Woking 3 Lincoln 1 Wild Cards For Promotion Then!

Woking FC aka the Cards have Oxford Utd, Doncaster Rovers and Luton Town  quality at their disposal and can keep it on the deck, however, with a referee named Rock, the Imps might fancy their chances.

Thanks for reading Neil Gentleman-Hobbs

First the teams & schemes, then the match report and finally more stats than you can shake an Imp or Card at.

Teams & schemes

   3 V 1  

Saturday 6th September KO 3PM

H/T 2–0

Scorers  15′ Morgan 44′ Payne, 64′ Burrow, 73 Morgan

Attendance 2,160  (1880 Cards  280 Imps )

Ref Mr Rock

Potential teams & schemes

Hill goes 4-3-3

1 Howe

14 Lewis 6 Clarke  32 Arthur (Y)  5 McNerney

 7 Payne  4 Ricketts 21 Jones

        24 Morgan  9 Rendell  10 Sole

9 Burrow

11 Tomlinson  15 Sam-Yorke  8 Power

14 Nolan 12 Mendy

3 Newton  5 Bencherif  6 Diagne 17 Caprice

26 Townsend

Simmo goes 4-2-3-1

 Subs & substitutions

The Cards Bench:  3 Cestor, 20 Beckles, 22 Goddard,  31 Little 33 Arnold 

Substitutions:  56′ Goddard on for Sole. 65′ Cestor on for Lewis, 82′ Arnold on for Arthur

The Imps Bench: 1 Farman, 7 Kabba, 10 Ledsham,  4 Jordan, 22 Marshall

Substitutions:  65′ Marshall on for Sam-Yorke  71′   Ledsham on for Power 76′  Kabba replaces Jake Caprice.

To the game fellow football fans to the game…………

 

The Cards kick off but the Imps win it early only for The Cards to surge forward but fortunately Paynes cross goes harmlessly across the box.  The Imps win the first corner of the game Newton delivers, Diagne gets highest and heads a decent chance over. A great exchange between Burrow and Caprice almost gets Sam-Yorke in.  The Imps are the ones pressing at the moment with the Cards looking to absorb and counter. Nolan is robbed Lewis roasts Newton, crosses only for Mendy to clear.

Tommo nearly gets Newton away as the positive Lincoln start continues.  The Imps are denying a passing Woking side space with Bencherif  clearing well and Diagne heading a decent Payne delivery behind for the corner. Townsend punches the set-piece for a throw.  Tomlinson and Burrow combine well with the latter trying an audacious lob that goes well over. Sloppiness costs City when Caprice tries to take on Rendell, fails and delivers a poor ball back to Townsend. The attempted clearance goes to Sole. He heads to Morgan who waltzes round two and finishes coolly in the corner for a 15th minute lead.

The Cards passing and movement is on a par with Barnet, Rendell, in particular, is quality, acting as the fulcrum.  The Imps are still very much in the game, disrupting the play when we can, but the final ball is poor. Sam-Yorke and Burrow are gambling but the delivery is letting us down.  Mendy Nolan and Caprice exchange neatly with the latter beating two before again failing with the final ball.  Tomlinson gets in front of Lewis, who just about does enough to unsettle him ensuring his lob is off target.  Bencherif is superbly marshalling Rendell. Nolan has a dig sending a decent drive from distance wide.

Woking almost get a second, but, a superb run and shot from Rendell,  is fortunately given offside.  Rendell gets away again, thankfully, this time Caprice picks his pocket at the expense of a corner. The cards waste it with no one challenging the in-swinger at the far post.  Tomlinson holds and plays to Newton but the cross unfortunately goes to waste. His next finds  the pacey Sam-Yorke , he rises well but heads wide. A Newton corner finds Bencherif at the near post. Hamza heads on to Burrow who tragically fluffs his lines and heads wide.  Key moment that, at 1-1 the Imps would kick on, the miss suggests the football fates will have a last laugh with half-time looming.

Morgan almost makes us pay with a glorious drive across the goal and wide of the right-hand post. Woking threaten again. Morgan sets up Rendell, a brilliant headed clearance from Bencherif seems to end the danger, then Power fouls Josh Payne to set up a chance from 20 yards. Up steps the former West Ham and Oxford man, sees Townsend to the left of his goal and duly punishes the Imps curling a low one just inside the right-hand post for the second.  A late cavalry charge as Sam-Yorke earns a corner. Newton Hamza rises supreme to agonisingly head high. The Imps have certainly shown some spirit, shading possession, but, at two down against a confident unbeaten side, surely it is game over?

Second Half

The Imps race from the traps Newton delivers and Sam-Yorke heads wide. Another good move, Burrow nods down and Nolan warms the keepers gloves.  Such an end to end open game suggests a goal at either end will change it or end it if the Cards deal us a third. Morgan sets up Payne, thankfully he shoots wide.  Townsend saves superbly from Rendell before Sole makes way for Goddard.  The Imps are playing some decent football, albeit leaving ourselves stretched at times. Arthur handles under pressure from Tomlinson, but you never expect penalties from those away.  Tomo has developed a long throw that could even put Newton to shame as  Mendy’s header is well saved by Howe.  Power has a dig from Distance that is also held well.

Indeed if we can make the pressure count we could still be back in this. We do thanks to a scrambled effort, Newton’s corner is nodded in by Burrow, although initially there is a debate as to whether the ball crossed the line. A result from an official for a change? Indeed as the linesman flags so ‘The Rock’ gives it. 2-1 game on.

Marshall is introduced for Sam-Yorke who doesn’t look sharp or fit on this showing.  The 280 Imps are in full voice.  Marshall beats his man but is denied a penalty shout.  The Imps scramble away a set-piece, but in truth the visitors are now in the ascendancy with Marshall determined to make a point.  Power (Newton gets the armband) is also replaced by Ledsham with Kabba, also warming up so desperate to stake a claim.

Woking respond.  A soft goal. A Rendell effort is initially saved by Townsend but with three queuing up Dean Morgan completes his brace from four yards.  Lincoln go 3-4-3 as Kabba replaces Caprice, leaving Jones the chance to counter and blast an effort wide. Marshall woefully misses the target to get City back in the game.  Newton crosses superbly for Burrow to head over.  Four on four its hearts in mouths time until Arthur fizzes the wrong side of the left-hand upright. Another sweet Payne corner and Rendell beats Diagne and Hamza in the air to put it wide.

Marshall wins Lincoln a corner allowing all the big lads to go up. Howe double fists for another corner that Clarke heads clear leaving Lincoln two on three at the back until Marshall gets back to stop Payne in his tracks.  Woking move third, deservedly so, a solid side with too many options in the attacking third for the Imps on the day.  Lincoln a third defeat on the bounce with the Fishy Foe (won 2-0 against basement boys Welling to go 8th) to come on Tuesday, slip to 14th.  Then again a win against the Fishy foe would put us 5th – in the play-offs and this Simpson team is good enough to be there or thereabouts.

 

   3V1  

Stats & Table

Note: shots on includes  goals and saves includes crosses claimed

*****

50 % Ball 50 %

8 Shots on 5

7 Misses 7

4 Saves 6

8 Corners 4

4 Offside 4

12 Fouls 10

1 Yellows 0

0  Reds 0

The Table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	+/-	Pts
1	Barnet	7	6	0	1	18	3	+15	18
2	FC Halifax Town	7	6	0	1	15	5	+10	18
3	Woking	7	4	3	0	16	6	+10	15
4	Kidderminster Harriers	7	4	3	0	9	3	+6	15
5	Eastleigh	7	4	1	2	12	8	+4	13
6	Gateshead	7	4	1	2	13	12	+1	13
7	Wrexham	7	4	1	2	10	10	0	13
8	Grimsby Town	7	3	3	1	17	4	+13	12
9	Torquay United	7	3	3	1	12	5	+7	12
10	Braintree Town	7	4	0	3	12	7	+5	12
11	Forest Green Rovers	7	3	3	1	8	5	+3	12
12	Macclesfield Town	7	3	3	1	8	5	+3	12
13	Aldershot Town	7	3	2	2	9	6	+3	11
14	Lincoln City	7	3	1	3	11	13	-2	10
15	Bristol Rovers	7	2	2	3	5	8	-3	8
16	Dover Athletic	7	2	1	4	8	14	-6	7
17	Chester	7	2	1	4	8	15	-7	7
18	Altrincham	7	2	0	5	8	12	-4	6
19	Southport	7	1	2	4	7	12	-5	5
20	Dartford	7	1	2	4	5	11	-6	5
21	Nuneaton Town	7	1	1	5	2	13	-11	4
22	Welling United	7	0	3	4	4	14	-10	3
23	AFC Telford United	7	0	2	5	8	16	-8	2
24	Alfreton Town	7	0	0	7	4	22	-18	0