City 3-2 Woking

[clive]

I wasn't able to get to the game today, but a welcome 3 points, especially with the run of games in the bottom half of the table.

Hopefully a few people have some insights on the performance today - always good to score three goals !

[Rijs]

Contrary to our customary pattern this season, City had a better first half than second today. After a quiet opening spell, we began to press quite high and pass the ball around quickly, with birthday boy Zac McEachran at the heart of most of our best moves and Olly Sanderson's pace proving a handful for the visitors' defence, while Andre Burley and Canice Carroll (on his 100th game for us) looked solid at the back, and debutant loanee Jack Bycroft had little to do in goal - until the final quarter of the match, that is.

Appropriately, Sanderson and McEachran set each other up for the goals that gave us a deserved half-time lead. The first came when Olly's pace in closing down caught their keeper off guard while attempting a clearance. He made a block and then fed Zac, who finished coolly where others might have rushed - the defender could only help the ball into the net. Then Zac returned the favour with a perfectly-weighted through ball for the young Fulham loanee after he cut out a pass in midfield. Olly finished equally well.

Until midway in the second half, despite some upping of tempo from the Cards, City looked in control, but the match changed quickly once they scored at the far post from a free kick. We did not defend that area very well on a number of occasions. It led to a tense period broken up by stoppages for Bycroft and Smith to have injuries attended to, hence the ten additional minutes. We needed a third goal, having missed a few opportunities to put the match to bed. Parker had a shot blocked, Coyle had an effort well saved and Sanderson, put in by man of the match Zac again, shot powerfully into the side netting. Finally, after Aaron Williams-Bushell had made a welcome return from injury as a late substitute for Sanderson, Parker was able to come back into his normal central role and to profit from a poor headed clearance by their keeper in the 90th minute. Josh, once again captain for the day, had put in a shift on the left wing without being particularly effective there.

Woking applied a lot of pressure in the closing minutes and finally got another goal from a far-post effort, but it was almost the last kick of the match. It made the scoreline more fairly reflect the balance of play overall.

It was good to see Nya Kirby back, albeit only on the bench, but still no sign of Fleet, Ashby, Harrison or Potter, with Pedder now returned to QPR. Chris Haigh was there and didn't appear to be injured. It's taking a long time to get men back from injury, and it is that long list which has undoubtedly been behind our recent poor run of results, so this win today was still against the odds. It's so difficult for promoted teams to stay in this division - nearly all the teams near the bottom at the moment have been promoted from North or South last year or this. They are the ones we most need to beat, and next up we face one of them. Let's hope we can take forward the momentum from today's victory.

[clive]

Thanks for the report Rijs !

[ChrisB]

Thanks Rijs, an interesting account. Two goals in the first half for the first time this season I think...then we took our foot off the gas??
Interesting that Chris Haigh was there: we seem to have a surfeit of keepers at the moment.