BOREHAM WOOD manager Luke Garrard felt that the crowd at the LNER Community Stadium played its part in helping York City to secure a crucial point against his side in their Vanarama National League clash last night.

A crowd of 3390 watched the Minstermen battle for a hard-fought point against play-off chasers Wood, stopping the rot of six consecutive league defeats in 2023.

The encounter was the fourth time that the sides have met in their history, with each ending in a 1-1 scoreline.

York are currently just one point above the dreaded relegation zone, sitting 18th in the Vanarama National League table, following a barren run of results including a 3-1 defeat at Wealdstone on Saturday.

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City’s poor form, coupled with the dealings of highly unpopular chairman and majority shareholder Glen Henderson, has left supporters with a bitter taste in their mouths of late, and they have not been afraid to let their feelings become clear.

Tensions are such that Henderson will not attend matches for the time being, a decision that came as welcome news to fans amid the club’s ownership crisis.

Expecting the ‘toxic’ atmosphere at the LNER Community Stadium to benefit his players, Garrard was instead met with a York team who gave supporters “something to scream about”.

“I watched York, the same as I do anyone, and the commentator in the games that I watched used the word ‘toxic’,” he told Boreham Wood’s media team.

“I’m not saying that out of turn to York, but they got a good crowd here, and I’ve got to say, the York team give them something to scream about.

“When they got the goal, it erupted.

“I said to the group beforehand that we need to start fast, we need to come out of the blocks, because we need to turn their crowd into our crowd.

“Like anyone, you start to get frustrated and they’ll get a little bit edgy and that can go against York, and that wasn’t the case.”

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Whilst disappointed with the result, which saw his team end the night in ninth, four points adrift of the final play-off place, Garrard did not disagree with City’s interim manager Michael Morton in admitting that a draw was a fair result.

“I said to the group at half time, ‘who’s been in a relegation battle?’ Not many.

“I’ve been in one as a manager in my first year and I know exactly what it takes and what you expect from a team, and I have to say that I thought they delivered that for York and their manager this evening.

“Did we deserve a point? Probably. But I don’t think that we deserved to win it.”