Woking 0 Wrexham 4
Vanarama National League
17th April 2021

The Cards continued the league campaign with the visit of Hollywood backed Wrexham at Kingfield, on the day of the funeral of Prince Phillip. This forced kick off forwards to 12:30, and the weather was glorious as kick off approached. Alan Dowson was forced to make changes from Tuesday night’s thriller, with Josh Casey making way for Jack Cook, and Ben Dempsey for Tommy Block.

Wrexham began the brighter in a scrappy opening, the lively Reece Hall-Johnson having the first shot on goal, but he shot wide of Craig Ross’ goal. On the quarter of the hour mark, Wrexham had a corner which was punched off the line by Ross, and then another corner was cleared off the line by Max Kretzschmar, before Ross was called back into action. A great cross from the right hand side was met by a free head of Jamie Reckord but Ross pulled off an excellent reflex save.

After this, the Cards began to create chances. Charlie Cooper was the first to test Christian Dibble in the Wrexham goal, an ambitious effort from 30 yards was slapped away by Dibble. Moments later, Jordan Davies went in for a 50/50 with Ben Gerring, the Woking man coming out worse, and Davies was booked. The Cards felt that they should have had a penalty, smart work from Zach Robinson and he was fouled in the box, but the referee waved away claims for a penalty.

Block runs with the ball; pic: David Holmes

Wrexham themselves had a penalty after 36 minutes, Jordan Davies played through the Woking line, but was barged over by Ben Gerring. Luke Young was calmness personified as he slotted past Ross for the opening goal. Wrexham were able to comfortably see through their goal advantage into half time, the Cards disappointed that they were trailing at the break.

Half-time: Woking 0 Wrexham 1

Woking began the first half with a quicker tempo, but no cutting edge, and Wrexham had the first real chance of the half, an excellent ball in from Luke Young was a touch away from doubling the Wrexham advantage, but Ross clutched the ball to his chest. However, with just five minutes gone in the half, Wrexham did double their advantage, a ball in from Reckord was dummied by Gold Omotayo, and Reece Hall-Johnson finished clinically at the back post, the ball hitting the post before it went in; Ross had no chance.

Woking were clearly shocked, and found themselves desperately trying to create chances to rescue something. A rare opening was well worked in the midfield, Kretzschmar blazing wide, which summed up Woking’s match in all honesty. Paul Hodges was introduced in place of Tommy Block, but was unable to create much with Wrexham’s backline holding strong. The game never really got going for Woking, Kretzschmar injured from a heavy tackle, which bought two stoppages for Wrexham, just as the Cards were looking to push on, and Kretzschmar went off with seven minutes of the game left, Sam Evans introduced for his Woking debut.

Wrexham added salt to the wound for Woking, six minutes added time were signalled, but this proved inferior for the cards, as Chris Sang fed Omotayo, who broke clear of the Woking defence and finished calmly past Ross. Wrexham were enjoying themselves, and wanted more goals, and with essentially the last kick of the game, Jordan Davies hit an excellent strike from the edge of the box into the bottom corner, Wrexham were rampant.

In terms of the season, this result didn’t mean very much for Woking, although in terms of the future, it showed that much change is needed if the Cards are to improve significantly next season when they go full time. The quality of Wrexham shone through, and it’s that sort of quality that Dowse is looking for in terms of the squad next season. The recurring theme this season seems to be that there is no lack of effort, just a shortage of quality which is why Woking find themselves adrift from the top half of the league.


Woking: 13 Craig Ross, 2 Jack Cook, 5 Ben Gerring, 6 Moussa Diarra, 16 Kyran Lofthouse, 21 Tommy Block (Paul Hodges 66’), 8 Kane Ferdinand, 4 Charlie Cooper, 10 Max Kretzschmar (Sam Evans 84’), 19 Zach Robinson (Jonte Smith 88’), 30 Sam Dalby

Wrexham: Christian Dibble, Reece Hall-Johnson (Tyler French 84’), Mark Carrington, Shaun Pearson, Fiacre Kelleher, Jamie Reckord, Paul Rutherford (Jay Harris 72’), Luke Young, Jordan Davies, Gold Omotayo, Dior Angus (Chris Sang 86’)

Goals: Young 36’, Hall-Johnson 51’, Omotayo 90’, Davies 96’

Referee: David Richardson

Man of the Match: Craig Ross had another faultless game and was unfortunate to concede 4 goals