Specsavers

Cards manage only a point

7:55pm, Sat 12th Sep 2009
Alan Worth has kindly supplied this report of this afternoon’s game.

WOKING 1 v MAIDENHEAD UNITED 1

12th September 2009

Those Cards fans who thought that, after the heroics of Tuesday night, Maidenhead would be swept aside by this resilient Woking side, were in for something of a shock. In fact, after Harry Arter’s nasty-looking injury at the start of the second half and the subsequent need to reshuffle, Woking never looked likely to secure a win. The Maidenhead keeper, apart from the goal itself, was never really threatened and, despite dominating possession for most of the game, the Cards only managed two real shots on target.

Graham Baker was forced to make one change from the side that faced Basingstoke. An injury to Aswad Thomas meant that Sam Sloma was moved to left back and Gez Sole came into the left side of midfield. Craig Watkins, back from injury, was on the bench. The Maidenhead midfield featured Bradley Quamina, who was playing his second game for the Magpies following his departure from Kingfield in the summer.

It took just twelve minutes for Woking to take the lead. Delano chased a hopeful ball down the right and harried the defender into conceding a corner. From the resulting set piece Arter set up Luke Medley, whose shot from outside the box took a deflection and flew into the bottom right-hand corner of the Maidenhead net. This should have been the signal for the Cards to push on, with Medley’s intelligent running finding plenty of space in front of the Maidenhead back four. But too often the final ball, after good build-up play, lacked accuracy.

After a further twelve minutes Maidenhead equalised against the run of play. For once Sinclair played a sloppy ball out of defence when under no pressure. The ball fell straight to the feet of Knight, who punished the mistake with a fine low shot from outside the box that gave Ross Worner no chance.

Woking immediately pressed forward. A shot from Delano lacked power and Moses Ademola drove in a wonderful cross from the right after getting to the bye-line. Sadly, no Woking forward was able to get a head to the ball.

As the half progressed Woking struggled to capitalise on their dominance – passes continued to go astray and particularly in the final third. Arter worked tirelessly to win the midfield battle and did his best to set up attacking options. Anane, Medley and Sam-Yorke continued to raid down the flanks but to no effect. Just on half-time Moses worked an excellent position in the visitors’ box with his quick feet but chose to pass rather than shoot and the chance was gone.

HALF-TIME – Woking 1 Maidenhead United 1

Maidenhead’s black and white stripes coupled with their red shorts may have caused some confusion with the red, white and black of the Cards’ home strip and as a result Woking returned in the second half wearing their yellow shirts. If some of the first half’s inaccurate passing was down to similar kits things didn’t get much better in the second half, with the KRE chanting “Yellows, Yellows�!

Harry Arter’s injury came four minutes into the second half and resulted in a long delay. It looked very serious with him carried off on a stretcher but Graham Baker confirmed after the match that the injury was probably not as serious as it had looked and Harry was not taken to hospital. Craig Watkins replaced Harry and played up front with Delano moving to the left side of midfield and Gez Sole moving into centre midfield to partner Ricketts.

For the remainder of the half Woking failed to find much fluency and the midfield, with Gez very much out of sorts, looked a lot less effective.

On 64 minutes Moses made another fantastic run through the centre of midfield leaving Maidenhead players in his wake but his final shot was blocked. A minute later Delano Sam-Yorke cut in skilfully from the left nodding down a bouncing ball. He shot from a tight angle but the ball was easily palmed away by Tardif, the Magpies’ keeper.

Three minutes later Knight burst through the Woking defence and Tom Hutchinson was booked for the foul that brought him down. The subsequent free-kick, from just outside the box, was blasted by St. Aimie into the Woking wall and away to safety.

Woking had a shout for a penalty after Sole had flicked a ball up against a Maidenhead defender’s hand but it would have been hard on the visitors if this had been given – a case of ball to hand. To give credit to the visitors, they had not just come to defend. They were organised in defence and managed to create a number of dangerous opportunities going forward, the best of which came in the 83rd minute: a great shot from Collins that was tipped over the bar by Worner.

Meanwhile the Cards huffed and puffed but wild shooting or a poor final pass meant that the Maidenhead goal was never under threat. The referee added a further seven minutes at the end of the game as a result of the delay with Arter’s injury but it mattered not. Woking had to be satisfied with one point after a largely disappointing afternoon.

MOTM – Harry Arter (pictured)
Although he only played for a little over 45 minutes, Harry was tireless in winning the ball and finding a good pass. On an afternoon of mediocrity he was the one shining light. His absence in the second half only compounded Woking’s difficulties in breaking down a well-organised Maidenhead defence.

MATCH DETAILS
SCORERS: Woking – Medley 12
Maidenhead – Knight 24
BOOKED: Woking – Hutchinson, Maidenhead - Wall
ATTENDANCE: 1427
HALF-TIME: Woking 1 Maidenhead United 1
MOTM: Harry Arter
WOKING LINE-UP: Ross Worner, Ricky Anane, Tony Sinclair, Tom Hutchinson, Sam Sloma, Moses Ademola, Mark Ricketts, Harry Arter (Craig Watkins, 55), Giuseppe Sole (McNerney, 84), Luke Medley (Moone, 73), Delano Sam-Yorke
UNUSED SUBS: Matt Pegler, Daniel Sintim
MAIDENHEAD UNITED LINE-UP: Tardif, Bradshaw, Fyfield, Brown, Saroya, Nisbet, Behzadi, Quamina (Palmer, 61), Knight (Wall, 90), St. Aimie, Collins
UNUSED SUBS: Carpenter, Tajbakhsh, Ochoa
REFEREE: A. Fielding
ASSISTANT REFEREES: M. Sennett, D.Leach


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