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Woking 0 Crawley Town 0: 25 December 2005
by Mick

If this club has serious playoff ambitions then its games like these that they must win. Crawley Town may have been playing better recently but there Conference position is hardly favourable and any team hoping to be in the top five should expect to roll them over at home. For the most part they sat with ten men behind the ball and defended it with gusto. In a dull forgettable first half the Cards carved out three or four chances but that was all they could manage.

After Justin Richards had been tripped, Paul Watson's free kick was agonisingly close to going in, leaving keeper' Smith helpless. On 23 minutes, Karl Murray made a roaming run forward and found himself on the end of a loose ball in the box and took a touch before letting fly with his left foot but it was straight at the keeper' and fail to trouble him. It was Murray again who galloped forward on the left before sliding the ball into the path of Richards that created an opening for the league's top scorer, however, like Murray earlier all he could manage to do was hit it into Smith's arms.

Crawley rarely threatened at all, Karim and Jimmy performing well at the back especially the latter who won everything in the air. The only moments of concern were a scramble from a corner and a horrific attempt that went sailing over the bar from Tony Scully. All in all it was a very dull half of football.

The second half followed a similar pattern although Crawley were a little more adventurous as Sasha Opinel shot over early on. A free kick produced the best and most memorable opening for the Cards after McAllister headed back across goal into the path of Richards but his desperate full flung dive at the ball was not enough as the ball was hacked away. Ferguson had a good game on the right constantly beating his man but his final delivery was not good enough despite his best efforts. In the second half he constantly got to the by line helped by balls from Selley but rarely produced a good ball in.

McAllister hammered a very long-range effort over and Richards threatened with a neat run but was closed down before unleashing a shot as the Cards continued to come forward. With twenty minutes left on the clock the game changed when David Woozley was sent off for a fracas with McAllister for what I assume was an elbow being thrown, however, in true Wenger style, I did not see the incident.

This proved a hindrance to the Cards rather than an incentive. They seemed to go into their shells and Crawley came out of theirs, going forward with purpose. Daryl Clare produced a curling effort that went narrowly over and then Steve Burton's shot hit the post as the defence went AWOL. From then on it looked more like the team with ten men that would snatch victory.

We may have the top scorer in the Conference but our inability to break teams down and then take the resulting chances when they arise against mediocre opposition is appalling. Unless things improve dramatically and manage to secure the services of the inspirational Nethercott I can't see us making the playoffs but I'm hoping that Glenn and the boys can prove me wrong. However, any more inept, second-rate performances such as this one will not help our cause. The sooner we come up with a new style of attacking we can try when the first doesn't work the better.

Woking (4-4-2): Jalal; Watson, Aggrey, El-Salahi, Jackson; Evans, Murray, Selley, Ferguson; McAllister, Richards. Subs not used: Blackman, Davies, Rawle, Ruby, S Cockerill

Man of the match: Jimmy Aggrey

Attendance: 2,643

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