WOKING 0 YORK CITY 3

Woking 0 York City 3
13 September 2007

There was a nagging worry before this game that, after the tremendous display at Stevenage on Tuesday, the Cards would suffer a reaction and put in a ?flat? performance. And so it proved. Woking looked at half-time as though they might well pull back a 1-0 deficit but a disastrous mistake by Nick Gindre early in the second half vanquished any optimism and York went on to finish comfortable 3-0 winners as the Cards ran out of ideas.

The afternoon began nicely as the Woking side lined up to form a guard of honour to mark Phil Ledger?s 40 years? plus service to the Club. What a tremendous servant he has been to Woking FC. Let?s hope he?s around for many more years yet!

Woking started with the same side that began at Stevenage, with Matt Ruby continuing at centre back and a front pairing of Marvin Morgan and Joe Gatting. Another similarity was that they got off to an awful start. Having survived a free header from a corner, put wide by Darren Kelly, in the fourth minute, Onome Sodje, a pain in the Woking side all afternoon, eluded Jay Gasson and Matt Ruby and, with Nick Gindre off his line, lobbed home to put York 1-0 up.

For a while it looked as though Woking stood a good chance of getting back into the game fairly quickly as they began to fashion some promising attacks. Kevin James found Joe Gatting with a nice chip but his shot lacked sufficient venom to trouble the York keeper. Danny Bunce flashed a couple or crosses in but both were cleared; and Goma Lambu, smartly played inside the full back by Marvin Morgan, put in another fine, low cross which the keeper couldn?t hold but which was then hacked away.

However, the Cards were not able to sustain this momentum and increasingly attacks broke down outside the area as Woking seemed to lack the guile and the cutting edge to seriously trouble the York defence. At the other end, Jay Gasson just managed to foil the lively Sodje after Kevin James had been robbed in midfield. Marvin Morgan replied with a decent left-foot effort from distance but which was always going comfortably over the bar.

Nick Gindre was almost caught out by a sharp, high cross but did well to stretch and hold the catch and then Martyn Woolford forced Nick to parry a fierce effort and grasp the rebound.

Woking came closest to equalising in the 38th minute when the York keeper just managed to prevent the ball going over the line in a goalmouth scramble but York went even closer to doubling their lead as McGurk thumped a header against the bar on the stroke of half-time.

Half-time: Woking 0 York City 1

The feeling at the interval was that the game was by no means out of Woking?s reach, although they would need to be more incisive in attack. But any optimism was soon quashed as the Cards shot themselves well and truly in the foot with only four more minutes played.

Matt Pattison, intercepting in midfield, lofted a very high ball back to Nick Gindre. Although it was a pretty horrible back pass, Nick had time to control it but it bounced off him and Onome Sodje, following up, slotted home easily to put York 2-0 ahead.

The rest of the match was pretty forgettable as far as Cards fans are concerned. Paul Hakim came on for Matt Pattison. It was surprising to see Matt give way when Joe Gatting had looked most out of sorts but perhaps injury dictated the change. Marvin Morgan produced a characteristic surging run; a header was parried and cleared; and Kevin James went fairly close with a free-kick. But this proved a brief bit of Woking pressure and York looked more likely to add to their tally, with Woolford making plenty of headway down the Woking right and Sodje?s pace continuing to unsettle the Cards? defence. And it was Sodje who created York?s third goal in the 71st minute. After being blocked by Jay Gasson and Nick Gindre, he demonstrated an athletic scissor kick to cross to the far post where two York players were lurking. Woolford rifled the ball home.

By this time Giuseppe Sole had come on for Goma Lambu but, playing out wide on the left, rarely managed to make any impact on the game. Matt Gray replaced Joe Gatting in the 75th minute and didn?t have much more success out on the right.

A slip by Paul Lorraine nearly allowed Woolford to add a fourth but his shot went straight to Nick Gindre. A few minutes later Sodje robbed Jay Gasson but Bradley Quamina did just enough to halt his progress.

Woking responded with some fairly half-hearted attacks but Paul Hakim wasn?t able to get any real purchase on a couple of efforts and a Jay Gasson header from a free-kick trickled wide. Well before the end a good many Woking fans had headed off to see if England could do better against Estonia.

So, a very disappointing performance after the midweek heroics. With quite a few players well below par, and Frank Gray seemingly unable to change things round in the second half, this proved an afternoon best forgotten. Let?s hope another big away game ? at Oxford next Saturday ? can get us back on track.

Woking: Nick Gindre, Paul Lorraine, Matt Ruby, Jay Gasson, Goma Lambu (Giuseppe Sole, 66), Matt Pattison (Paul Hakim, 55), Kevin James, Bradley Quamina, Danny Bunce, Marvin Morgan, Joe Gatting (Matt Gray, 75)

Subs not used: Adam Green, Jerome Maledon

Attendance: 1,557

Sponsor?s and my MOTM: Marvin Morgan (pictured)