Of 252 clubs in the top seven tiers of English football, the last one unbeaten can be found in the pristine confines of Meadow Park, yards from the studios where the Indiana Jones adventures were filmed.

Boreham Wood are on their own crusade. And the Holy Grail is a long-coveted place in the EFL for the runaway leaders of the National League. They have 44 points from 16 games with 44 goals and are 12 points clear ahead of a trip to Yeovil on Saturday, finding success with a distinct passing style.

In a remarkable 4-3 comeback win against Hartlepool earlier this month, Luke Garrard's team made 1,022 passes, beating the Premier League record of 1,015 set by Manchester City against Swansea in April 2018.

The electric start to this campaign is, according to Garrard, fuelled by the lingering pain of defeat in the play-off final at Wembley in May when they conceded an equaliser in the seventh minute of stoppage time and lost on penalties.

'That broke me mentally for four or five days,' the Wood boss tells Daily Mail Sport. 'I reflected hugely and had a long, hard look at myself because I could not walk back for the first day of pre-season without the energy and heart for the job.

'I spoke to the owners and the staff about the first meeting I wanted to have when we came back in. It involved everyone at the club, and it was a message to tell all of them that as much as it hurt us, we needed to use the hurt as our fuel and our driving force.

'We got quite lucky getting some results on the board quite quickly and that builds momentum and belief.'

Boreham Wood are a slick operation, skilfully run despite crowds seldom breaking 1,500 by chairman Danny Hunter and his son Charlie, who is the sporting director and in charge of recruitment strategy. They are punching above their weight with a mid-table budget.

Hunter senior is a former props master in the film industry who worked at the nearby Elstree Studios among others, and whose father Mickey was a double promotion winning manager of club in the 1970s.

He took control in 1999 and has overseen investment of more than £14million and the rise from the depths of the Isthmian League to the brink of the EFL, forging effective relationships with local authorities and Premier League neighbours Arsenal, who use Meadow Park for their Women, Under-21 and Under-18 teams.

Arsenal ad boards surround an immaculate pitch, and work is underway at the venue on a £4m project to create a covered South Stand terrace incorporating improved 'Fan Zone' style facilities for away fans and a new first-team building.

Garrard's team train in the mornings on the artificial pitches beside the stadium, which are available for community use in the evenings and home in the afternoons to the club's academy.

Manchester City's Iliman Ndiaye and Hull's Sorba Thomas were both nurtured as young players at Boreham Wood. So was Abdul Abdulmalik, a 23-year-old winger signed after his release from Millwall in 2024 and sold to Djurgardens in Sweden for £1.5m in August.

The Abdulmalik fee shattered the non-League record set when Fleetwood Town sold Jamie Vardy to Leicester in 2012.

There was an untidy episode towards the end of the transfer window when Abdulmalik went public to plead for a move, but the Hunters secured an enviable price for their star and in another example of their good housekeeping have yet to reinvest the money in the team. It is still there as a war chest as they target promotion.

The windfall from Wood's famous FA Cup run in 2021-22 was invested into refitting the interiors of the ground including the dressing rooms and swish hospitality areas recognised among the best in non-League.

Meadow Park has a bar bedecked with souvenirs from those games and named in honour of Mark Ricketts, scorer of the goal to beat Bournemouth, who were at the time bound for promotion to the Premier League, and which clinched a date with Everton in the fifth round at Goodison Park.

'At no stage has the chairman given me any pressure to generate money from prize funds and cup runs,' says 41-year-old Garrard. 'It's only ever been about creating moments and memories.

'He (Hunter) is a Boreham Wood boy through and through and it's always been his greatest wish to lead the club into the EFL. He wants to leave a legacy. I adore him, I think he's a genius. We have a great working relationship. I do not take for granted the luxury of being manager here, especially after losing my job two years ago.'

Garrard has a long association with the club. First as a player, briefly in 2005 and then returning for a second spell four years later, a loan move from Wimbledon which became permanent and led him into his first coaching roles and the manager's job.

He took control in 2015 with the Wood in the top tier of non-League for the first time. Three times they reached the play-offs without promotion and there were many highs including Goodison before Garrard's tearful exit after relegation in April 2024, only for him to be back in charge by September.

During five months away, he turned down interest from one club because it took him too far from his family home and received two direct and sobering rejections from National League clubs. Feedback from the first told him he 'wasn't on the list and never would be' and from the second that he 'wasn't good enough' for them.

Perhaps it reveals some of football's inherent petty-mindedness towards Boreham Wood. They are perceived by some as upstarts with limited history and small crowds, putting the noses of 'bigger' clubs out of joint with the streamlined success of their business model and Hunter's backing, like a non-League version of Bournemouth or Brentford.

They have been known to charge scouts for tickets and charge away teams to broadcast, which some refuse to do on a point of principle. For a time, they had a reputation for pragmatic and unattractive football – but not any longer.

Garrard was probably entitled to have expected more interest in his services. Instead, he spent two days following the second of those rejections in earnest conversation with his wife about the need to look for work away from football when out of the blue came a call from Boreham Wood.

Within another two days he was back in his old job. 'The stars aligned,' as he puts it. 'It was the best team in the National South with the best players, the best facilities and the best budget. I had to go and deliver.'

And he did. With promotion back to the National League at the first attempt. Then the near-miss heartache of Wembley. Now this early-season surge thanks in part to the goals of striker Matt Rush. The Wood seem to have emerged stronger despite selling their most talented individual, which is a reassuring situation for any coach.

Unbeaten since April in the National League, they scored 25 goals in seven games in October and League One Wigan became the first team to beat them in any competition this season, in the FA Cup first round on Saturday. 

It could yet prove a blessing in Boreham Wood's quest for the Holy Grail.