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Friday night’s game was a typical first match pre-season affair, where the Bees were obviously, and understandably, not in full flow – Dean Smith making nine changes at half time. Boreham Wood are fit, strong and play on the deck – they should do well this season – and were a good test at this stage for Brentford.

The highlight for Brentford in the first half was Tom Field, he looked strong and alert and made a couple of decent runs, with one leading to a Clayton chance. Sadly, Hoffman was off the pace and offered little for the most part – the Hoff and Alves didn’t link up too well either. Egan took time to settle but improved by the end of the half.

Our chances were mostly tame efforts with the best, Holldack’s header, forcing a good save from the Boreham Wood keeper, and a long-range attempt from Field that was fumbled away. Bradley Clayton provided a lot of energy and creativity but sadly this went unrewarded with a couple of missed chances.

Boreham Wood went ahead with a goal scored from range, a great, curling effort that Bonham could not reach.

In the second half Brentford were dominant and played much better football, with a 3-5-1-1 formation that saw Clarke and Gogia on the wings with McCormack deep, Holldack and Westbrook in the middle, with McLeod behind Hogan.

Clarke on the right was our best performer, and he constantly caused trouble and looked very sharp. Holldack was also looking good. We had a large number of chances, ranging from McCormack skying the ball at range, then Hogan from nearer to the goal, then Gogia came close with a free kick.

Boreham Wood then scored from a penalty given away by Bonham, who was forced into a foul by a poor ball back from Gogia. Bonham saved the pen but the tap in that followed was straight-forward. Despite this the back three looked good, with Mepham showing off his skill and Bjelland appearing confident.

Brentford continued to dominate, but Boreham Wood left little space at the back for us to operate in. A Brentford goal eventually came from a Dean cross that was neatly headed in by McLeod. We didn’t have enough time to equalise really.

A silence fell across the ground when Hogan pulled up with a back injury late on, he kept going for a few minutes after but was subbed eventually, it did not look too serious thankfully.

Overall I’m sure that the coaching staff will be able to take something from individual performances in the match, but as a team, it’s too early to make any real judgements.

Caleb