SECOND QUALIFYING ROUND Boreham Wood 1 Uxbridge 2
Tony Choules challenged his Uxbridge players to take their cup form into the league after the Reds upset Ryman Premier outfit Boreham Wood.
Dave Lawrence and Dave Warner got the goals to cap a dominant performance in Hertfordshire and earn a home tie with Conference South side Dorchester Town, in the Third Qualifying Round on November 22.
Before then, however, Uxbridge have four vital games which could give them a good indication of how their season will pan out.
The Reds follow Saturday's trip to bogey side Andover with home games against promotion challengers Didcot Town and Truro City, and they cannot afford to take their eye off the ball when they travel to struggling Taunton Town just three days before Dorchester come to town.
"The hardest game will be Andover on Saturday," commented Choules. "No disrespect to Andover but they're a run of the mill side and we should go there and beat them, but we've got an awful record there. We've got no problem getting up for Didcot and Truro but we need to win at Andover first.
"Our next four league games are very, very important because the league's the priority and we've set our sights on getting 12 points before the game with Dorchester.
"Boreham Wood are an excellent side - you're not seventh in the Ryman Premier if you're poor - and at times we've played them off the park.
"I knew we could beat Boreham Wood and I think we can beat Dorchester too."
Paul McCarthy had to be quick off his line to snuff out an early threat by Bore-ham Wood but the Uxbridge keeper had arelatively easy afternoon.
Lawrence put Uxbridge in front in only the third minute, latching on to a Mark Nicholls pass to drive home his third goal in five games and Uxbridge built from there. Lawrence and David Warner were not far away from adding a second, while Anthony Anstead fumbled a Dave Thomas cross to almost hand the visitors another goal and it was much the same after the break.
Lee Harvey very nearly volleyed a Thomas free kick into his own net after Nicholls flicked on and in the 61st minute David Warner accepted a pass from Gavin Brown and calmly slotted home a deserved second goal.
Wood showed few signs of staging a comeback although Joel Mason did halve the deficit five minutes from time.
Mark Dennison watched from the bench after Choules opted to keep faith with Ryan Wharton and Ian Dickens but he confirmed Dennison will feature at some point on Saturday after completing his three-game suspension.
There could even be another new face in the squad after Uxbridge submitted a seven-day letter for Danny Tilbury and they were hoping to speak to the AFC Hayes midfielder later this week. UXBRIDGE: McCarthy, Brown, Thomas (Carter 90), Wharton, Dickens, Reynolds, Lawrence, K Warner, D Warner (Dyer 74), Nicholls (Tunnell 76), Davies. Subs not used: Dennison, Tarr.
Goals, Wood: Mason 85. Uxbridge: Lawrence 3; D Warner 61. Attendance: 77. [25a0] The reserves lost 3-1 at home to Wealdstone in the Suburban League despite Ryan O'Toole giving them the lead.
