Boreham Wood boss admits it will be tough to catch league leaders (From Borehamwood Times)

Boreham Wood boss Ian Allinson thinks it will be hard to catch Conference South leaders

3:50pm Friday 8th March 2013 in Sport By Simon Mail

Boreham Wood manager Ian Allinson has admitted catching the top two in the Conference South is likely to be beyond them.

Wood are currently in the final play-off place but are a distant 14 points behind leaders Welling with just 12 games remaining.

Allinson said: “I think looking at the top two, even though Salisbury have had a blip, it is going to be very hard to catch them.

“We can catch Chelmsford and Dover so that has to be our immediate target. But we can only do that by picking up points on a weekly basis.”

Allinson’s side responded to their defeat at Maidenhead by beating Tonbridge Angels 4-2 on Saturday.

Forward Loick Pires has returned on loan from Woking until the end of the season and made a real impact with a brace in the victory.

Allinson said: “Loick has been brought in from Woking to give us more strength in the forward areas and it paid off on Saturday with his two goals. I thought his partnership with Michael Thalassitis looked very powerful.

“He’s not been playing much at Woking and getting frustrated. He needs to get a couple of games under his belt but we’ve seen what type of performance he can give us.”

Tonbridge opened the scoring after ten minutes through Mikel Suarez but Greg Morgan quickly cancelled this out with a close-range finish.

Thalassitis fired the hosts in front before the break when the Stevenage loanee unleashed an unstoppable shot into the net.

Wood’s third goal came after 52 minutes when Morgan cut the ball back and Pires cleverly backheeled the ball past the keeper.

Pires quickly added his second of the game when he headed in Graeme Montgomery’s corner.

Suarez netted a late second and although Allinson was happy with the win, he felt his side missed the chance to record a more comprehensive victory.

The manager said: “It was nice to get back to winning form after our defeat last week and it was important we bounced back.

“Goal difference could play a major part at the end of the season. If you look at teams such as Dover, Chelmsford and ourselves the goal difference is pretty similar.

“Conceding late was a bit frustrating and I felt we took our foot off the pedal when we could have gone on to get five or six to make it a really special day.”

Wood face a trip to in-form Dorchester tomorrow who are only five points behind them in the table. Allinson said: “It’s going to be a difficult game but we’re under no illusions about that. It will be a tight match and they will have us as one of their targets to catch in the league.

“If we pick up three points it will make it much harder for them to catch us.”