Alan Worth
8:28am, Sat 25th Jul 2009
Woking 4 Woking & Maybury 2
Friday 24 July 2009
Scorers:
Woking - Aldridge (19 min); Gurung (43, 69 min); Topham (85 min)
Woking & Maybury – Perri (10 min); Machay (72 min)
Attendance (not announced)
Graham Baker had promised to play a “young Academy side� in this pre-season friendly and that’s what happened. Only Pegler and Ferdinando have made very brief appearances so far in the 1st team pre-season campaign. It’s unlikely that many, if any, of those on show tonight will make the step up this season but the group look to have a number of players who have promise and almost certainly will feature in the reserves this year. Free entry to the game realised a crowd of several hundred, made up largely of enthusiastic and vociferous Woking & Maybury supporters. They appeared to enjoy their evening at Kingfield.
For the first half Aldridge and trialist Gurung played up front and immediately caused the Woking & Maybury defence problems. Gurung has played for Nepal in World Cup qualifiers, is small and very quick and throughout the match showed a good touch, laying off the ball well with his head and linking up play well.
After 7 minutes it appeared that Parish had managed to open the scoring at the Kingfield Road End with a clever chip over the goalkeeper’s head but he was ruled offside. Against the run of play Woking & Maybury went into the lead through a superb shot from Perri. From the left edge of the box he let fly and, with Pegler only able to stand and watch helplessly, the ball crashed into the far corner of the net.
On 19 minutes the young Cards side were able to draw level. A good move saw Parish slide the ball in from the right for Aldridge to side foot into an empty net from close range. Woking were now well on top and playing some neat one-touch football but still unable to make it count. On 41 minutes Ferdinando should have increased the lead after running through the opposition midfield and defence. After a neat one-two he found himself with only the keeper to beat but lobbed the ball well wide. Almost immediately he had a further chance to make amends but just failed to get to a viciously in-swinging corner at the far post, with the Woking & Maybury defence all at sea.
But two minutes from half-time Woking increased their lead. This time it was Gurung who scored, after good link-up play with Aldridge.
HALF-TIME WOKING 2 WOKING & MAYBURY 1
For the second half it was all change – literally. Having played in an all white strip for the first 45 minutes, Woking & Maybury appeared in an equally smart old gold and black kit. Woking also made several changes and, with the opposition regularly making further substitutions, the game became rather more fragmented.
Woking dominance early on ended with Gurung getting his second goal – a firm downward header from close range after the ball had been whipped in from the right. Not to be outdone, Woking & Maybury, roared on by their supporters, reduced the arrears with a long range shot from Machay which sub goalkeeper McCulley will probably feel he should have dealt with better.
Woking’s fourth and final goal came in the 85 minute with Topham’s long-range shot finding its way into the net past a very stationary opposition keeper.
As a pointer towards prospects in the upcoming season in Blue Square South, this game was of minimal significance. Perhaps of more importance was the collection for the Joshua Deller appeal. If you didn’t get to the game, would like to find out more or, best of all, make a contribution to this very worthy cause please visit -
www.joshua-appeal.org
Woking
Pegler; Boatang; Choularton; Baker; Ferdinando; Eagle; Parish; Ellis; Gurung; Aldridge; Azeem
Second half substitutes: McCulley; Watkins; Topham; Agyepong; Whorms; Carr; Dunne.
Woking & Maybury
Butt; I Bash; Nawaz; U Bash; Sher; Waheed; Perri; Shah; Wallace; Machay; Archibald
Second half substitutes from: Karim; Kurshid; Rehman; Ahmed; Tabrez; Wallace; Hussain; Afzal; Gunner; Amod
