Woking hosted a Rochdale side sitting top of the tree knowing that they were going to have to put in a big shift to make it back-to-back league wins following last weekend’s triumph at Altrincham.

Neal Ardley opted to make just two changes to the side from last weekend, with Chin Okoli and Olly Sanderson in for Timi Odusina and Ashley Boatswain, as academy graduates Quincy Patterson and Bailey Cotton made the bench.

Dale took three ex-Cards to Surrey with them, but only Kevin Berkoe started the game, with Dan Moss and Tarryn Allarakhia on the bench.

The visitors had the ball in the back of the Woking net early on, as Kyron Gordon found the far corner with his left foot, but the flag had gone up for offside way beforehand.

After a stop-start half an hour saw few chances created, Dale forced the best out of Will Jaaskelainen when Berkoe’s low ball into the box towards Gordon was met well by the defender, but the Woking stopper somehow clawed the ball away from goal.

Woking finished the half the stronger side but were finding it difficult to create a clear cut chance, having weathered a storm of pressure from the visitors.

Rochdale nearly profited from a mistake from the hosts, but Ryan East was unable to finish round Jaaskelainen, who gathered easily. 

As the visitors continued their search for the opening goal, Mani Dieseruvwe came so close to netting his twelfth league goal of the season when his header from an outswinging corner came back off the bar.

Woking’s best chance of the match came after 65 minutes when a swift breakaway saw Aaron Drewe’s cross headed just over by Olly Sanderson. A minute later, Sanderson was found by Kelly inside the box, but the ball was just behind him as he lined up to shoot.  

Somehow Rochdale didn’t take the lead in the 80th minute when a Rodney free kick was drilled low, parried by Jaaskelainen into the path of Gordon, who looked destined to score but there was Josh Kelly to somehow clear away before Jaaskelainen clawed a header from Ethan Ebanks-Landell over the bar.

Woking managed to hold on for a very good point against the league leaders, with due thanks in particular to Jaaskelainen, who showed why he is amongst the very best in the division with a stellar display.