Slough v Woking 17th November 2018

[Curtis]

This should be a tremendous match with a fantastic atmosphere.

Woking fans seem to travel in numbers, and with this just being a short trip round the M25 for them I would be surprised if we don't have our largest home attendance so far this season (currently Torquay 1,244).

Woking are currently sitting in second place, 11 places but only 7 points above us, and we have a game in hand..... and their away record of W4 D3 L1 is very similar to our home record of W4 D2 L1, which all seems to point to a very close and competitive match.

Although their record of 30 goals in 16 matches is impressive, closer scrutiny shows that 9 of their goals have come from penalties, which is a about a penalty every two matches..... but since they had two in their last match at Gloucester hopefully they are not due another one for three matches!

Prediction : 1-1 and an attendance of 1,300

[Irishadrian]

Wokings high league position is due to their excellent start 21points from 24 in their first 8 games However their league record in the last 2 months since mid Sept is indifferent at best P7 W2 D3 L2 and the 2 wins against lowly Oxford and Hungerford   so I would be disappointed if we don't  at least pick up a point and expect more!

Edited November 16, 2018 by Irishadrian

[RebelVilla]

Whilst Woking were probably the best side that I have seen here so far this season, I thought that we deserved at least a point from the game today.

We restricted them to only one shot on target from which they scored, however after that we pushed and harried them and were unfortunate not to score an equaliser, forcing them into a couple of goalline clearances.

Hopefully we will have more luck on Tuesday night.

Also I thought that the ref was happy to let small tugs, pushes and holds go unpunished for long periods of the game. 

 

 

 

[GlenSTFC]

Frustrated we didn’t get a point today as our play and chances deserved it. Up until they scored it seemed to be only one team in it, but we upped our game and really got into the game after they scored. We had 2 or 3 great chances to level and I’d agree Woking were the best team we’ve played so far and should be challenging for top spot so maybe we shouldn’t be too disappointed considering we’ve just come into this league. 

[Irishadrian]

Disappointed I thought our excellent defence would be key to the outcome but they took their one chance and we didn't take ours I thought we had a few players whose bodies were on the pitch but whose minds were on next Tuesday Every player wants a game against league opposition  Sutton had another 0-0 game up north today so still finding it hard to score!

[PaxtonLee]

A close game and we fought well, not for the lack of effort. I thought we missed a bit of creativity and our final ball let us down. That said, Woking's centre-backs were excellent, in particular the Number 4 who was by a mile the stand out player on the pitch. 

There was one player I thought who really struggled for us today and have been thinking for a while that he's maybe feeling the step up in quality a bit more than others. Again, a player who gives so much in effort that I wouldn't want it seen as a criticism and hesitant in naming names as I'm unsure of the etiquette on here for such topics given what the guys put in.

Onto Tuesday and looking forward to it.

 

[SloughFlyer]

I think the better side lost today. Can't think of a save Jack Turner had to make, and they certainly had 4 cleared off their line and we hit the bar.

Shame to conseed again from a corner and I would have thought the warning of the number 4 getting free from the corner before would have been heard, but clearly not.

I actually didn't think Woking looked all that. Given Alan Dowson's play style, I was a little surprised as to how weak his players were and how easily they went over. I'm also not unhappy at all that Paul Hodges didn't sign for us in the end, thought he looked very out of his depth.

All in all lots of positives to take from today moving forwards and hopefully a better result to follow on Tuesday night.

[Reading Rebel]

How I saw the game.

I thought we started the game on the back foot showing far too much respect to Woking to the point where they dominated the midfield and any neutral would have been forgiven for thinking that we were the away team.

Because of this Woking forced quite a few corners and eventually a half decent corner was poorly defended and we were 1-0 down.

After the goal we came more into the game showing more urgency by pushing up and pressing the Woking midfield finishing the half the better team having an effort cleared off the line. 

We started the second half how we finished the first on the front foot and for my money we were the better team with Jack hardly having a save to make whilst we had 2 or 3 cleared off the line with Woking defending desperately.

Although the game showed Woking deserve to be where they are, if you take away the first 30 minutes, I think a draw would have been a fair result and it also showed that we are a good team and can compete with the best in this division. 

COYR!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Reading Rebel

[Reading Rebel]

3 minutes ago, SloughFlyer said:

I think the better side lost today. Can't think of a save Jack Turner had to make, and they certainly had 4 cleared off their line and we hit the bar.

Shame to conseed again from a corner and I would have thought the warning of the number 4 getting free from the corner before would have been heard, but clearly not.

I actually didn't think Woking looked all that. Given Alan Dowson's play style, I was a little surprised as to how weak his players were and how easily they went over. I'm also not unhappy at all that Paul Hodges didn't sign for us in the end, thought he looked very out of his depth.

All in all lots of positives to take from today moving forwards and hopefully a better result to follow on Tuesday night.

I think Woking do have a bit of a reputation for going to ground far too easily but having said that I don't think we are totally innocent in that respect.

 

[Rebellier]

Does anyone know who got the man of the match award??

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Rebellier said:

Does anyone know who got the man of the match award??

Difficult one for me today because I think there were a Lot of 6/7 out of 10 but no outstanding performances.

Probably give it to Sam Togwell or Josh Jackman. 

Edited November 17, 2018 by Reading Rebel

[SloughFlyer]

We came up with Josh Jackman as well RR.

I also agree with a few of our players that do go to ground a bit easily now and then, but I guess in this day and age it's part and parcel of the game. The phrase "If you can t beat them, join them" comes to mind!

[Jafooly]

1 hour ago, Rebellier said:

Does anyone know who got the man of the match award??

It was given to Warren Harris.

 

personally I would have said George Wells.

[Reading Rebel]

Fantastic support today, puts us in 5th place with an average attendance one short of 1,000.

[Rebellier]

9 hours ago, Jafooly said:

It was given to Warren Harris.

 

personally I would have said George Wells.

OK, thanks.

I think our defence held up well today and kept Jack protected so my MOTM was Sam Togwell.

[epicrebel]

Their managers interview (on Slough at the end)

 

 

Jon's interview after the game.

 

[Curtis]

10 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

Fantastic support today, puts us in 5th place with an average attendance one short of 1,000.

I think you must be getting your numbers from the footballwebpages site...... they have the attendance for yesterday as 1,937 when it was actually 1,465.

It was fantastic support for both clubs, a great atmosphere, very well organised and with several complimentary comments from first time visitors to our ground. A big thank you to all involved in making things run so well on match days.

The game was pretty much as I had expected, being close and competitive, and their goal seemed a bit soft and with a little more good fortune we would have got the equaliser I thought we deserved.

Who would have thought five years ago we would have attracted a league match attendance of nearly 1,500 and felt disappointed to have lost 1-0 to Woking..... the development has been phenomenal and long may it continue.

[GlenSTFC]

Blimey you really have to listen very closely to understand Dowse! It doesn’t help that he talks so fast as well! But he was very complimentary about our club and management as were a few on their forum.

[Irishadrian]

 Curtis

The footballwebpages site is a shambles this season  Our gate 1465 was given to Hampton and Richmond The 1937 we were given was the crowd at Torquay  Beaconsfield were beaten 2-6 by Farnborough  and also 2-6 by Basingstoke and Darlington v Hereford had a massive gate of 1 !  All these still not corrected as I type this

 

[3spirit]

13 hours ago, SloughFlyer said:

I think the better side lost today. Can't think of a save Jack Turner had to make, and they certainly had 4 cleared off their line and we hit the bar.

Shame to conseed again from a corner and I would have thought the warning of the number 4 getting free from the corner before would have been heard, but clearly not.

I actually didn't think Woking looked all that. Given Alan Dowson's play style, I was a little surprised as to how weak his players were and how easily they went over. I'm also not unhappy at all that Paul Hodges didn't sign for us in the end, thought he looked very out of his depth.

All in all lots of positives to take from today moving forwards and hopefully a better result to follow on Tuesday night.

Agree totally with how you viewed the game SloughFlyer. I was underwhelmed by Woking and thought Slough made hard work of it. We missed Dobbo without a doubt,as we had no one who would do the unorthodox, and so our play was the usual run down the line and play the long cross to the largely untroubled Woking centre halves, or we resorted to the short midfield passing/interplay on the edge of the box with no penetration on goal.

Our forwards were easy meat for them yesterday, yet saying that,though, our team did get chances but failed to take them.Problem was, we were very predictable in what we were trying to do.However, I still thought we deserved a point from the game. Trouble is we weren't deserving of the three points on offer.

The goal we conceded to Woking was a soft one to give away, as the ball across the box had a low trajectory and no Slough marker got anywhere near to the Woking player, who then had free reign to head into the net. Disappointing to give away that goal but I consoled myself that we were only one goal down at half time and still had enough time to get something from the game.

It's a shame we've had to play Woking so near to the Sutton replay, as that certainly hasn't helped the cause to get a positive result from Woking but perhaps that's just making an excuse from not getting something from the game yesterday.

The truth is we created little in the way of clear cut chances in the second half and even our substitutes made little impact,so the game just fizzled out. Oh,for a spark of invention !    Louis Soares can not be blamed for our defeat but as an impact substitute he offered little and from the games I've seen of him this season have been disappointed with his lack of creativity, to an extent where I think we ought to look for someone else. It's never easy to be a substitute and come on and change the game but I think Manny Williams would have been better on the wing, than what Louis Soares offered.         I expect Manny is being saved for the Sutton match.

How Wazza got man of the match,I don't know? Not saying he didn't try, as he always does but the confidence to take the ball and run into the penalty area to trouble opposition defenders, wasn't there yesterday.

Ben Harris is money for old rope as far as I'm concerned.We're moaning about Woking players going to ground easy,how many times does Ben fall over or dive? When he stays on his feet and put's his mind to it, he isn't a bad player ! but he's certainly a frustrating player to watch, as currently he's offering more things negatively than he does positively.  

I'm peed off losing to Woking on our home patch,as I remember the momentous games we've had with them at Wexham Park and Kingfield in the past,and it's been twenty long years since we've played them.

How we were crying out for a Thommo or Clive Walker yesterday to make the game come alive. To me yesterday's game failed to ignite, despite the very good turnout by the fans.  Hope the Sutton game gives us better.