Wood's cup of woe runneth over following their young side's impotent display, which allowed second division Pennant the opportunity to inflict a humbling defeat on Tuesday evening.

Winners in 1997, semi-finalists in 1998, and extra time runners-up in 1999, this was sad Wood's third successive League Cup reverse at the first hurdle since those heady days, all of them ironically at home, and one struggles to see where manager Tommy Sampson can go from here.

"It's been a bad three days", admitted the unfailingly cheery Wood boss afterwards, but admitted: "We were poor tonight, especially in the second half, when we lost our way.

“I was very disappointed with the attitude of some of our players, and maybe the fact that Pennant are two divisions below us contributed to that.

“The frustrating thing is we should have won this match by ten to eight, as we had four clear chances inside 20 minutes!"

All those openings fell to 19-year-old striker Chima Eberendu, who unfortunately endured one of those evenings when the words elephant and banjo would invariably crop up in any description of his attacking prowess. Even the average barn door would have been safe.

Sampson refused to criticise too much though, explaining: "Chima should have had four, but he's young and inexperienced, and doesn't know how to finish yet."

With Gary Dixon sidelined with a foot injury, Brian Jones was pushed forward to partner Eberendu, and the two combined in the ninth minute with the latter scooping the former's low cross yards wide.

Pennant keeper Russell Ling, who counts Wood and Potters Bar among his former clubs, did well moments later to deny Eberendu as he burst through onto Dean Parratt's through ball, and performed miracles in the 24th minute to deny the big striker once more after Micky Engwell's free kick had been spilled.

Despite their constant attempts to pass the ball constructively, Wood were to rue those misses as the East Londoners went ahead in the 35th minute, when the unmarked Billy Cove collected a pass on the edge of the home box and slammed a low shot past Scott Ward.

The match rapidly became scrappy and bad tempered after half time, and the ineffective referee Mr Toyer appeared to miss some fairly fruity exchanges between the players.

The returning Steve Sinclair was denied by a fine Ling block on the far post as he arrived late onto a deep cross from the hosts' debuting midfielder Adrian Webster, who displayed an assurance that his new club are unlikely to hold onto for long, sadly.

But Wood were level in the 64th minute as Parratt crowned an excellent five man move by sidefooting Eberendu's low cross into the net.

They were on terms for only eight minutes however, before Pennant's Carlo Brown notched a goal worthy of a greater audience than Meadow Park's shivering faithful.

Picking up Parratt's loose midfield pass, he ran at the retreating home defenders before unleashing a 25-yard piledriver that gave Ward no chance.

Sampson confessed: "We are lacking a bit of quality at the moment. There are three or four experienced players out there, but the rest are young and untried, and are having to learn as they go. Roger [Goodhind, Sampson's assistant] turned to me at the end and said: It's going to be a long winter!', and to be honest I can't disagree with him."

WOOD: Ward, McDonald, Engwell, Webster, Harvey, Jones, Parratt, (Monago, 81minutes), Mason, Eberendu, Sinclair, Kodra, (Fernandes, 73minutes). Sub (not used): Mehmet.

Boreham Wood 1

Leyton Pennant 2

Ryman League Cup First Round