Boreham Wood and St Albans City renew their rivalry on Monday evening with a showdown in the FA Cup second round.
National League South side St Albans will make the nine-mile trip to Meadow Park to face opponents who sit in second position in the division above them.
Match preview
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For a team of the size of Boreham Wood, consolidation in the National League has generally been regarded as a satisfactory achievement, but there is a different level of expectation for this campaign.
An outstanding start in the fifth tier has left the club in contention for promotion to the EFL, while Monday's tie gives the club every chance of reaching the third round of the FA Cup for the second season in succession.
The league remains the priority and Luke Garrard's team are currently on a five-match unbeaten streak, a 1-1 draw being earned at home to rivals Notts County last time out on November 23.
As it stands, it remains unclear whether Boreham Wood will react positively to the two-week break, but they will be eager to maintain their current run in this competition.
Victories and clean sheets have been recorded over Barnet and Eastleigh respectively, Scott Boden netting two strikes in the last round and he has now contributed two doubles in his last four outings.
As far as St Albans are concerned, they have already played seven games to get to this stage, a run which has included three replays.
Having edged out Concord Rangers, Metropolitan Police and Corinthian-Casuals, they faced a huge step up in class against League Two high-flyers Forest Green Rovers in the first round.
However, in front of the television cameras, Ian Allison's men produced one of the club's most famous performances, coming from behind to record a 3-2 victory.
St Albans came back down to earth with successive defeats after that occasion, but they have recently got back on track with a thumping win over Oxford City in the FA Trophy.
After the draw at Tonbridge Angels on Tuesday, St Albans sit in eighth position in the National League South.
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Team News
Boreham Wood have recently announced the signings of goalkeeper Joshua Roach and forward Nile Ranger, both of whom should be available for Monday's match.
However, barring any injury issues, the pair will start the game among the replacements with Garrard potentially sticking with the team from the Notts County fixture.
St Albans were fortunate to hold on for a goalless draw at Tonbridge Angels, something which may influence Allison's team selection.
Nevertheless, a number of players are injury doubts with Callum Adebiyi, Romeo Akinola and Mitchell Weiss all picking up knocks during that game.
Allison has also acknowledged that John Goddard and Michael Johnson are not certain to come back into contention.
Boreham Wood possible starting lineup:
Ashby-Hammond; Stephens, Evans, Fyfield; Smith, Ricketts, Raymond, Mafuta, Mendy; Marsh, Boden
St Albans City possible starting lineup:
Boyce-Clarke; Diedhiou, Adebiyi, Mukena, Wiltshire, Akinola, Lankshear, Dawson, Jeffers, Banton, Weiss
We say: Boreham Wood 3-1 St Albans City
With local pride on the line, we expect St Albans to push their higher-profile hosts for much of this contest. Nevertheless, the home side's extra attacking quality cannot be ignored, leading us to predict a late burst of goals for Boreham Wood.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a St Albans City win with a probability of 36.75%. A win for Boreham Wood had a probability of 36.6% and a draw had a probability of 26.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a St Albans City win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.92%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.11%) and 0-2 (6.35%). The likeliest Boreham Wood win was 1-0 (9.9%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.67%). The actual scoreline of 4-0 was predicted with a 0.9% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted that Boreham Wood would win this match.
