Blue
Square Premier - 10th March 2008
At KitKat Crescent - Att 2,246 (69 Woking)
Report
City's home game with Woking wasn't really going anywhere until
a flurry of red cards handed the visitors two penalties and
a three-man advantage. Having taken the lead twice through Onome
Sodje, City's eight remaining players couldn't find a way
through their superior - if only numerically speaking - opposition
who converted both spot kicks and held out against a fired up
and determined City late show.
It's perhaps the most frustrating aspect that the eight men
played with such verve, vim and vigour that they could have
got something out of the game. Indeed, if City had played with
eleven as they did with eight, there would surely have been
just the one result possible - home win. It all started in the
best possible fashion with City profiting from some comedy defending
of the highest order. With only three minutes showing on the
stopwatch, Tom Hutchinson headed back to his keeper Ross Worner.
It was way too high and Worner could only get fingertips to
it and it fell from his grasp for Onome Sodje to be the man
on the spot to steal the cookie from the cookie jar.
Sadly, that was about it for first half action bar an early
warning from referee Mr Joyce as he booked Paul Lorraine after
he went through Sodje like a dose of salts and Richard
Brodie for scything down Giuseppe Sole; the man destined
to be at the hub of the second half mayhem. Chances were few
and far between, though Stuart
Elliott's 25-yarder forced a good save from Worner moments
before Elliott got himself booked after a bit of a scuffle flared
between him and Marvin Morgan; the Woking forward also seeing
yellow. It was Morgan's foul, but Elliott's reaction was over
the top and though each deserved their booking, the referee
was rapidly losing control.
Set pieces are undoubtedly City's Achilles heel and, sure enough,
Woking got back into the game from a corner. Taken short, the
eventual cross found Jason Norville unmarked on the back post
and he nodded past a stranded Tom
Evans to square things up going into half time.
More cards followed after the break with Darren
Craddock's name being taken for going in high before Sodje
restored City's advantage. Ben
Purkiss, now playing in midfield as City switched to 4-4-2,
found himself in space, shaped to shoot, but instead played
in Manny Panther.
His shot was saved, but the ball looped up off the keeper to
Sodje who made no mistake from close in.
Then the fun and games began. With City pressing, Woking countered
with Liam Marum and Morgan finding themselves two-on-one. Marum
squared for Morgan who looked a certain scorer until Craddock,
who had bust a gut to get there, dragged him down. A straight
red for the professional foul and Sole fired the penalty kick
in off the post past Evans.
City had three youth teamers on the bench and Andy McWilliams
was brought on with Sodje making way - Liam Shepherd having
already been deployed in place of Panther - in an effort to
shore up the now short-handed defence and it was McWilliams
that headed off the line after Evans had been beaten. The trouble
was that, while play had gone on, Evans had pulled Morgan down
as he attempted to go round the City stopper and out came the
red card again. The unfortunate Shepherd made way for Josh Mimms
whose first touch of the ball was picking it out of the net
after Sole had again converted his 12-yarder.
Sole should surely have been dismissed himself as he appeared
to land a straight left arm jab on Martyn
Woolford's jaw which sparked a melee with players running
in from all angles as the referee floundered, but he only saw
yellow. Trouble was that Elliott, who was among the more vigourous
of those running in, also saw yellow and he joined Evans and
Craddock in the dressing room. With just eight men remaining
and David McGurk
pushed up front, City began to pass with some crisp movement,
though hopelessly outnumbered they didn't pose that much of
a threat to the Woking goal, though Purkiss almost turned Woolford's
free-kick in; his header looping narrowly over the top.
In the end, the result mattered little as nobody was talking
about it. Instead, it was all about what might have been had
eleven men remained on the field and how come it often seems
to be the case that a short-handed team suddenly looks much
better, though three short might just be pushing things. The
young referee certainly had his work cut out and he looked a
little lost out there after the early scuffle tested his mettle.
Once the players saw how out of his depth he was, they took
the law into their own hands and it was City that copped for
it. There can be little argument in any of the dismissals -
two professional fouls and a second yellow for Elliott after
the brawl - but his general handling of the game and the players
left a lot to be desired.
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