Early stages saw neither side get a hold of the ball but the first chances of the game fell Boreham Wood’s way, as Tom Whelan blazed over from just outside the box and Junior Dixon curled a left-footed effort just wide of the far post.

It was the hosts who were in control and following Kwesi Appiah’s low drilled strike, Harrison Foulkes was called into action with ten minutes on the clock to tip Erico Sousa’s long-range effort around the post.

Plenty of pressure was coming our way and the biggest chance of the half fell just before the twenty-minute mark as Junior Dixon cut the ball back for Jon Benton to fire first time, but his effort whistled just past the left-hand side post.

After Jimmy Muitt registered our first shot on goal after he met Niall McManus’ cross from the left and half-volleyed over, he had another chance with twenty-five minutes played as his header was gathered well by Nathan Ashmore just outside the six-yard box.

Spectacular defending from Jack Young prevented Jayden Richardson’s cut-back getting a Wood player on the end of it with just under half an hour gone but the latter stages of the first period saw very little action for either side.

With just three minutes to play, however, Foulkes kept the scores level after a fantastic reflex save met Kwesi Appiah’s half-volley to the top left corner after Tom Whelan lofted the ball over the Wanderers’ defence.

HALF-TIME: BOREHAM WOOD 0-0 DORKING WANDERERS

The rain then began to hammer it down on Meadow Park but that didn’t stop the noise from the away end with the several hundred Wanderers in fine voice over in the far corner.

It was that noise which spurred us on to get the opening goal just two minutes into the second half, as Jason Prior netted his 100th goal for Dorking Wanderers. After Alfie Rutherford broke into the box, his attempted cut-back was cleared as far as Prior who brought the ball down and hit a fantastic half-volley which nestled into the right-hand side of the goal.

There wasn’t much action following the goal apart from a few half-chances from the hosts in an effort to get back into the game, but Tom Whelan came closest as he tried to clip a lofted ball into the far corner which ended up in the North Bank.

With just under twenty minutes to go, Wood were coming closer and closer, and substitute Abdul Abdulmalik came closest after he found himself space on the edge of the box, cut inside and forced Foulkes into a smart parry away down to his left.

Marc White then turned to the bench for our first change of the afternoon as Charlie Carter made way for Morgan Williams and he got right into the action as he was involved in a passing move which helped Muitt to force Nathan Ashmore into a save.

A further change was made with two minutes to play, with Dan Gallagher entering into proceedings for Alfie Rutherford, but just before they came on Charles Claydon had a big chance to level the scoreline for the hosts but he dragged his effort well wide of the far post.

Six minutes of added time were held up on the fourth official’s board, and it got worse for the hosts as they went down to ten men after Tom Whelan was shown a straight red for a professional last-man challenge on Morgan Williams after he broke away down the right.

Following Whelan’s dismissal, Luke Moore & Matt Briggs helped to see out the game as Jack Young & Jimmy Muitt put in fantastic shifts, but the action wasn’t done yet as Harrison Foulkes made yet another fantastic save to put the seal on a fantastic goalkeeping display.

In the end, however, Dorking survived and we held on to return home to Surrey with a superbly well-fought three points with fantastic shifts from everyone on the pitch.

FULL TIME: BOREHAM WOOD 0-1 DORKING WANDERERS

Match report by Henry Bennett