Forest Green boss Robbie Savage was magnanimous in defeat and pointed to a bad day at the office as his side fell to their first loss of the season at home to an eye-catching Boreham Wood.
The damage was done in the first half as Boreham Wood struck through Zak Brunt and the eye-catching Lewis Richardson.
Matt Rush added a third after the break before Rovers’ miserable afternoon was compounded when Tre Pemberton was sent off with three minutes remaining.
“The better team won,” admitted Savage. “They’ve been together for two or three years now and just missed out on being in the league and they’ve continued that form and I thought they were brilliant.”
“I pick the players, so inevitably I pick the team to try and beat Boreham Wood, so it’s always on the manager. And I’ll take responsibility. I picked that team, which I believe me and my management team to go and beat Boreham Wood.
“They’ve been together for a while with a very good manager. So again, they fully deserve the win and we’ve got to aspire to be like them. We’ve lost against a team who are arguably favourites to win the league and it could have been more.”
Despite the defeat, Savage felt the home fans backed his team from start-to-finish, he added: “I thought the fans stuck with the team. Credit them, they didn’t have to, but they did. But it’s not a tough one to take because the better team deservedly won.
“If you think we beat them once last year here, we drew at their place and then narrowly lost in the play-offs, but today they were far the better side. It’s a bad day at the office. And I’m responsible for that because I picked the team.”
Savage pulled no punches on Pemberton’s late red card, saying: “It was a terrible challenge, not acceptable. I said to my players, if you’ve got an opportunity to win the ball, go and do it. Go and be brave, go and be positive. But that challenge, I’ve seen, was a poor challenge and it was a deserved red, no question about it.”
Savage is now expected to dip his toe into the transfer market as he looks to bolster his defence following the season-ending loss of Emeka Obi, who suffered an ACL injury during the opening-day victory over FC Halifax Town.
“We’ve been looking for a left-back in the centre-half, since Emeka got injured. We’ve been looking for a left-back all season, but the right one hasn’t become available yet. but I think it’s quite clear that we need defensive cover.”
Rovers were caught cold in the second minute – Richardson got ahead of Neil Kengni to slide Brunt in, who lifted the ball sweetly over Ethan Ross. Richardson was pulling the strings – this time playing in Matt Rush, who skewed wide with just the exposed Ross to beat.
Boreham Wood made it two on 19 minutes – the impressive Richardson getting in between Kengni and Ross after scampering onto Charlie O’Connell’s long ball.
It took Rovers 30 minutes to flicker into life – captain Kyle McAllister stinging the post from the edge of the box.
Savage shuffled his pack at the break. Ushering in D’Mani Mellor and Nick Haughton and hooking Oli Ewing and Kengni.
However, the changes failed to give Rovers a spark and they fell three behind on 55 minutes. A sublime move involving Fulham loanee Farhann Ali Wahid and Brunt saw Rush apply the finishing gloss.
Rovers’ bad day was compounded on 87 minutes with Pemberton red carded for scything down Rush.
Rovers were caught cold in the second minute – Richardson got ahead of Neil Kengni to slide Brunt in, who lifted the ball sweetly over Ethan Ross. Richardson was pulling the strings – this time playing in Matt Rush, who skewed wide with just the exposed Ross to beat.
Boreham Wood made it two on 19 minutes – the impressive Richardson getting in between Kengni and Ross after scampering onto Charlie O’Connell’s long ball.
It took Rovers 30 minutes to flicker into life – captain Kyle McAllister stinging the post from the edge of the box.
Savage shuffled his pack at the break. Ushering in D’Mani Mellor and Nick Haughton and hooking Oliver Ewing and Kengni.
However, the changes failed to give Rovers a spark and they fell three behind on 55 minutes. A sublime move involving Fulham loanee Farhann Ali Wahid and Brunt saw Rush apply the finishing gloss.
Rovers’ bad day was compounded on 87 minutes with Pemberton red carded for scything down Rush.
Meanwhile Wood boss Luke Garrard insists Abdul Abdulmalik is still his player after Boreham Wood’s crown jewel was missing from their swashbuckling win at Forest Green.
Abdulmalik is attracting serious interest from Swedish top-flight side Djurgården, who have reportedly seen a £1.5m bid rejected, with his absence from the squad only fuelling speculation that a big-money departure could be imminent.
But Garrard insists the highly-rated forward remains a Boreham Wood player as his side swept aside an out-of-sorts Rovers to maintain their unbeaten start to the new campaign.
“He’s our player and wasn’t in the squad today,” said Garrard. “Obviously We’ve got Danny Cashman and Tarryn Allarakhia to come off the bench and we’ve got Lewis Richardson and Farhaan Ali Wahid to start and I think Richardson had an unbelievable game on the right-hand side, so we’ve got a squad available to us to select the best personnel to win a game of football.”
Forest Green Rovers: (4-2-3-1) Ross 6; Pemberton 5, Kengni 5 (Mellor 46, 6), Campbell 6, Mabete 6; Clarke 7 (Ajayi 90), Ewing 6 (Haughton 46, 6); Patrick 5 (Osude 60, 6), Etaluku 6, McAllister 7; Rees 5 (Kelly 60,6 )
Subs not used: McNicholas, Berry.
Boreham Wood: (4-2-3-1) Gunter 6; Bainbridge 7, Bush 8, O’Connell 7, Golden 7; Booty 7, White 7; Richardson 8 (Allarakhia 60, 6 ) , Brunt 9 (Marshall-Miranda 84), Ali Wahid 6 (Cashman 60, 7 ); Rush 8 (Clarke 89).
Subs not used: Kensdale, Stapleberg
Full-time: Forest Green 0 Boreham Wood 3 (Brunt 2, Richardson 19, Rush 55)
Half time: Forest Green 0 Boreham Wood 2
Referee: Sunny Singh Gill
Star man: (Zak Brunt- Boreham Wood, attacking midfielder).
Attendance: 1,628
Rating: 4 /5
Match statistics
FGR/ BOREHAM WOOD
Shots on target: 1 / 6
Shots off target: 1 / 1
Corners: 2 / 4
Offside: 0 / 1
Fouls: 13 / 8
Yellow: 2/1
Red: 1/0
