Young Cards clinch League Title

Woking 3 Carshalton Athletic 1
Ryman Youth League
27th April 2015


A cool spring evening saw Woking clinch the Ryman Youth League title with a comfortable win over their visitors from Carshalton.

Woking started nervously and Carshalton caused some early problems, mainly from free kicks into the box.

However the home defence, with Alex Harris in goal, weathered the storm to take an early lead after ten minutes. A throw-in found Charlie Carter, who worked his way into the penalty area to send a low, unstoppable shot into the right hand corner.

This saw the young Cards grow in confidence and have more of the ball, leaving the visitors with little to feed on. On a rare incursion into the Woking half, Harris was left with an easy pick-up. This was followed by a good cross from the right, which was cleared at the far post.

Jake Gill, for the home side, then pulled a free kick wide of the left hand post from a promising position.

Half-time: Woking 1 Carshalton Athletic 0

An early chance came Woking's way at the start of the second half with a Bayley Mummery run into the box, but the ball was scrambled away in the nick of time.

The visitors were then awarded a free kick in a good position but were disappointed to see the ball go high and wide.

With the wind now in Carshalton's favour, most of their passes out of defence were being struck too long and consequently failed to threaten an equaliser. When they did work a good position, either a Woking defender or Harris in the home goal were on hand to clear the danger.

Twenty five minutes into the half saw probably the best move of the night. A long ball was swept from left to right and was picked up by Mummery. He cut in and shot, but Willard in the visitors' goal made a great save, only for Max Austin to head in the loose ball.

Carshalton briefly got back into the match when a cross from the right was tapped in at the far post.

However, the game was settled when Jack French was given time to turn and his shot went in off a defender just inside the near post to restore the home side's two goal advantage.
Summing up the match afterwards, Woking coach Perry Gough said that his team was capable of a higher level of performance but the result was all-important on the night.

Woking now proceed to a semi-final, and hopefully a final, to find an overall winner from the four youth divisions.

WOKING: Alex Harris, Will Bateman, Tom Stevens, Jake Gill, Harry Chew, Danny Knight, Jack French, Bayley Mummery, Max Austin, Charlie Carter, Aaron Smith- Joseph.

My MotM: Jake Gill.