After a disastrous first half in which Alty barely laid a glove on their newly promoted hosts, Boreham Wood led by three goals to nil. The stats indicated 62% possession for Boreham Wood and a 6-0 lead in shots on target and 3-1 lead on corner kicks.

The first two goals were both scored by Erico Sousa (17 and 28 minutes) and both arose from Charlie Kirk losing possession. The third goal came from a Brunt 45th minute penalty.

With a fine finish, Jimmy Knowles made it 3-1 shortly before the hour mark (58 mins). A minute earlier Kirk and Golden had been substituted by Reed and Crankshaw.

SCORERS:

• 17 mins: Érico SOUSA (Boreham Wood 1 ALTRINCHAM 0)
• 28 mins: Érico SOUSA (Boreham Wood 2 ALTRINCHAM 0)
• 44 mins: Zak BRUNT (penalty) (Boreham Wood 3 ALTRINCHAM 0)
• 58 mins: Jimmy KNOWLES (Boreham Wood 3 ALTRINCHAM 1)

REFEREE: Mr Aji Ajibola

ATTENDANCE: 921 (80 in away section)

TEAM NEWS:

For Altrincham there were three changes as out went Sassi, Ward (family reasons) and Gale (precautionary), with only Sassi of that trio named on the bench. In came Kirk, Crawford and Barnes. Jake Cooper made his first appearance in a squad this season on the bench, with Matty Kosylo joining him there.

As for The Wood, out of the eleven were Newton and Richardson, replaced by captain Reynolds and Rush.

LINE-UPS:

BOREHAM WOOD (All white): 22. Finlay. Herrick, 3. Femi Ilesanmi, 12. Joe Newton, 5. Chris Bush, 6. Charlie O'Connell, 15. Jeff King, 19. Tom White (c), 8. Zak Brunt, 7, Érico Sousa, 10. Abdul Abdulmalik, 20. Lewis Richardson, 32. Matt Rush. Subs: 1. Nathan Ashmore, 17. Charles Clayden, 2. Cameron Coxe, 9. Junior Dixon, 14. Aaron Henry, 12. Joe Newton, 11. Jon Benton.

ALTRINCHAM (Black and yellow shirts, yellow shorts and socks): 30 Luke Hutchinson, 2 Lewis Banks, 24. Sam Barnes, 4. Lewis Baines (c), 23, Tylor Golden, 6. Elliot Osborne, 22. Tom Crawford, 8 Isaac Marriott, 40. Charlie Kirk. 20 Kahrel Reddin, 11. Jimmy Knowles. Subs: 3. Sam Reed, 5. Jake Cooper, 7. Olly Crankshaw, 14. Matty Kosylo, 17. Lucas Weaver, 27 Louie Fallon, 34. Dan Sassi.

This was the first meeting of the two teams at Boreham Wood since March 2024, with the Wood having spen the intervening sesson in the National South division.

Boreham Wood had lost just one of their seven league games played before this one.

REPORT:

Boreham Wood started the better with Altrincham unable to get out of their defensive third of the pitch.

An early home corner led to a Rush effort which Hutchinson saved well, to his right (3 mins).

By the fifth minute, the home side had already earned three corners as they totally dominated the initial proceedings.

A spat between King and Golden saw the latter push the former over before Altrincham belatedly got a toehold in the game. After a spell of Altrincham possession, Kirk gained his side's first corner (9 mins).

Spectators now witnessed a spell of even play before the Wood went close to scoring when Ilesanmi fired narrowly wide (18 mins). The respite for the visitors was short as Kirk's mispass near halfway set Boreham going forward.

Brunt fed a falling Sousa who swept the ball low into the corner of the net with his left foot to give his side a deserved lead (18 mins).

Soon afterwards, Abdulmalik won the hosts another corner (19 mins). Altrincham were now seeing a fair bit of the ball yet from their possession they were lacking any threat whatsoever to the Wood goal. Reddin and Kirk on the flanks and Knowles up top were largely starved of the ball.

Hutchinson now had to produce another good save, from Bush, and then make a fine block from Ilesanmi, in the space of a minute (26 mins).

But the home pressure told once more as Kirk, once more, mis-passed the ball to an opponent. White and Brunt got the ball to Sousa whose fierce drive from 15 yards gave Hutchinson no chance as his side fell two goals adrift (28 mins).

Soon after the half-hour mark, Kirk's ambitious shot from wide left was well off target, but at least it was a shot.

Hutchinson was soon in action again at the other end as Rush got in a shot at him (41 mins).

When Abdulmalik got to the left bye-line he was challenged by Reddin who was harshly judged to have conceded a penalty. Hutchinson delayed the penalty by taking a drink and by making complaints to the referee before the unfazed Brunt calmly sent the young keeper the wrong way from the penalty spot to make it 3-0 (44 mins).

Next, a foul on Marriott by O'Connell earned the home player a yellow card in added time (45+1 min).

Although Altrincham had enjoyed some spells of possesion, they had been ineffectual and their front three had had no influence on proceedings. But for Hutchinson's saves, the deficit could have been even worse.

Surprisingly there were no changes made by Altrincham for the second half. Early on, came the first real run of the match, up the wing, from Reddin and his shot from the right which hit the keeper's left boot could easily have spun into the net instead of just clearing the bar (47 mins).

Alty were looking a better side in this second half and a foul on Knowles by King earned the former Altrincham man a not unfamiliar yellow card (56 mins).

Next, Kirk and Golden were replaced by Crankshaw and Reed (57 mins). Coincidenatlly, the changes heralded a fine Altrincham goal from 19 yards by Knowles, who made space well and hit a fine shot past Herrick (58 mins).

Baines was now booked for a foul on Rush (63 mins) before a change by the hosts at right-back brought on Coxe for King (64 mins).

Alty soon won a couple of corners, the second arising from another fine shot by Knowles from the "D", almost the same spot from which he had scored some ten minutes earlier (69 mins).

Although another Altrincham corner followed (74 mins), Boreham Wood remained two goals to the good before Abdulmalik was subbed by Clayden (77 mins).

With the game into its last ten minutes pf normal time, Alty's comeback had stalled and it took another diving save from Hutchinson to stop Rush from adding to the home side's tally (81 mins). At this point, Weaver came on for Marriott.

As time ticked away Boreham Wood won two more corners, the second arising from a freekick awarded against Weaver (88 mins).

Barnes was replaced by Sassi (90 mins) before Reed's trip on Coxe earned the left-back a yellow, his fourth of the season already.

It was the home side who were finishing the stronger and Hutchinson had to make another save as he dived to push away a shot.

But Boreham were recycling the ball from that shot when Weaver lunged at Brunt on the Wood's left. The referee produced a straight red card to complete Altrincham's unhappy afternoon (90+2 mins). This incident extended the decreed six added minutes before Mr Ajibola blew the final whistle.

Alty dropped to eleventh having won four but lost five of their opening nine fixtures.