Grays Athletic roller coaster season rumbles on when Mark Stimson’s side meet Exeter City in the semi-finals of The FA Trophy on Saturday. The team has shown an admirable, stubborn, resolution in the competition this season, and every time questions have been asked there have been emphatic answers.
No more so than in the quarter final against improving Dagenham and Redbridge when they clinched a compelling 4-2 victory at the Glyn Hopkin Stadium after being held 1-1 in the home tie.
So far they have despatched Aldershot Town, Kidderminster Harriers, Hereford United and Dagenham and Redbridge with the honest, fluent football that is the club’s trademark.
“The Trophy is very important to us. None of us who were involved will ever forget winning it last year,“ said Stimson. “I’ve been pleased with our recent form. We’re back to producing the standard of football we put together in the first half of the season.”
Boreham Wood’s joy-ride has taken them to the brink of a dream final – and they’re unlikely to freeze now against Conference National Woking.
They have eliminated two Conference National teams – Gravesend and Northfleet and Crawley Town and in the last round disposed of Conference North Worksop Town 1-0 away from home.
Worksop produced a sensational result of their own when they beat Conference National table-toppers Accrington Stanley in a fifth round replay.
Club Chairman Danny Hunter’s plan for pre-match razzmatazz is to launch 1,000 black and white balloons into the stadium before kick-off.
Woking have made progress almost unnoticed in the competition this season, but their focus may be sharper than it was in last season’s quarter final against Burton Albion.
The last time the teams met at Meadow Park, Wood came away with a 5-0 victory.
“You can’t read too much into that,” said Hunter. “It was a pre-season friendly three or four years back.”