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| Woking 1 AFC Wimbledon 0: 24 July 2007 Right then. Football. Been a while hasn't it. It's been 3 months and 10 days since I was last at Kingfield watching Giuseppe Sole curl in a lovely last minute equaliser Forest Green. It almost feels longer. No such heroics today from the youngster who flittered about from time to time but looked a little out of touch, especially his free kicks, which were wayward all the time. Didn't look that interested really but not many did really and who can blame then. For the first five minutes, it was more of a game of 'guess who' than anything else and before the team was fully worked out one of them had scored. Coming inside, right wingback Matt Gray measured up a loose clearance and struck a fierce volley into the bottom corner. To be honest, the game hardly lived up to its lively start with most of it being a midfield battle. There were a few close attempts, a couple of long shots going just wide, some scrambles in the area and one cracking save from Nick Gindre that looked a certain goal before he appeared from nowhere to claw it out the air. Rather than talk about a game that meant nothing I thought I'd concentrate on some initial Woking impressions. In a 3-4-1-2 formation, Lorraine, Ruby and Bunce made up the back three (I'm assuming Gasson and Hutch were unavailable), Gray, Quamina, Pattison and Green made up the midfield with Marum in the hole and Sole and Morgan up front. Just before half time Lambu came on to replace an injured Green and later on Charles, Maledon and Shin all entered the fray. It worked quite well really, I was not convinced about the 5-3-2 when I first heard it but rather than the Glenn Cockerill version, which was most certainly five at the back, the Frank Gray version is more like what he says it is, 3-4-1-2. The wingbacks seemed to be in place, Matt Gray worked hard down the right and looks a decent player, a bit loose with some of his passes but it is pre-season and his goal was a cracker. Adam Green I have never been convinced by and he did nothing to make me think otherwise but I'm sure Bunce would thrive in the role. He did a decent job out of place as a left sided centre back. Ruby did ok and Paul Lorraine has all the right attributes to be a good signing. Quick, tall and mobile he looked comfortable for most of the night. The midfield impressed, I was worried about a lack of experience there but Quamina and Pattison look good together, though it is early days. Quamina played the holding role well, gathering the ball and playing neat little passes as well as anticipating the opposition and putting in a few tackles. Pattison is very quick, capable of running with the ball and is very feisty, launching into a few sliding tackles. The two of them together worked well and are certainly one of the more mobile midfields we have had. Up front I was slightly less convinced. Marum was rather ineffective in the hole and Sole looked lost up front. Marvin Morgan was bustling, won a lot in the air as you would expect but was also clumsy and had a woeful first touch. Charles hardly impressed when he came on either though none of the subs were on that long to gauge opinions. I did quite like the tricky Shin though and Lambu looked very lively in the second half. Early days, I'll probably look back at this in three months and find out I was totally wrong on everything but I don't think pre-season tells us that much. I didn't think Luke Oliver or Chris Collins were that good in pre-season yet was mildly impressed by Mark Watson so I'm not reading too much into it. The 11th August should be interesting though… Woking (3-4-1-2): Gindre; Lorraine, Ruby, Bunce; Gray, Pattison, Quamina, Green (Lambu 44); Marum; Morgan, Sole. Attendance: 1136 (I think) |
