Woking’s first game of November saw the Cards host Southend United on Bonfire Night. There was concern that the fireworks would be dampened, however, with the same fixture last year ending goalless as these sides have drawn four of their last five meetings.

Neal Ardley went unchanged from the Rochdale game, with injuries and suspensions meaning just six subs instead of the allocated seven on the bench, whilst Kevin Maher named no fewer than three ex Cards in the form of Nathan Ralph, Harry Taylor and Slavi Spasov in his starting eleven, whilst Charley Kendall missed out through injury.

The Shrimpers started on top, with several corners inside the first ten minutes needing to be defended by the Cards, but no clear cut chances. Slavi Spasov came closest with a header wide from a Harry Boyes cross, but he was adamant the ball had deflected off a Woking man.

Woking had a golden opportunity to take the lead after half an hour when a cross from Hinds was partially cleared into the path of Josh Kelly, whose shot on the swivel was somehow cleared off the line.

After Olly Sanderson was substituted following a nasty head clash, his replacement Ashley Boatswain aimed to test Nick Hayes, firing a low shot which was spilled by the Southend stopper but then recovered.

Woking started the second half well, and nearly took the lead thanks to a brilliant effort from Hinds. He cut inside and fired a powerful effort which required a combination of Hayes and the crossbar to deny it from crashing into the back of the net.

They had the lead in bizarre fashion after an excellent ball from Drewe was stabbed goalbound by Kelly, who was somehow denied by Hayes before picking up the ball and sorting his feet out to bundle over the line and send the KRE into life.

Almost immediately, Kevin Maher made a quadruple substitution and Southend aimed to get back into the game, but produced no real scares for the Cards until three minutes from time, when a loose ball was picked up by Gus Scott-Morriss and fired just wide.

Leon Parillon was one of the four subs and he tested Jaaskelainen with a low drive which was comfortably parried away before five minutes of added time were signalled.

Woking nearly had the points sealed when Kelly’s swivel and low shot on his weaker foot just clipped the base of the far post in added time, and just a minute later Southend had a late, late equaliser as substitute Jack Bridge found space on the edge of the box before curling in a fantastic finish towards the far corner.

There was still time for one late twist as Forster-Caskey’s free kick from range moved in the air and agonisingly came back off the underside of the crossbar, but the points would be shared.

A spirited performance from the Cards against promotion hopefuls, but they will be gutted it was only a point.