We don't lose often...we just don't win often either

Burton Albion 1-1 Woking: 21 January 2006
by Mick

Scorers
Karl Murray 20
Chris Hall 43

4-5-1. Not 4-3-3, I'm afraid. Not when the two wingers/forwards/strikers/wing type people are in the right and left midfield positions for the most part. Certainly not when one of them is Karl Murray, a central midfielder, Sharpie, I presume, was unwell or injured. I'm not a fan really, I like a good old fashioned 4-4-2 myself, none of this one up front and attacking wing players that don't really know if there playing up front or in midfield.

Anyway, enough of this talk, it did start well enough. The Cards looked fairly dangerous, as Burton came back from their FA Cup run that ended on Wednesday a little sluggishly. Richards looked good up front on his own, more committed and comfortable in the lone striker position with Murray workmanlike and energetic alongside him and Fergie full of pace on the other side.

It was Fergie that broke away after just five minutes as the lone Richards flicked a neat pass onto him. However, he chose to shoot too early and could only succeed in a tame effort that the keeper' should have taken comfortably but did his best to fumble. A barrage of corners followed a succession of long throws as the Cards pressed forward. Tom Hutchinson was a menace in the air, especially from the throws and Watson's deliveries were fast and accurate.

However, when the opening goal arrived on 20 minutes it was from a fairly unlikely source. Steve Evans rushed to close down the fullback and caught him out winning the ball and making a beeline for goal, he fed Richards who just managed to keep control amongst two players before picking out Murray on the right and threaded him a perfect ball to run onto. Murray duly obliged, continuing his darting run before leathering the ball with pace past Saul Deeney who was left grasping air having been beaten from a tight angle.

Woking slipped into a familiar defensive stance after that, they sat back with two backs of four and defended stoutly, only attacking on the counter. To be fair, other than a few scares from good crosses and some bad mistakes including some uncharacteristically bad throw outs from Jalal, it worked well, albeit thanks to some backs to the wall stuff.

However, on 43 minutes, with half time approaching following an attack Chris Hall let fly from 25 yards, a terrific strike that curled away from Jalal's outstretched palm, although he may have got a touch, and seemed to bounce back off the post and along the line. The referee's assistant flagged for the goal leading to an angry set of Woking players led by Watson and Smith protesting (quite why I have no idea, the goal had counted, its not going to change and Smith was probably deservedly booked).

The second half, saw Burton dominate and they probably deserved to have nabbed a winner by the end as the Cards defended doggedly while not producing one real effort at goal other than a very wayward Murray shot. Meanwhile, Burton pressed hard and had a number of dangerous looking attacks but couldn't get the elusive goal. Jon Shaw forced Jalal into a good parry as he drilled a powerful shot just inside the area at goal, he also had a header over, as did Darren Stride from a corner.

Perhaps the most dangerous moment though was when Webster looped the ball over Jalal but Hutchinson was on hand to hammer it off the line, as the cheers were about to go up around the ground. In short, the Cards were outplayed and outfought for the 45 minutes and were rather fortunate to get away with the draw in the end although the first half wasn't bad. However, if you're going to make the playoffs then you have to win games, which is what we haven't done all season and today was another prime example. If only the old points system still existed (2 for a win, 1 for a draw), we might have still be in with a shout! Still, let's go and stop 'them' getting there on Tuesday!!!

Woking (4-3-3/4-5-1/4-3-2(wingery type people)-1): Jalal; Watson, Hutchinson, Nethercott, Jackson; Evans, Smith, Selley; Ferguson, Murray; Richards. Subs not used: El-Salahi, L Cockerill, MacDonald, McAllister, Davies

Man of the match: Karl Murray

Attendance: 2,061

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