ENTERPRISE NATIONAL LEAGUE. SATURDAY, 6th SEPTEMBER 2025.

Morecambe are not out of the (Boreham) Woods yet…

Morecambe made the long journey to the northern suburbs of London and south Hertfordshire today to face Borehamwood’s biggest local team for the first time ever.

The Shrimps have lost all three of their last league matches and have only three points from the four games they have played so far as they sit next to the bottom of the National League table. Their hosts have played two games more but have accumulated eleven points so far. They started today’s contest just outside the Play-Off positions in the league – in eighth place – and have not been beaten since much-fancied Rochdale won 0-2 at Meadow Park on the opening day of the season. Last Tuesday – in a see-saw game at Sutton where they took the lead but were losing at one point – they finally won by the odd goal in seven.

Today would also see former Shrimps’ favourite Tom White line-up for the first time as a Man (as opposed to a Babe) in the Wood against the club he left just a few short weeks ago. He wore the Captain’s armband this afternoon.

This is what I wrote about the Wood in my earlier guide to the National League:

Boreham Wood’s home ground – Meadow Park – can be found 234 miles south from the Mazuma Mobile Stadium in the leafy Home County of Hertfordshire. The Wood are another authentically non-league club with aspirations to play in an EFL which they have never been members of. The club was founded as recently as 1948 and has gradually progressed through the lower tiers of English football in the south east of the country over the ensuing years, albeit with the occasional set-back. They were promoted from the National League South during 2015 and made national headlines when they beat an EFL club – Blackpool – for the first-ever time by two goals to one in a First Round FA Cup tie during the 2017-18 season.

At the end of that campaign, they also reached the National League Play-Off Final at Wembley. But the closest they have ever been to entering the Hallowed Ground of the EFL ended with a 2-1 defeat by Tranmere Rovers.

A year later, they reached the Play-Offs again but were beaten at the semi-final stage by eventual winners Harrogate Town.

They then beat Southend United – then a Football League club – in the FA Cup during 2020 and a year later eliminated League One AFC Wimbledon and then Championship Bournemouth before falling at the fifth round hurdle to Everton by two goals to nil at Goodison Park.

More disappointment followed in 2023 when they again failed in the Play-Off Semi-Finals to EFL-bound Notts County; 3-2 after extra time.

Just a year later, they were surprisingly relegated to National League South but immediately bounced back via the Play-Offs to start their National League career once again this season.

So it cannot be said that the club should be immediately renamed Boreham Rigid – being a fan of the Wood has rarely had any dull moments.

The Wood and the Shrimps have never met for a football match in any competition. But Piero Mingoia has played for both clubs (Morecambe briefly on-loan from Watford six years ago). Morecambe’s centre forward last season – Lee Angol – also once played on-loan from Luton for Boreham Wood and finished the 2014–15 season as the Conference South’s top scorer with 25 goals from 39 appearances. He also scored key goals in the club’s FA Cup campaign and Play-Off victory, helping them to promotion to the National League for the first time in their history.

Boreham Wood will play Morecambe for the very first time when the Shrimps Knock on Wood – or at least the door at Meadow Park – on Saturday, 6^th September 2025. The return fixture by the Lancashire seaside will be played on Saturday, 18^th April 2026.

I was searching for pre-match comments by Boreham Wood Manager Luke Garrard only to find a feature on their website I have never previously come across before on any club’s official offering: an address by the Chairman, Danny Hunter. It starts nicely enough:

“Today we meet Morecambe FC, can I wish their new Directors, Manager and long suffering supporters the warmest of welcomes to the Mangata Developments Stadium and a safe journey home.”

It then continues:

“Well, it’s fair to say we’ve started the season in the manner we’d all perhaps hoped for and as I said in my last programme notes, any fears I might have had in regard to us not being competitive within the division were minimised within the first two week… I got on firstly with improving the budget and secondly along with my architect Paul Beech, completed my stadium visuals… So, it’s now down to myself, Luke, Charlie, my loyal staff, dressing room and partners, to get on (with things)… When I first walked through the door back in 1999, I dreamt of one day building this town a four stand, four-sided stadium, but in truth I was just 36 years of age and perhaps dreaming a tad too big?… It was not always easy to dream big around here or even think big … In truth some of my family and friends even found my ambition amusing or bemusing with most doubting me and that was a tad hurtful… Thankfully the doubters around me have now gone… I’m too long in the tooth to be making silly predictions on what might lay ahead for us after just half a dozen games. Nor would I put myself, Luke or the club under pressure by being another one of those silly voices on social media like some other owners and Chairmen I could name…”

And so it goes on “Me”. “I”. “My”. And on. And on…. However, the long article finishes with sentiments about our club and the utterly useless EFL which I’m sure we all both appreciate and support:

“Our opponents today are Morecambe FC and they certainly do not need a business lesson from me after the way their club and supporters have been treated in recent years by an imposter of an owner who clearly should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER have passed the fit and proper director and owners test, as overseen by the inimitable Rick Parry and the EFL………that said, please don’t start me off again about Mr Rick Parry haha.

It just leaves me to say, I’m very pleased Morecambe Football Club and their loyal fans are here as our guests today. You are all most welcome and this is the first time our two clubs have ever played each other. We hope after your summer from hell, you can now look to the future with optimism when all had perhaps seemed lost just a month ago.

We can all see there is a long way to go for Morecambe FC and their supporters, but I’m sure they would say any successful onward journey has to start somewhere and I hope theirs began when they beat Altrincham 2-1 just a few short weeks ago.

Anyway, back to today, let’s hope for an open attacking game and may the best team win.”

So, bearing in mind that there was probably no space on the Boreham Wood website to get a word in edgeways, I have no idea of what Mr Garrard said – if anything – about today’s game before it started.

Opposite Number Ashvir Singh Johal was asked by the media what the Forthcoming performance meant to him as far as Morecambe fans are concerned:

“Listen, for us it is to make sure of the support and trust that they’ve got in us. We pay that back with solid performances but also a team that they are proud to watch and it is an exciting afternoon or evening when they come and watch a game.”

The weather was quite sunny and warm and the pitch looked absolutely perfect as the match kicked-off.  Meadow Park is a tidy little ground but it was incongruous to see a North Bank with a clock over it and lots of Arsenal hoardings around the pitch. Arsenal Ladies’ play some of their `home’ games at this venue but its closeness to the real North Bank at the old Gunners’ stadium is about as accurate as a comparison between the old ground with its Marble Halls and its namesake in Fleetwood.

Morecambe kicked-off but the home team soon looked like the fitter, sharper side. It only took six minutes for them to take the lead. Home debutant after his move from Burnley – Lewis Richardson – received the ball from the always-dangerous Érico Sousa on the left, skipped around Ludwig Francillette in the penalty area as if he wasn’t there and then scored with an assured shot which gave Archie Mair in the away goal no chance at all.

In response, in the tenth minute, Gwion Edwards almost repeated his wonder-goal against Forest Green on Tuesday with a shot from the same distance that this time hit the angle of post and bar and to Finlay Herrick’s left. The loanee goalkeeper from West Ham must have got a glove to it because referee Isaac Searle awarded a corner which the visitors then completely wasted.

Richardson got clear of the visiting defence again after eleven minutes but Raheem Conte managed to get back and put him off as the chance was lost. Captain Yann Songo’o was hurt way up in the home half a little while after this. He received prolonged treatment on the pitch but soon had to leave the field, handing his armband to Edwards – again, the Welshman had clearly been the Shrimps’ most potent threat up-front so far. But Gwion was soon handing the armband on to Alie Sesay as he went down off the ball and couldn’t continue either.

Could it get worse for the visitors? Yes it could.

Captain Yann’s replacement Terrell Agyemang took just two minutes to get his name in the Referee’s note book after a needless but nasty foul on Tom White. He committed an equally bad one in injury time of the first half – and off he went. By this time, Morecambe were already losing two-nil: Matt Rush scored the best goal of the afternoon when he took-on two Morecambe defenders on the edge of the away penalty area to the left from his point of view before sweeping a superb shot across a despairing Mair into the left corner of his net with 36 minutes on the clock. It could have been worse: Archie had done well to deny Rush after half an hour and even better to keep out an effort from Richardson as he managed to push a shot over the bar with his fingertips deep into the extensive injury time.

So the game was already lost at half time. Morecambe looked a bit fitter than previously but their understanding was poor and their discipline seemingly absolutely non-existent.

It got worse in the second. The Shrimps could have conceivably finished the match with a lot fewer than ten men. Substitute Harrison Panayiotou offered nothing positive when he came on and was lucky not to be booked for a bad foul soon after he appeared. He was rightly booked for a later one but you wonder – like with Agyemang earlier – why risk it? I also thought that Alie Sesay was lucky only to be booked too when – on the ground – he lunged at a Wood player and brought him down during the second half. Francillette also walked a tightrope for most of the afternoon with a very physical battle with the Wood forwards. He was booked at one point but I thought the Ref gave him the benefit of considerable doubt throughout a performance where he did not exactly cover himself with glory.

So what can we say that is positive? Not a lot in all truth. I thought Jake Cain had his best game for the club so far today and was our best player once Gwion had to leave the field. Archie was brilliant again – and it’s just as well he was, too. This game could easily have ended with a cricket score as he made a number of outstanding saves during the second half to add to the handful he had already made earlier. He was blameless when the hosts scored a third goal after 66 minutes. Wood won a free-kick centrally and then implemented a clearly well-rehearsed training ground routine to perfection as Morecambe players simply stood and watched like so many shop dummies. One touch; two touches; cross and Bang! – the ball was in the net again.

So that’s now four defeats on the spin for the shambolic Shrimps. Yes, they are still effectively having their pre-season and their collective fitness will obviously improve. But the team looks weak in many departments and some players already don’t look good enough to compete even at this level of football. In my view – and not for the first time – they played worse after the substitutions the Manager made than they had done before them. Let’s hope the signings that Ash still has up his sleeve prove to be an improvement: because a lot of improvement is needed – and quickly too…

Once again – perhaps because of our Reduced Circumstances as a non-league club – I can’t find an interview with Ash in any of the old slots to find out what he said after the game. One will no doubt appear in due course and I will again update this report as soon as it does.

Boreham Wood: 22 Finlay Herrick; 3 Femi Ilesanmi (Y) (12 Joe Newton 77′); 5 Chris Bush; 6 Charlie O’Connell; 7 Érico Sousa; 8 Zak Brunt (Y); 10 Abdul Oluwatosin Olubukola Alao Oladipupo Abdulmalik (9 Junior Dixon 69′); 15 Jeff King (2 Cameron Coxe 62′); 19 Tom White (C); 20 Lewis Richardson (17 Charles Clayden 62′); 32 Matt Rush (18 Luke Norris (Y) 69′).

Subs not used: 1 Nathan Ashmore; 14 Aaron Henry.

Morecambe: 1 Archie Mair; 3 Raheem Conte (17 Paul Lewis 57’); 6 Ludwig Francillette (Y); 7 Gwion Edwards (15 Ben Williams 40’); 8 Miguel Azeez; 10 Jake Cain; 11 Admiral Muskwe (21 Joe Nuttall 57’); 14 Alie Sesay (Y); 18 Ben Tollitt; 20 Mo Sangare (9 Harrison Panayiotou (Y) 57’); 24 Yann Songo’o (C) (4 Terrell Agyemang (Y+Y=R) 19’).

Subs not used: 25 Alfie Scales; 19 Ma’kel Bogle-Campbell.

Ref: Isaac Searle.

Att: 1,035 (126 hardy souls from Morecambe.)