A thoroughly professional performance from Luke Garrard’s men saw them through to the first round of the FA Cup for the third time in four seasons after beating Hendon 3-0.

Garrard made four changes to the side that won up at Macclesfield last week, making the full use of his squad. Out went Conor Clifford through injury, while Angelo Balanta, Kenny Davis and Femi Ilesanmi all dropped to the bench. In came Adriano Moke, Anthony Jeffrey and the fit-again duo of Mark Ricketts and Joe Devera.

The Wood started the game brightly and looked content on keeping the ball. Their first chance came when Morgan Ferrier with his back to goal 25 yards out, picked the ball up and turned his man, only to get brought down in the process. Bruno Andrade’s initial free-kick hit the wall with the rebound falling kindly for the Wood winger, who volleyed just over Berkley Laurencin’s bar.

But it was Ferrier who gave the Wood the lead early on when he came deep to pick the ball up, went past his man and unleashed a rocket which flew past Laurencin and into the back of the net.

Hendon had a good chance through Niko Muir. His shot was well blocked by Danny Woodards after Omar Vassell got to the by-line and pulled the ball back for the forward.

Ferrier was involved in all of the Wood’s chances in the first half, next playing into the feet of Daniel Uchechi and the Nigerian returned the ball into the path of his teammate, who continued his run and put his effort over the bar.

Hendon then broke quickly through Karl Oliyide, Dale Binns crossed on the overlap and Casey Maclaren put his effort over the bar.

But the Wood’s lead was nearly doubled when Uchechi played a cute ball through to Woodards, who first time played into Ferrier and he held off his man to swivel and fire against the crossbar.

It could have been all square at half-time but for a fantastic save from Grant Smith. After having next to nothing to do in the opening period, the Wood stopper was called into action and got a strong hand to a shot after a scramble in the Wood box.

Quick thinking by Uchechi after the restart following a foul on Anthony Jeffrey put Balanta through on goal. He twisted and turned before firing wide.

But the Wood’s advantage was doubled midway through the second half. Balanta took a superb touch to feed Jeffrey down the left. He cut back on his right foot and a ball into the box which split the Hendon defence allowed Andrade to head past the stranded Laurencin.

Maclaren could have pulled one back for Hendon following a ball into the box from Andre Da Costa. The Hendon midfielder got the better of Matt Paine but couldn’t direct his header on target.

It fell to Balanta to seal the win for the Wood from a classic counter-attack. Ricketts played the ball out to Balanta, who, with the outside of his boot, laid the ball into the path of Andrade and the winger crossed deep for his teammate to fire past Laurencin.

Boreham Wood: Smith, Nunn, Woodards, Ricketts, Paine, Moke, Andrade, Ferrier, Jeffrey, Uchechi, Devera. Subs: Shakes, Davis, Goodliffe, Lucas, Ilesanmi, Balanta, Kuhl.