Match Report by Corey Campbell, Photography by Josh Harris

It was a day to remember for Weston-super-Mare and Ollie Chamberlain, whose first-half strike secured all three points for the Seagulls this afternoon at Meadow Park.

Scott Bartlett made 2 changes to his team from their 1-1 draw at the Optima Stadium against Hemel Hempstead. Sam Avery and Oli Jenkins made way with Pedro Borges and Josh Seberry coming in to replace them.

It took six minutes for the first chance of the game which fell to Boreham Wood, who won a free-kick on the edge of the box, but they couldn’t make the most of it and smashed the ball straight into Dodd to which Weston cleared the danger.

Again it was Boreham Wood who looked to be on the front foot, right back Jayden Richardson was released down the right in behind the defence, but a poor second touch let him down as the ball trailed into the hands of Max Harris.

The Seagulls had their first real sight of attack up until the 17th minute, Sam Pearson plucked the ball out of the air brilliantly and danced past several Boreham defenders, but just failed to keep his composure at the final hurdle and put his shot wide of the target.

It took until the 32nd minute for Weston to break the deadlock. James Dodd released Luke Coulson down the left, who cut it back to the edge of the box to Chamberlain who produced what seemed like a fairly comfortable effort for the Boreham keeper, and it ended up rolling through his legs and into the back of the net to put the Seagulls 1-0 up.

With Ollie Bray temporarily leaving the pitch due to a head clash with the Boreham defender, Boreham Wood very nearly made their man advantage count when a ball whipped into the box was headed wide by the attacker in the 41st minute.

With Bray returning to action, the Weston striker found himself with the ball about 30 yards out and produced a quite sensational dipping strike that cannoned against the crossbar and bounced out to the relief of the Boreham players.

HALF-TIME: Boreham Wood 0-1 Weston-super-Mare

The second half started as expected, with Boreham Wood looking to attack as Weston were set up superbly to defend their 1-0 lead as captain Emelyn Lewis put in a brilliant block to stop the shot from heading into the Seagull’s net.

Again more heroics from Weston, with James Dodd producing an unbelievable block to stop what would’ve been a certain goal from the Boreham Wood corner, but Weston still stood firm defending their lead.

Weston looked to create a chance of their own. Some brilliant team play from Reid, Borges and Pearson combiningg well to try and fashion out an opportunity, which eventually fizzled out.

Once again Weston putt their bodies on the line, this time (and not for the first time) in the form of Josh Seberry who looked like he would never get near the ball, managed to put in a brilliant sliding challenge to stop the Boreham attack to still keep hold of Weston’s 1-0 lead.

Come the final few minutes and Weston had all the answers to Boreham Wood’s questions, but the team from Meadow Park had a rare moment of space with a driving running from the number 7 Tom Whelan, he fashioned himself to the edge of the box but blasted his shot over the bar.

In the dying seconds of the game, the Seagulls very nearly secured all 3 points with a second, as Dylan Kadji looked to be set though on goal but just unfortunately got the ball trapped under him allowing the defender to put him off and his shot in the end comfortably ended up in the hands of the Boreham keeper.

A quite brilliant all round performance from the Seagulls which had everything: determination, passion, teamwork and execution just to name a few. Weston defended brilliantly from minute one all the way to minute 90, some may argue that the goal was a stroke of luck, but it was the least that the team from Somerset deserved and were full credit for their victory.

FULL-TIME: Boreham Wood 0-1 Weston-super-Mare (Chamberlain 32)

Weston XI: Harris, Thomas, Kadji, Dodd (Pope 84), Pearson (Jenkins 86), Coulson, Seberry, E. Lewis (C), Borges, Chamberlain, Bray (Reid 62)

Unused Subs: Avery, M. Lewis

MOTM: Josh Seberry. In what was a very difficult decision to decide on a MOTM, with arguably every player deserving of the reward it was Josh who stood out even more than the rest with some incredible tackles, blocks and just in general a fantastic defensive performance.