Lovetts

Cards look to continue unbeaten start to pre-season against Football League opposition

Glen Harrington
8:44pm, Sun 14th Jul 2019
Woking vs Wycombe Wanderers
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday 16th July


The Cards will no doubt be very happy with how they’ve started pre-season after Tuesday’s comfortable 3-1 win over Badshot Lead was backed up by a hugely encouraging 1-1 draw against a strong Oxford United side at the Laithwaite Community Stadium on Saturday.

League One side Oxford brought a team littered with talented players, including experienced goalkeeper Simon Eastwood, Tarique Fosu, a recent addition from Charlton Athletic, Liverpool academy graduate Cameron Brannagan, and talented goalscoring midfielder James Henry, but the home side held their own and deservedly claimed a draw when Jake Hyde’s second-half header cancelled out the opening goal from Elliott Frear.

Manager Alan Dowson will now be expecting his team to produce a similar performance against another League One side – with Wycombe Wanderers the visitors this coming Tuesday.

Woking

Dowse made a number of changes on Saturday from the team which had played against Badshot, when 22 different players were used, with a reduced squad of 19 which included just two trialists, along with new signing Shaun Donnellan – who officially completed his move after the game. The former West Bromwich Albion, Yeovil Town and Maidstone United midfielder will be battling the likes of Godfrey Poku, supremely impressive against Oxford, and Kane Ferdinand for a starting place over the course of the upcoming season.

The Cards started the game against the U’s with Craig Ross in goal, a defensive quartet of Jack Cook, Josh Casey, Manny Parry and Ben Gerring, sitting behind a midfield of Poku, Donnellan and Max Kretzschmar, whilst Hyde and Dave Tarpey played alongside a trialist up front. As he predicted in his interview on Friday, Dowse held off on his changes until the final half an hour of the game, introducing the likes of Ferdinand, Sam Howes, Nathan Collier, Moussa Diarra, Jack Skinner, academy defender Joe Morrison, and the returning Paul Hodges, along with the second trialist. Those players who only took part in the final stages of the game are expected to start on Tuesday.

Wycombe Wanderers

The Chairboys, managed by long-serving former player Gareth Ainsworth – with the club in some capacity since 2009 and head coach since 2012 – enjoyed a successful first season back in League One last year, their first at that level since 2011/12, finishing 17th, also marking the first time they have avoided relegation from the third tier since 2002/03. Despite a nervy campaign which saw them flirt with the bottom four for much of the campaign they eventually finished three points clear in a congested bottom-half of the table.

Their squad includes several familiar names and chief among them is striker Adebayo Akinfenwa, now 37, who has finished as the club’s top scorer during each of the last three seasons. They also have a number of other players to look out for, including former Dagenham, Peterborough and Brighton forward Craig Mackail-Smith, ex-Egypt international defender Adam El-Abd, and new signing Alex Pattison, who has recently joined the club after being released by Middlesbrough.

On the Day

Ticket prices are £10 for adults, £5 for concessions and £3 for under-16s. Tickets are available online in advance or on the day at the turnstiles.

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