Glen Harrington
7:32pm, Fri 3rd Feb 2023
Eastleigh vs Woking
Vanarama National League
Saturday 4th February 2023
Woking will be looking to make it nine National League away games without defeat when they travel to play-off chasing Eastleigh on Saturday.
The Cards have won seven of their last eight matches on the road, including all the last six, and will be hoping to extend that impressive record with a positive result at the Silverlake Stadium. They are also unbeaten in five league matches in a row, and will tie their best run of the season – 16 points out of a possible 18 – with victory on Saturday. However, they were denied all three points on Tuesday, when they were held to a 1-1 draw by a dogged Torquay side, who themselves are battling against relegation. Padraig Amond scored the Woking goal, his eighth of the season in all competitions, and his third since the turn of the year.
Darren Sarll certainly has plenty of options available to him should he wish to rotate his team – Jermaine Anderson is available again after his suspension, as is fellow midfielder Jake Hessenthaler, who made his debut from the bench of Tuesday evening after signing on loan from Crawley – Jack Roles going the other way in a permanent deal. Luke Wilkinson also made a welcome return to the substitutes bench against the Gulls after more than three months out through injury.
Opposition Watch
Eastleigh have had a good first-half of the season and are currently in tenth place in the league table, one point adrift of the play-off places in a congested top-half of the table, with just four points separating sixth and thirteenth. They are particularly strong at home, where they’ve taken 29 of their 38 points, only Wrexham, Notts County, and Chesterfield have better home records. They have been let down by their record away from home which has seen them lose nine of a possible 14.
Despite those facts, their two most recent matches have both gone against that form book, with a 3-1 away win at Southend followed by a 2-0 home defeat by Barnet. They’ve won three, drawn one and lost two in all competitions since beating Woking in the FA Trophy in December, including advancing again in the Trophy with a 1-0 home win over National League South side Braintree Town.
Players to watch include the ever-dangerous striker Danny Whitehall and former Woking midfielder Charlie Carter, the club’s joint top scorers with seven this season, plus recent loan acquisition, winger Kairo Mitchell from Notts County. Their manager is former Havant & Waterlooville boss Lee Bradbury, father of ex-Card loanee Harvey.
Recent Meetings
• Woking
0-2 Eastleigh – 20th December 2022, FA Trophy
• Woking
1-0 Eastleigh – 29th October 2022, National League (Clarke)
• Woking
1-2 Eastleigh – 7th May 2022, National League (Roles)
• Eastleigh
3-2 Woking – 25th September 2021, National League (Campbell 2)
• Eastleigh
0-0 Woking – 10th April 2021, National League
Tickets
Ticket prices are £15 for Adults, £10 Concessions, £5 Students (17-21), £2 Juniors (12-16) and Under 11s FREE. For more information and to book your ticket please
click here.
