Boreham Wood chose Non-League Day to return to winning ways in the National League, beating Welling United 2-0 at Meadow Park to clinch their fourth league victory of the season.
Wood boss Ian Allinson stuck with the same side which earned a point at Kidderminster Harriers on Tuesday evening and was duly rewarded, with goals from Jamie Lucas and Joe Devera keeping the Hertfordshire side two points above the relegation zone.
The hosts started the brighter and might have gone in front when Sam Cox, who enjoyed plenty of space down the right-hand side, crossed for Junior Morias to volley over.
But after 19 minutes Wood got the formula right to open the scoring.
Billy Clifford, again deployed down the left-hand side of midfield, crossed deep into the box, Ricky Shakes nodded down at the back post and Lucas tucked beyond Tom King in the Wings’ goal.
In a nice spell of possession for Welling, Ricky Wellard got a yard of space on the edge of the box before shooting into the face of brave Irishman Conor Clifford.
Wellard tried his luck again soon after, this time finding keeper James Russell in his way.
But Wood were still creating chances and Conor Clifford forced a great save from King from Cox’s pass.
It could and maybe should have been 2-0 on the stroke of half time.
Morias held off his defender well and played the ball inside to Billy Clifford, who looked to have found the back of the net with a chip to the far post, only to hit the crossbar.
After the restart Sahr Kabba picked the ball up from Reece Harris 20 yards from goal, taking a touch and firing over.
A quickly taken free-kick by Billy Clifford then enabled Cox to skip past two players before firing wide on his left foot.
Wood continued to create chance and Billy Clifford was next to be frustrated when he shot was well blocked by a Welling defender.
But in the 64th minute Wood grabbed the all-important second.
A well-worked corner from Billy Clifford was flicked on by Scott Doe and finished by centre-back partner Devera.
Yet the Wood defence had to be alert when a dangerous free-kick, conceded by Cox, was whipped in by Sandro Semedo and Kevin Lokko rose highest to head just over.
The Wings were reduced to ten men ten minutes from time when a long ball over the top set substitute Charlie MacDonald free. He was brought down by Harry Osbourne and the referee had no hesitation in showing a red card as Osbourne was the last defender.
In the last minute of additional time Billy Clifford saw a free kick go narrowly wide of the top right-hand corner but it mattered little. Boreham Wood had won at Meadow Park for the first time since the opening day.
Reflecting on a welcome win, boss Allinson said: “We played really well in our last two away games and we needed to replicate that today and we did.
“We started bright and importantly we got the first goal which meant Welling would have to come at us.
“We stayed strong and composed at the back at took our chance in the second half and when their number five got sent off it effectively put the game to bed.”
Allinson continued: “It was important we didn’t let the teams ahead of us get away and by winning today we have kept ourselves in there.
“We have two games coming up where, if we play like today, we can get ourselves up and in the cluster of teams above us.”
Boreham Wood: Russell; Cox, Doe, Devera, Woodards; Shakes, C.Clifford, Kamdjo, B.Clifford; Morias (Jeffrey 81), Lucas (MacDonald 70).
Subs: Howell, Banton, Reynolds.
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