Boreham Wood’s incredible FA Cup run may technically have come to an end on a miserable, sodden night on Merseyside but it is set to take them to sunnier climes yet.
A celebratory trip to Dubai is in the pipeline for what manager Luke Garrard insisted on Thursday night on calling a “winter break”, the 36-year-old at least admitting that a bit of sun and relaxation might be in order after their Herculean effort in frustrating Everton for almost an hour.
Salomon Rondon’s opener eventually broke the National League outfit’s resistance and set the Premier League side on their way to a 2-0 win and a place in the quarter-finals.
“It shows you the measure of the chairman that he thinks the boys need to be rewarded,” said Garrard. “That’ll buy us some respite, we’ll go out there, do a couple of sessions and be prepared for what will be a tough back end of the season.”
The trip is the least this group of players deserve, their run having made history, not to mention almost £240,000 for the club coffers in prize money alone.
In the modern era, only nine teams had reached this stage of the competition while playing outside the Football League and to do so as a club that has never even set foot in it only amplifies the achievement.
The standing ovations afforded to lifelong Everton fan Kane Smith and fourth-round hero Mark Ricketts by both sets of supporters at Goodison Park as they limped off having played through the pain barrier spoke of the way the Hertfordshire club’s run have captured the football public’s imagination.
“What this group of players have achieved, the club, the town, the community, has been fantastic,” Garrard added. “The feeling is just one of real pride.”
He also spoke afterwards of his regret at not having given the travelling fans “a moment” in the shape of a famous goal but the 1,800 strong “Wood Army” did not seem to mind.
They did themselves proud, as did Garrard’s players. It was their commitment to a tactically disciplined approach that might have cost them that special moment, but it stifled Everton and so concerned was Frank Lampard that he had to send on £50million Brazilian Richarlison at the break to swing the tie.
Beyond the football, they showed dignity and conscience in joining Everton’s latest powerful show of support for Ukraine, carrying the country’s flag and presenting Toffees captain-for-the-night Vitaliy Mykolenko with his own commemorative Wood shirt, and acted swiftly in alerting medics to a potential emergency in the crowd, which thankfully did not turn out to be serious.
Nights like these will only whet the whistle for Wood, who are fourth in the National League, and they need only look at what Sutton and Lincoln have achieved since reaching the same stage while still in non-league five years ago.
For Garrard, an impressive young manager who carried a burgeoning reputation even prior to this season, this run may ignite his career as a Football League manager with or without Boreham Wood, in much the same way that Lincoln’s put the Cowley brothers in the shop window.
The biggest learning curve I’ve had this evening is listening to Frank Lampard.
Even in the emotional moments after full-time, it was clear he has bigger ambitions for himself and the club.
“The biggest learning curve I’ve had this evening is listening to Frank Lampard,” he added. “The way his side play, the way he gives his players a freedom, the information he passes on to them, is amazing. Now for us, we’ve got to build on what we’ve done this evening.”
The end of one road this may be but — after some Dubai sun — it could prove a big step on another.
