Cards looking to wrap up promising pre-season against League One Portsmouth
Glen Harrington
8:00am, Mon 29th Jul 2019
Woking vs Portsmouth
Pre-Season Friendly
Tuesday 30th July
It’s been a very encouraging pre-season for the Cards so far – with a comfortable 3-1 victory over local rivals Farnborough on Saturday marking a third win of the campaign.
Indeed, Alan Dowson’s side have shown plenty of promise so far, with further wins against newly promoted League Two side Salford City, as well as Badshot Lea, plus draws against League One Oxford United and Dunston UTS. In fact, only a stoppage time goal from another Football League side, Wycombe Wanderers, has prevented Woking from putting together an entirely unbeaten run of games.
Of course, all that will count for little when the season kicks off for real, away to Dagenham and Redbridge next Saturday, but Dowse and his team will know that any sort of result against Portsmouth on Tuesday evening in their final pre-season outing will leave confidence sky high for that first game.
Woking
As per the games with Salford and Dunston, Dowse split his squad for two more back-to-back games last weekend, with a behind closed doors friendly with Premier League Watford on Friday preceding Saturday’s trip to Cherrywood Road.
The match with Farnborough saw the Cards start with just five contracted first-team players – Sam Howes, Nathan Collier, Josh Casey, Jack Skinner and Dave Tarpey – whilst the rest of the team consisted of trialists, along with academy defender Joe Morrison. There was further academy presence on the bench as well, with first year youngsters Oliver Crees and Jayden Hutchings.
On Tuesday, Dowse is likely to revert to what could well be his starting eleven for the opening day of the season, as the squad finalises its preparations for the new year ahead.
Portsmouth
Pompey will be one of the favourites for promotion from League One this season. They finished fourth last season, going out in the play-offs to Sunderland, whilst they also won the EFL Trophy final against the same opponents at Wembley. Managed by the experienced Kenny Jackett, the two-time FA Cup winners have won five of their six pre-season games thus far, with the only defeat coming against our neighbours Aldershot – where they named a far less experienced team with a mix of academy prospects and fringe players.
There could be an array of talent on show for this game, which is also Portsmouth’s final pre-season game, ahead of their opening match of the new campaign against Shrewsbury Town. Perhaps the most well-known player in the Pompey squad is winger Jamal Lowe, who played under Dowse during his time at Hampton and Richmond Borough, and scored 17 goals in all competitions last season. Other familiar names include striker and captain Brett Pitman, on loan defender Sean Raggett, who was part of the National League winning Lincoln City team, and Australian international winger Ryan Williams.
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.
