Boreham Wood vs Truro City – Match Report

Published On: 26 August 2025Last Updated: 26 August 2025By CornishStuff

Enterprise National League

By Tom Howe

Boreham Wood 2 – Truro City 1

Truro City suffered late heartache at Meadow Park as Matt Rush’s injury-time winner saw Boreham Wood prevail by the odd goal in three, writes Tom Howe.

Rush turned the ball home, despite a home player appearing to in an offside position before th former Sutton United man netted.

The defeat was tough on City, who saw Will Dean make history with the club’s first ever goal at Step 1.

Dean got his head to a Jake Taylor corner to restore parity just seven minutes after Tom White had put the home side ahead, in what was an entertaining first-half in the searing Hertfordshire sun.

A mainstay of the National League South (NLS) title winning side last term Dean was unlucky not to have already been on the scoresheet, having earlier seen another header cleared off the line.

Zac Bell, Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tyler Harvey and Rekeil Pyke, who was denied a maiden Tinners goal by the woodwork, each came close to adding to the tally of a City side that conceded Rush’s winner deep into second-half injury time.

Having missed three matchday squads on the bounce, talismanic forward Harvey was restored to John Askey’s starting XI following his 23-minute cameo in Saturday’s narrow 1-0 defeat at the hands of visiting Southend United.

He donned the captain’s armband, taking over from Dean, with club skipper Connor Riley-Lowe once again named on the bench alongside Dom Johnson-Fisher and Lirak Hasani, who made way for Harvey and Taylor – one of six players to have featured across each of City’s six games in all competitions this term, alongside Oxlade-Chamberlain, Bell, Johnson-Fisher, Yassine En-Neyah and Ryan Law.

He may have been making a first start since the 2-0 reverse at Wealdstone on the opening day but Harvey was quick to brush off the cobwebs, getting his head to an early Bell cross inside the danger area albeit unfairly so in the view of referee Callum Walchester.

Undeterred, the eyes of the 2024-25 NLS Golden Boot winner lit up after some fine work by Oxlade-Chamberlain to set him up, only for Chris Bush to steal in with a well-timed tackle that denied Harvey another sight of goal.

The clock ticked towards the 15 minute mark before Wood were able to carve out any kind of opportunity, Abdul Abdulmalik feeding Luke Norris – the league’s top scorer heading into the fixture – who failed to make sufficient connection with the ball in order to test Dan Lavercombe.

City reacted with their two best chances of the half, as Dean saw a header cleared off the line before Pyke squeezed in a shot that ricocheted agonisingly back off Nathan Ashmore’s near post.

If you were a betting man, your money would surely have been on the Tinners opening the scoring at this stage but Luke Garrard’s charges had other ideas as White, a summer arrival from Morecambe, found the top corner to break the deadlock very much against the run of play, three minutes shy of the half hour mark.

The relationship between Truro and the term resilience is one seemingly as old as time and, my word, wasn’t it on show in the minutes that followed. A goal down and against the backdrop of a home crowd increasing in volume, City’s persistence paid off in the shape of a corner, which Taylor planted on the head of Dean, who beat Ashmore and etched further history into the annals of this storied football club.

Lavercombe, all clad in green, needed to be alert to the danger on two occasions as Wood carved out a couple of half-chances before the break and there’s no doubt the visiting custodian’s heart would have been in his mouth, when witnessing Bell bring down Abdulmalik inside his 18-yard-box in time added on. Referee Walchester appeared to put his whistle to his lips before deciding against awarding a penalty and waving play on, much to the frustration of home quarters.

As alert as City were at the start of the first stanza, Wood displayed the same kind of impetus at the turn of the second, as dangerman Norris – who had largely been kept quiet by the Tinners’ backline – fired a shot narrowly wide of Lavercombe’s goal.

The Tinners soon assumed control however and had their opponents on the ropes with a series of near misses. Another expert set piece delivered by Dean was taken off the head of Sam Sanders by Bush, before Bell spotted the run of Taylor whose shot was deflected behind for a corner.

Taylor, a former Morecambe teammate of White’s, dusted himself down to take the subsequent flag kick and found Oxlade-Chamberlain who sidefooted an effort inches wide of the mark. Moments later, Wood had Ashmore to thank for not going behind, as their incumbent kept out Harvey’s shot with his studs.

The experienced – and rather overworked – shotstopper was called upon again just after the hour, as great link-up play between En-Neyah and Bell resulted in the latter getting a shot away that stung the gloves of Ashmore, who diverted the ball onto the woodwork for a second time.

Lavercombe, his opposite number, made a routine stop to keep out Rush’s header before, in the next move, the striker turned neatly and arrowed into the side netting. Aware that the hosts were beginning to wrestle an ascendancy in the tie, Askey responded with a triple City change that included a Tinners bow for Shaun Donnellan, on for a stricken Sanders, while Hasani replaced En-Neyah and Johnson-Fisher took the place of Pyke.

The heat will no doubt have played a part in the dying embers of the game rather petering out, when it seemed as though City were going to leave Hertfordshire with a share of the points, only for Rush to pop up with a heartbreaking winner in what was the third of six added minutes at the end of the second-half.

Truro City: Lavercombe, Bell, Dean, Sanders (Donnellan,73), En-Neyah (Hasani, 73), Rooney, Harvey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Taylor, Pyke (Johnson-Fisher, 73), Law; Subs Not Used: Riley-Lowe, Jephcott, Starkie, Stone.

Boreham Wood: Ashmore, Coxe (King, 58), Ilesanmi, Bush, O’Connell, Sousa, Abdulmalik (Dixon, 66), Reynolds, Norris (Newton, 66), White, Rush; Subs Not Used: Benton, Henry.

Referee: Callum Walchester

Attendance: 958 (79 away)

📷Stewart Yetton Assistant Manager of Truro City during the post match interview after National League Match between Boreham Wood and Truro City at Meadow Park, London on 25 August 2025 (Photo: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK)

Stewart Yetton Post Match Reaction

Assistant boss Stewart Yetton says a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at Boreham Wood was ‘a gut punch’ for his Truro City side.

Delivering their best showing of the campaign so far, Truro fell behind against the run of play after 27 minutes when Tom White struck for the hosts.

But City were deservedly level less than eight minutes later as Will Dean glanced home Jake Taylor’s fine outswinging corner.

After the turnaround, City were once again on top as home custodian Nathan Ashmore denied both Tyler Harvey and Zac Bell, while Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain side-footed just wide from another teasing Taylor flag-kick.

However, visiting hearts would be broken in the third minute of stoppage time when Matt Rush bundled the ball home at the back post, despite there being a strong suspicion of offside.

“We are very disappointed to concede so late in a game that for large periods we were in control of,” Yetton said at full-time. “Sometimes in football you don’t get what you deserve and today feels like a gut punch.

“We have looked at the footage (of the winning goal) and it looks like their number nine is offside, which is even more gutting.

“But we are fighting, we are in games and hopefully our luck will change soon. The lads have put a great shift in backing up from Saturday and Boreham Wood have had the luxury of no game which baffles me.

“They should have played York but they didn’t and we have come here, on a very hot day, 48-hours after our last game. That said the players, just like the supporters, were magnificent.”

City will now look to dust themselves down for the visit of Boston United to TR4 this coming Saturday. Yetton, the club’s all-time leading goalscorer says that reflecting on the encouraging aspects from this latest clash, whilst also continuing to work hard in training will be the name of the game for his side this week.

“There were plenty of positives, but there are always things you can be better at,” he added. “We will get back on the training ground and try to improve on being better in the final third when we create opportunities. It is something for us to work on as you need to take your chances at this level, whilst being stingy at the other end.

“Initially, we were disappointed with the second goal we conceded and the manner of it, but you can’t defend offside goals.”