Boreham Wood manager Luke Garrard is pleased with the competition for places in his squad as the new National League season draws closer.

Forest Green Rovers will be the visitors to Meadow Park on Saturday, August 6 and Garrard has just one more match to try to decide his starting XI for that fixture.

Wood completed their home pre-season schedule with a goalless draw at home to League Two outfit Stevenage on Tuesday night, more than matching their Football League visitors throughout.

The workout gave the Wood manager food for thought with the 2016/17 season little over a week away.

“I asked them the question at the start: Who wants a starting place on August 6?” said Garrard. “I felt Kenny Davis came to the table today and Conor Clifford came on with 30 minutes to go and played a massive part.”

Particularly pleasing for Garrard, who also manages the club's Academy, was the involvement of three of the club’s young players. The former defender he hopes to use the club’s young players to supplement his first-team squad.

“The three youngsters were the big pluses,” said Garrard. “Ben Goodliffe came on and marshalled the back four, Josh Coldicott-Stevens sat in front of the back four and Alex Morgan was phenomenal and looked a threat.

“We are carrying a smaller squad so there are opportunities for the Academy boys to get a squad number and travel around the country with us.”

Wood have built on last season’s impressive defensive record – recording 16 clean sheets despite narrowly avoiding the drop – and Garrard is desperate to replicate that again this term.

“I thought it was a very good performance again,” he said. “It was another clean sheet – our second on the bounce at home. We looked a threat going forward and we were organised at the back – especially David Stephens and Matt Paine.

“They've forged a lovely little relationship. David Stephens looks fit and strong. I believe the experience and understanding of Matt Paine means they complement each other well.

“They had a lot of dead balls coming into our box and I felt we dealt with them very well. Clean sheets are massive.”

Boreham Wood travel to Hemel Hempstead Town on Saturday in their final pre-season friendly. Kick-off is at 3pm.