Woking 0 Crawley Town 0
26 December 2008
Before I wandered out to watch this match, I was tempted by the thought of staying in and watching one of the many Disney films with my three-year-old daughter in the nice and warm.
For large periods of the match this lost opportunity came back to haunt me a little. It wasn?t all that bad, of course! For periods of the match there were some reasonable moves from either side as a handful of players tried to take the game onto the ground and pass the ball as opposed to the rather tempting hoof-ball that seemed to attract too many of our players on too many occasions.
The first half was a pretty much evenly-split affair in terms of chances and possession. Malcolm looked lively for Crawley, Pattison and Ledgister looked sparky and aware for Woking.
Malcolm found himself in acres of space on several occasions but failed to take advantage. Ledgister put together an impressive mazy run on the 20th minute mark but failed to deliver the final ball.
The referee failed to impress either set of fans with some dubious and inconsistent decisions. He also managed to break up any attempt to allow any real flow to the match.
There were long periods of the first half when all quality got lost in a midfield fiasco of header and counter-header, alternating with far too much ?boot the ball into the distance? strategies. Pattison?s bizarre throw-in up the line straight into touch, just before the 35th minute, summed up the fans? frustration over the performance from Woking.
I won?t dwell on Sole?s sending-off. The lad has got some tough decisions to make. He has been under-achieving for too long. 2009 is a ?make or break? year for him.
Half-time: Woking 0 Crawley Town 0
Domoraud had an early chance for Woking that unfortunately went high and wide. Crawley then took over the driver?s seat and had a succession of dangerous attacks that were mainly thwarted by the ineptitude of their own strikers.
The Woking midfield dropped increasingly deep and, despite a number of reasonable counter-attacks from Woking, only one team looked the most likely to score for a long while in the second half. The standard of the refereeing had not improved from the first half either, which was summed up by the size of the cheer when we finally got a free-kick in the 65th minute.
Crawley had other chances which either ended in Row Z or were appallingly wide, whilst Woking huffed and puffed again but never looked like delivering, apart from 10 minutes of sustained pressure which resulted in Ledgister cracking a superb shot from a very tight angle, only to see his effort blocked by the Crawley keeper.
From then on in, the game fizzled on occasions but apart from another player departure, this time from Crawley late on, little else really grabbed the attention. Basically, Woking controlled the match quite well but still looked very toothless up front.
Woking:
Sent off: Sole (43).
Booked: Magunda, Pattison.
Crawley Town: Rayner, Rents, Weatherstone, Wright, Forrest, Bulman, Pinault, Cook (Mills 87), Pittman (Fletcher 62), Quinn, Malcolm.
Subs Not Used: Douglas, Carter, Raynor.
Sent off: Forrest (83).
Booked: Quinn.
Att: 1,910
Ref: R Lee (Brentwood).
