Glen Harrington
8:45am, Tue 7th Mar 2023
Oldham Athletic vs Woking
Vanarama National League
Tuesday 7th March 2023
Woking will be aiming to make it four National League games unbeaten when they travel to Oldham Athletic for only the second-ever league meeting between the two sides.
The Cards, who won the reverse fixture 3-0 in September, were on form on Saturday as they dispatched Yeovil Town away from home – with Kyran Lofthouse’s fourth goal of the season the difference between the sides. The result came despite Darren Sarll being without several first-team players, including Rhys Browne, who completes his three-match suspension this evening, as well as injured quintet Luke Wilkinson, Jermaine Anderson, Jake Hessenthaler, James Daly, and Reece Grego-Cox. In more positive news, Sid Nelson returned to the substitutes bench and made just his second appearance of the season, whilst there was a debut for new loan signing Billy Sass-Davies.
Saturday’s win further strengthened Woking’s claim for third place, maintaining the six point advantage on fourth place Barnet, who have a game in hand, and a 12 point gap to eighth place Southend United, who are two matches behind. Victory tonight would take the Cards to 68 points, tying the record with the club’s joint-second best points return in the fifth tier in the 21st century – having also achieved that total in 2005 (42 games) and 2014 (46 games). They would be just eight behind the tally of 76 in 2015 with ten matches still to play. Their highest total at this level is 83 points in 1996.
Opposition Watch
Oldham have enduring a difficult campaign following relegation from the Football League at the end of last season and have found themselves in another battle towards the foot of the table. Recent results appear to be guiding them away from immediate trouble, but it’s been another underwhelming year for the Latics, who are 15th in the league table with 41 points from 34 games.
Their home record is much stronger, with 27 points accrued at Boundary Park, including eight wins. Recent results have seen them win four and draw one of their past eight, including victories over play-off chasing Chesterfield and Barnet away from home, just their second and third successes on the road this season. They’ve also beaten Dagenham and Maidstone at home, but were held to a draw by Gateshead, and beaten by Halifax, Gateshead (in the return fixture), and Boreham Wood. They lost 2-0 at home to the Wood on Saturday.
Manager David Unsworth has one of the biggest squads in the division to pick from as the club has looked to sign its way out of trouble. Recent additions include strikers Joe Nuttall from Scunthorpe and Alex Reid, who spent the first-half of the season on loan at Solihull, from Stockport; also arriving have been ex-Woking loanee midfielder Mark Shelton from Hartlepool, Chesterfield defender Josef Yarney, and veteran playmaker John Rooney from Barrow. Their top scorer is Mike Fondop with eight.
Recent Meetings
• Woking
3-0 Oldham Athletic – 13th September 2022, National League (Johnson 2, Wilkinson)
Tickets
Prices are £22 for Adults, £10 Seniors and Under-21s, £7 for Under-18s and free for Under-7s with a paying adult. For more information and to book your ticket please
click here.
