osbourne and E’Beyer.

Team. Sean Thomas, Kenny During, Lee Chappell, James Gray, Rob Fitzgerald, Ryan Ashe,Keiron Forbes, Chris O’Leary, Ross Lafayette, Chris ellerbeck, Dany Spendlove. Subs Mark E’Beyer, Marvin McCoy, Jamie Osbourne

Attendance: 101