Luke Garrard felt there were plenty of positives to take despite Boreham Wood’s exit from the Scottish Irn Bru Cup on penalties against Dunfermline Athletic.
Nothing could separate the sides after a goalless 90 minutes and that theme continued into the penalty shootout, with both teams neck and neck after 10 spot-kicks.
In the end, the pressure ultimately proved to be too much for Wood midfielder Connor Smith, who missed his effort from 12 yards to hand Dunfermline a 6-5 win on penalties following a tight game at Meadow Park.
It was the Wood who created the better chances though, with new signing Reeco Hackett-Fairchild testing Lee Robinson twice early on, while Smith also fired over from a corner after the restart.
Wood goalkeeper Ryan Huddart then pulled off a great save at the death to deny Dunfermline substitute Aiden Connolly to send the match to penalties.
The tie was the first between a National League side and a team from the Scottish Championship in the cup competition and while clearly disappointed to have been beaten, Garrard felt there were positives to take.
Garrard told the club's website: “It’s never easy when you lose on penalties but there’s obviously going to be a loser. Someone has to suffer and Connor Smith missed his penalty. I felt the standard of penalties across the board was phenomenal.
“First half I felt we were nowhere near the races. I felt we were off the boil and our shape didn’t cope with their full-backs. I had to change it at half-time and I felt that the boys embraced it. They adapted to what I asked of them and in fairness, I thought we looked like the team that was going to win.
“For me, it’s another clean sheet and that’s now six games unbeaten. I don’t care what you say but we’ve played 90 minutes and not been beaten. Whether it’s a penalty shootout or not, that’s six games unbeaten. So there are a hell of a lot of positives.”
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