LCS Events
7:45pm - TuesdayTue 26th OctoberOct 2021
Huish Park | Att: 2024

Yeovil
Yeovil Town
2 - 0

Woking
Woking

Cards hoping for a change of fortunes at Yeovil

Glen Harrington
4:51pm, Mon 25th Oct 2021
Yeovil Town vs Woking
Vanarama National League
Tuesday 25th October 2021


Momentum and fine margins are two things seemingly not on Woking’s side right now and Alan Dowson’s side will be looking to put things right when they travel to Yeovil Town this coming Tuesday evening in the National League.

After three memorable wins on the spin, the Cards have now lost three matches in a row, all by a one goal margin. In fact, Dowse and his team are yet to taste defeat by more than a single goal this season. However, the Woking boss will be concerned at seeing his team concede a third successive late winner, as well as lose another game 3-2 after leading for a large period of the match. Having now won five and lost five of their first ten league games, Woking will be hoping to find some much-needed consistency, and with just one game against a current top seven side between now and December, this could be just the time to do it.

The Cards will go into Tuesday’s game without defender Joe McNerney, following his red card in the 3-2 defeat at Maidenhead United on Saturday evening, and his enforced absence will mean a reshuffle at the back for a side who has named the same back six in all but two games so far this season. Josh Casey could move inside to the left centre-back position, with Tyreke Johnson playing at left wing-back, or alternatively, Dowse will switch to a back four with Tom Champion and Moussa Diarra forming a new partnership at centre back. That would potentially allow for another more attacking player like Johnson, Jamar Loza, or Tarryn Allarakhia.

Opposition Watch
Yeovil are in their third season back in the National League after a 16-year foray into the Football League which saw a further two promotions, before three relegations in six seasons, culminating in dropping back into the fifth tier in 2019. They finished fourth in their first, shortened campaign, losing a play-off semi-final to Barnet. Last season proved more challenging and ended in a 16th place finish.

Despite this, they have shown faith in manager Darren Sarll, who has managed the Glovers since their relegation from the Football League, winning 40 of his 102 games in charge. So far this season they sit 15th, with three wins, two draws, and five defeats from their first 10 games. They have badly missed the goals of Rhys Murphy, the club’s top scorer for the last two seasons, with just nine managed so far this term – only Dover Athletic and Murphy’s new club, Southend United, have less. Last time out they were beaten 2-0 at league leaders Grimsby Town. Their last league win came at Stockport County (3-0) in mid-September.

There are two former Woking players in the Yeovil squad, defender Josh Staunton and ex-loanee striker Joe Quigley, who has scored six of his side’s nine league goals. Notable summer arrivals included fellow forward Adi Yussuf, from Blackpool, who has enjoyed past success at this level with Solihull Moors and Wrexham, as well as midfielder Sonny Blu Lo-Everton, on loan from Watford, who impressed against the Cards for Wealdstone at the end of last season.

Recent Meetings

• Yeovil Town 2-1 Woking – 13th March 2021, National League (Kretzschmar)
• Woking 1-1 Yeovil Town – 14th November 2020, National League (Davison)
• Woking 1-0 Yeovil Town – 25th January 2020, National League (Donnellan)
• Yeovil Town 3-1 Woking – 8th October 2019, National League (Meite)
• Woking 1-1 Yeovil Town – 8th March 2003, National League (Boardman)

On the Day

Yeovil’s home ground is Huish Park. The postcode is BA22 8YF.

Tickets can be purchased online here. The cost is £15 for adults, £12 for concessions and students, £5 for under-16s and £3 for under-12s. Tickets can be bought on the day at the turnstiles, but prices are subject to a £3 increase.

The Cards Trust is running a coach to this game. For full details please click here.

Glovers' Five Card Hand Trumps Goal-shy Cards

Nigel Beesley
10:17am, Thu 28th Oct 2021
Yeovil Town 2 Woking 0
Vanarama National League
26th October 2021

On a drizzly, but pleasantly mild night for the last week of October, Woking travelled down to Yeovil’s Huish Park stadium in Somerset with the hope of arresting their recent run of defeats, but were undone by a resolute display from the home side who scored goals early in each half to seal the win and claim all three points.

A decent crowd of over 2,000 assembled inside to greet the sides as they emerged to do battle for mid-table supremacy. The Cards were forced to shuffle their line-up from the last-minute 3-2 defeat at Maidenhead in front of the BT Sport cameras on Saturday evening. They were without the suspended Joe McNerney and Kyran Lofthouse dropped to the bench; into the starting line-up came Tommy Block and Tyreke Johnson.

The game started at a good pace and the visitors forced a corner from a long throw, but this was cleared by the defence. This was quickly followed by a long ball down the left which was crossed by Knowles into the area where it was expertly volleyed home by Charlie Wakefield to give the home side the lead with less than five minutes on the clock.

Craig Ross was then forced into action a minute later, although his saved attempt wouldn’t have counted as the assistant’s flag had already been raised for offside. Another effort from distance by Gorman went over the bar and there then followed a speculative shot by Max Kretzschmar which went wide of goal.

Yeovil were doing their level best to keep their lead intact and a trip on Casey after 25 minutes went unpunished by the referee with just a free-kick ensuing. The home side then mounted a few attacks, but the visitors were equal to the task with blocks and tackles along with saves from Ross.

As halftime approached both sides conceded and gained free kicks, but these all came to naught. There was just one added minute before Mr Swallow blew his whistle to signal the end of the half.

Half-time: Yeovil Town 1 Woking 0

The second period began much as the first had with an early goal for the Glovers. A cross from the right by Wakefield eluded the Woking defence and found Tom Knowles at the far post to double their lead just two minutes into the half.

Two minutes later, a left-foot shot by Campbell went just wide as the Cards attempted to get back into the game. The man in the middle finally discovered that he did have some cards in his pocket as he produced yellows in the space of two minutes for both Worthington and Barnett as a result of one too many transgressions. The resulting free kicks again produced nothing clear-cut in the way of goal chances as the match approached it’s final third.

The first changes were then made by Dowse with Tommy Block and Solomon Nwabuokei being replaced by Kyran Lofthouse and Tarryn Allarakhia, swiftly followed by a change from the home side with Adi Yussef coming off and Joe Quigley taking his place. His first act was a rough challenge on Josh Casey which Mr Swallow deemed to be only worthy of a Yellow and not a Red.

This flurry of bookings seemed to incense the home dug-out who made their feelings known to both the assistant and the fourth official which resulted in another yellow for Skiverton of the Yeovil management team with 70 minutes showing on the electronic scoreboard. Woking then made their final change with Kane Thompson-Sommers coming on for Max Kretzschmar.

Two more yellows were then dished out to the home side which riled the crowd into the familiar chant of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’. This was slightly unfair as the officiating had generally been of a good standard and somewhat better than this reporter had seen of late.

Several free kicks were then awarded to the Cards but the Yeovil defence, expertly marshalled by skipper Josh Staunton, utilised the ‘None shall pass’ phrase as the blank night for Woking came to its conclusion. The Glovers made two more changes before the best chance of the match fell to Effiong in the second minute of added time when his point-blank shot from Lofthouse’s pass was well saved by Smith onto the bar, the resulting corner again being cleared.

Three more added minutes were played before the final whistle blew. A nice touch at the end of the game was the home players going round the stadium applauding their supporters for helping them to secure the win.

For Woking it was a fourth successive defeat in a game where they rarely threatened to score. They will need to play much better than this and with home games coming up against Altrincham on Saturday and Bromley on Tuesday they have chances to improve their fortunes.


Woking: 13 Craig Ross, 3 Josh Casey ©, 4 Tom Champion, 6 Moussa Diarra, 8 Solomon Nwabuokei (Tarryn Allarakhia 61’), 9 Inih Effiong, 10 Max Kretzschmar (Kane Thompson-Sommers 74’), 19 Tahvon Campbell, 21 Tommy Block (Kyran Lofthouse 61’), 24 Rohan Ince

Unused subs: 1 Mark Smith, 7 Jamar Loza

Goals: None

Bookings: None

Yeovil Town 1 Grant Smith, 22 Daniel Moss, 5 Max Hunt, 32 Josh Staunton ©, 21 Jack Robinson, 7 Matt Worthington (25 Jordan Dyer 90+3’), 8 Dale Gorman, 3 Jordan Barnett, 11. Tom Knowles (26 Ben Seymour 85’), 23. Adi Yussuf (10 Joe Quigley 62’), 19 Charlie Wakefield

Unused subs: 12 Max Evans, 20 Toby Stephens

Goals: Wakefield 4’, Knowles 47’

Bookings: Worthington 52’, Barnett 53’, Quigley 65’, Gorman 75’, Robinson 77’

Referee: Elliott Swallow

Attendance: 2024 (117 from Woking)

Man of the Match: Tommy Block played well before being replaced but Moussa Diarra used all his height and experience to prevent further goal chances and gained my vote
Yeovil Town LINEUP
1Grant Smith
22Daniel Moss
3Jordan Barnett
5Max Hunt
32Josh Staunton
21Jack Robinson
7Matt Worthington ('90)
8Dale Gorman
11Tom Knowles ('85)
19Charlie Wakefield
23Adi Yussuf ('62)
BENCH
12Max Evans
25Jordan Dyer ('90)
20Toby Stephens
10Joe Quigley ('62)
26Ben Seymour ('85)
WOKING LINEUP
13Craig Ross
21Tommy Block ('61)
3Josh Casey
4Tom Champion
6Moussa Diarra
24Rohan Ince
8Solomon Nwabuokei ('61)
10Max Kretzschmar ('74)
11Tyreke Johnson
19Tahvon Campbell
9Inih Effiong
BENCH
1Mark Smith
2Kyran Lofthouse ('61)
17Tarryn Allarakhia ('61)
22Kane Thompson-Sommers ('74)
7Jamar Loza

Yeovil Town 2 - 0 Woking | Dowse Interview

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