Everton edge past Boreham Wood

The FA Cup is an extremely special competition – not as much as the cliché and English superiority would have you believe, but it remains a deeply loved tournament and will always come with the tag-line: ‘the magic of the cup’.

The ‘magic of the cup’ is lost its meaning and become either a corporate commercial slogan or a subject of radio debate to know and understand whether it has ‘been lost’.

Every. Year.

And yet… something special just about remains and shines through in a footballing world of bleak views, corruption, racism, sexism, homophobia, classism… something special remains to bind together people on a harmless tradition – the underdog.

Boreham Wood are that underdog this time around. The North London club visit Goodison Park this evening as they take on Frank Lampard’s Everton for a chance in the quarter-finals of the 2021/22 FA Cup.#

THE MATCH

The first-half was dominated throughout by The Toffees with Frank Lampard’s side launching a lot of sustained attacks without much in the way of clear-cut chances.

The territorial control and dominance led Everton to some good chances inside the Boreham Wood box but they were minimised in threat by some solid and narrow Wood defending. Abdoulaye Doucoure had an effort blasted into the side-netting as Everton’s closest opportunity.

Salomon Rondon had a good opportunity mid-way through the first-half as he blasted over the bar but he was eventually ruled to be offside. 

Everton’s sustained pressure nearly paid when from the second phase of a corner, Anthony Gordon got down the right-hand side of the box and cut-back to former Carlisle defender Jarrad Branthwaite, but the centre-half, who had stayed up from the corner, struck wide. 

The second-half began with Everton, once again, on top. A ball flashed across goal but the struggling Rondon failed to get on the end of it. 

Nathan Patterson got in down the right-hand side for Everton and he fired a cross into the box for Salomon Rondon, once again, to have a golden opportunity to score. The Venezuelan, though, couldn’t cushion or aim a blasted headed effort over the bar.

Boreham Wood had their first chance of the match when Tyrone Marsh intercepted a poor Jarrad Branthwaite pass out from the back and then the Boreham Wood forward fired high and wide, albeit with some control, from around 25 yards out, right of goal.

Everton eventually took the lead and Salomon Rondon, eventually, took one of his chances. Patterson slide the ball into the box along the floor and Rondon held off his marker to aim a well-placed finish at the near post. Relatively harsh questions could be asked of Taye Ashby-Hammond. 

Everton thought they had doubled their lead when Anthony Gordon cut inside and fired in a hard shot that was blocked by a Boreham Wood defender but only fell to Richarlison which hit him and went into the net but it was adjudged to have hit his arm as it went in. 

The Toffees then did officially double their lead when a corner found Rondon at the back post and despite a superb save from his header Ashby-Hammond, the ball had crossed the line. 

THE SUMMARY 

Kick-off
Half-time (0-0)
GOAL: Rondon ’57 (1-0)
GOAL: Rondon ’84 (2-0)
Full-time (2-0)