Get the lowdown on our next opponents: Boreham Wood.

The Opposition

The 2025/26 campaign has been a record-breaking one for Boreham Wood, who are just a few steps away from an inaugural spot in League Two.

Despite suffering relegation back in the 2023/24 campaign, ending an almost decade-long stay in the fifth tier, the Wood have gone from strength to strength in the time since and have bounced back in spectacular fashion, with long-serving boss Luke Garrard evidently using his brief time away from the club to refine his tactics and return prepped and ready to take on a new challenge.

Having opted to depart Meadow Park in April 2024, he subsequently spent his first period out of work in his entire managerial career, before returning to replace Ross Jenkins just two months into the 2024/25 season, a year that ended with him lifting his first piece of silverware as a manager when he guided the club to promotion via the play-offs, narrowly overcoming Maidstone United at the final hurdle.

With an instant return to the National League in the bag, plans swiftly turned to competing at the high level they became used to across their previous stint at Step One, which included three top seven finishes and one trip to Wembley back in 2018, having beaten Sutton to reach the play-off final against Tranmere Rovers.

While this ended in defeat, this proved to be the first major milestone in Garrard’s tenure, a feat they attempted to match in 2019/20 and 2022/23 where they fell in the play-off semi-final on both occasions to Harrogate Town and Notts County respectively, both sides who ended up winning promotion, though notable achievements have also included a couple of runs in the Emirates FA Cup, the highlight being when they beat AFC Bournemouth to face Everton in the Fifth Round in 2022/23.

As such, their lack of consistency and quality during the 2023/24 campaign was certainly an anomaly when compared to their overall stint in the National League, with relegation a real blow to their plan of reaching the EFL for the first time. This had evidently given the club a chance to reset though, and 12 months on, the Wood could be on the verge of completing back-to-back promotions, having secured their play-off spot with a record points total and their highest number of goals scored – the second most in the division (94), as well as winning the National League Cup.

Their main man has of course been former Sutton striker Matt Rush, who has scored 50 goals since arriving from Gander Green Lane last season including 33 in total this term, while Zak Brunt has returned for his second stint at Meadow Park in fine form, adding 15 goals and 14 assists from midfield.

Alongside Brunt, Abdul Abdulmalik has been the architect to much of their attacking play together with Lewis Richardson, Charles Claydon and Érico Sousa, who has returned from his injury layoff, while Regan Booty and Tom White have been crucial cogs in the engine room, shielding a backline which has maintained Garrard’s trademark stubbornness. Long-serving defenders Chris Bush, Femi Ilesanmi and Cameron Coxe have been joined by Charlie O’Connell, Joe Newton and Callum Reynolds ahead of Ted Curd in goal, who has seamlessly replaced Finlay Herrick following his return to West Ham United, and has led to only seven teams conceding less goals than the Wood this term.

It is this sort of consistency which has been central to Boreham Wood’s rapid rise up the division, and their eyes will be firmly fixed on becoming the third Hertfordshire-based club to enter the EFL – behind Watford and Stevenage – with Saturday’s clash the undercard to their opening match in the play-offs at home to either Southend United or Forest Green Rovers.

The Manager

Luke Garrard

Luke Garrard has an association with Boreham Wood that goes all the way back to 2005, and barring a five-year spell as a player and a two-month spell as a manager, has remained at Meadow Park over the last two decades.

Hailing from nearby Barnet, the former defensive midfielder came through the ranks at Tottenham Hotspur as a trainee, but after being released as a schoolboy, made his professional debut for Swindon Town with whom he joined as an apprentice.

He later went on to have spells in non-league with Bishop’s Stortford, Boreham Wood and Northwood, before becoming a popular figure at AFC Wimbledon between 2006 and 2010. Making over 100 appearances for the club, Garrard played consistently during his spell in South London, before returning to Boreham Wood on loan in order to aid his recovery from a season-ending injury.

He made the switch back to Hertfordshire permanent in 2010 and spent five years at Meadow Park as a player, appearing almost 150 times and helping them gain promotion to the National League at the end of the 2014/15 campaign, with victory over Whitehawk in the play-off final. The following season saw him make his transition into management though, becoming the youngest manager in England’s top five divisions when he replaced Ian Allinson, who resigned from his post in October 2015.

Garrard has since cemented his status as a Wood legend, guiding the club to survival in their maiden campaign in the fifth tier, before twice guiding them to the play-offs in 2018 and 2020, notably reaching the final in the former with a 3-2 victory over Sutton in the semi-final, before losing to Tranmere Rovers at Wembley. His magnum opus will surely be the 2021/22 campaign though, which saw the Wood overcome Wimbledon and AFC Bournemouth in the FA Cup Third and Fourth Rounds, before falling to a 2-0 defeat against Premier League side Everton at Goodison Park.

While he then guided the Wood to the play-offs again at the end of the 2022/23 season, late goals from Aden Baldwin and Jody Jones saw them eliminated against eventual winners Notts County in the semi-final, and preceded a dismal campaign which saw them relegated the following season, ending a ten-year spell in the National League, and resulted in Garrard’s exit at the end of the season, having announced his departure in April.

However, despite the Wood set to embark on a new era under former Watford midfielder Ross Jenkins, Garrard returned to Meadow Park in September 2024, and finally added a promotion to his CV when wins over Dorking Wanderers and Torquay United secured their place in the play-off final, where they triumphed over Maidstone United, before adding a second piece of silverware earlier this year with the National League Cup.

One to Watch

Matt Rush

Matt Rush joined Boreham Wood after scoring a single goal for Sutton during his maiden campaign at Gander Green Lane, before firing the Wood back to the National League during the second half of the season.

A summer signing from Maidstone United, Rush came through the ranks at Southend United having joined as a 14-year old, and went on to make over 20 senior appearances in the Football League and National League for the Shrimpers.

Loan spells at Great Wakering Rovers, Harlow Town, Tonbridge Angels and Chelmsford City saw him gain senior experience alongside his development at Roots Hall, before moving across Essex permanently with a move to Braintree Town at the start of the 2022/23 season, with his goals helping them to the National League South play-offs.

Rush found himself at another Essex-based side ahead of the 2023/24 season though, joining Aveley, where he scored six goals in all competitions before being signed by Maidstone in November, where he scored ten goals in 19 games in the National League South to fire them to the play-offs.

Despite the Stones losing out at the final hurdle, Rush still found himself in the National League, albeit briefly, with a well-earned move to Sutton. He went on to score one goal in amber – the opener in a 3-1 win over Chertsey Town in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round, before returning to Maidstone on loan in November.

This would prove to be short-lived though, as he permanently exited South London just a month later when he made the switch to National League South rivals Boreham Wood, scoring 16 goals as the Wood reached the play-off final, where he played 90 minutes as they triumphed over his former club Maidstone to gain promotion last term.

He has since gone on to notch 33 goals this season, including 26 in the league which is bettered only by Ollie Pearce, and has made it a half-century of goals in total for the Wood in less than two seasons.

Recent Form

Morecambe 0-3 Boreham Wood

Boreham Wood 3-0 Hartlepool United

Solihull Moors 4-1 Boreham Wood

Boreham Wood 5-1 Wealdstone

Truro City 0-0 Boreham Wood

Aldershot Town 1-2 Boreham Wood

Last Time Out

Boreham Wood produced an excellent performance to beat relegated Morecambe and secure a fourth-place finish in the National League, confirming a home Eliminator tie in the play-offs.

Buoyed by their vocal crowd, Morecambe started on the front foot, forcing two early corners. It took some desperate defending from Femi Ilesanmi and Charlie O’Connell to prevent early goalscoring opportunities, before the Wood began to turn the screw and took a deserved lead shortly before the half-hour mark when a stray pass from Raheem Conte fell to Zak Brunt, who played an excellent through ball to Abdul Abdulmalik who made no mistake, cutting in onto his right foot before burying the ball past Jamal Blackman.

Despite a handful of chances throughout the second half the visitors were unable to double their advantage, with the hosts showing real spirit and, were it not for some excellent defending from Chris Bush and O’Connell, they might have found a leveller. However, on 90 minutes, Wood added a second when Abdulmalik played in substitute Joe Newton, who finished well, before in the fourth minute of added time, Lewis Richardson supplied the third with a stunning strike from outside the area to put the icing the cake.