"One of those days"

Woking 0 Morecambe 1: 19th November 2005
by Mick

You know the kind of day where you get up and nothing goes right from start to finish. You wake up ten minutes late, fall over in the shower and spill your breakfast down your shirt. Even when you do things right they go hideously wrong and little mistakes end up in crater-sized catastrophes. In short, it becomes "one of those days" that you put behind you and forget about.

Today was "one of those days" for a Cards side that seemed to be lacking confidence in their own ability. After the turgid performances against Hereford and Southport it was fair to say that there was a significant improvement but nothing seemed to go right from the word Go. It started well enough, a series of decent attacks early on putting some pressure on the Morecambe back line. A lovely curling left footer from Craig McAllister had to be parried away by Ryan Robinson after the front man had neatly taken down the ball and shielded it along the area before gaining half a yard to drill in his effort. Karl Murray also had a long range effort stopped.

However, on 19 minutes Steve Ferguson's sloppy ball back to El-Salahi sold him short and allowed him to be caught in possession and Michael Twiss latched onto the loose ball and got to the by-line before cutting it back for an alert Danny Carlton. He and Oliver went for the cross which ended up bouncing off both of them before falling kindly just on the six-yard box for Carlton to flick home as he responded instantly. It was a lead the visitor's didn't really deserve.

Woking's immediate response was a golden opportunity that McAllister will feel he should have done better with. The ball was neatly worked down the right before Jacko swung over a curling cross and Craig rose to excellently but with the goal gaping his header went well wide. The Cards were a little fortunate to survive a corner which swung past everyone getting only a glancing header, it went past Jalal but Jackson was on hand to whip his foot around it and get it clear.

Before half time the Cards did everything to get back into it winning three corners in quick succession and bombarding the Shrimps box with crosses but nothing seemed to fall and it was 1-0 at the break though neither team had really done enough to be ahead. Woking dominated the second half for the most part although Morecambe were very dangerous on the counter and created some good chances themselves.

On another day Woking would have at the very least managed an equaliser and gone away with a point but it was to be "one of those days". After a rather tepid start to the second half in which the only real action was when McAllister looped a header over it was Morecambe that forced Jalal to pull of a fingertip save high to his left when Wayne Curtis thumped a shot in from 20 yards.

McAllister produced a nice turn on the edge of the box and after losing a defender tried to set up Fergie but he just took it too wide and the move broke down. However, moments later and Ferguson neatly worked a shooting chance just outside the area and his curled effort looked to be heading just wide but came back to hit the post and bounce just a yard away from McAlliser who tried to divert it in but just couldn't steer it well enough.

A Cards free kick left three of them to finish a simple opportunity as the Morecambe back line moved up but McAllister fired into the arms of Robinson. This was given as offside but quite how is a mystery to me, as the ball didn't go forwards from the free kick. At the very most it went horizontally, if not back.

Liam Cockerill and Rawle came on as time ran out and after Oliver gifted and then saved a great chance for Morecambe to win, Rawle got down the left and got in a great left footed cross which McAllister managed to just get a flick to and it hit the inside of the post and rolled into the keeper's hands. Finally, Rawle had a shot held by Robinson before in the dying seconds Murray wildly lashed the ball half way up the stand to cap the end to "one of those days".

Despite missing a great chance with the header McAllister was my MOTM with a hard working display. We look so much better with him in the side to hold the ball up front and play others in. It was a great reaction from him having been dropped against Southport, something that maybe Richards could benefit from who was a little lazy and off the boil again.

Lloyd and Fergie both flattered to deceive at times, Murray worked hard in midfield and Selley did ok but they were slow to win the ball back. The defence did reasonably well bar the goal, Jacko and Nethercott both excelled again, Oliver played well but made his usual silly error, however, as hard as El-Salahi tries he isn't a left back and it is our weakness and where the goal came from (though he was not the only one to blame). Jalal pulled off a couple of good stops but could have been more aware and commanding for the goal. In short, much better then the last two and deserved a point, however, still work to be done, missing the 'real' Macca badly and lacking in confidence at times.

Woking (4-4-2): Jalal; El-Salahi (Rawle 88), Oliver, Nethercott, Jackson; Blackman (L Cockerill 72), Murray, Selley, Ferguson; McAllister, Richards. Subs not used: Evans, Smith, Davies

Man of the match: Craig McAllister

Attendance: 2069

return to beck's bias