Barrow AFC 1 Boreham Wood 2

After seeing Barrow AFC perform so well against some of the leading teams in the National League in recent weeks, it was really frustrating to witness them slip on the banana skin that was Boreham Wood.

In the end, a slow start is what ultimately cost the Bluebirds, as they went down at Holker Street to a team that had only won one of its previous 14 league games.

They’ll rightly feel they should have got something out of the game, after they dominated possession in the second half and had enough good opportunities to draw level.

Up until the Wood decided to drop back to the edge of their own penalty area, AFC got in behind their wing-backs on numerous occasions, only for the delivery to repeatedly let them down.

Ultimately, it is results like this that have prevented them from making a push for the play-offs.

As perceived underdogs, they thrive, but when they’re expected to win, as they were last Saturday, they sometimes struggle to muster the same levels of quality and determination.

While they got away with a sluggish performance at home to Aldershot three weeks ago, this time they were punished by a Boreham Wood side that needed a result.

They opened the scoring in the 19th minute through a man the Bluebirds will be happy to see the back of this season.

Kieran Murtagh was the player whose scorcher denied them a deserved win at Meadow Park last September and he added another to his scrapbook with a stunning free kick into the top corner that gave Joel Dixon no chance.

Barring an early chance for Rhys Norrington-Davies, AFC hadn’t been at the races, with manager Ian Evatt saying: “We’ve just got to learn and realise that we can’t just show up and play lovely, nice, pretty football, you’ve got to do the dirty work first to earn the right to do that.”

That is exactly what they had done in their last three games, against Wrexham, Eastleigh and Harrogate, when they snapped into every challenge like it was their last before letting their quality show.

Unfortunately, one desperate attempt at a tackle from Steve Jennings led to AFC conceding a penalty for the first time since the defeat at Salford City last August.

The man bundled over, Justin Shaibu, confidently converted and at that point, you couldn’t argue that the Wood didn’t deserve their 2-0 lead.

It shouldn’t have taken them falling into that hole, but that’s what finally woke Barrow up and they were back in business within two minutes when Jack Hindle picked out the bottom corner to perfection.

It was Hindle’s 11th goal of a productive first season with the Bluebirds and he was one of the bright spots of the afternoon, along with the effervescent Norrington-Davies, who yet again was the sponsors’ man of the match. However, Hindle won’t need telling that he should have equalised two minutes into the second half when he couldn’t control his header from Josh Kay’s cross despite having plenty of the goal to aim at.

After that, breaking through the Wood’s massed ranks proved to be a struggle and time eventually ran down on a seventh home loss of the season.