Woking 0 Brentford 4
Pre-Season Friendly
27 July 2010


Brentford brought their first team squad to Kingfield this evening and provided Woking with another very tough pre-season examination. The pace, fitness and all-round strength of the First Division visitors made life difficult for the Cards, who were again without Alan Inns and Joe McNerney in the centre of defence, and in Nicky Forster the Bees had a forward who was a real handful.

Graham Baker started with Ross Worner in goal, a back four of Ricky Anane, Daniel Sintim, Aswad Thomas and a new triallist from Hayes and Yeading, Toby Little, at left back. Across the midfield were Moses Ademola, Mark Ricketts, Jerome Maledon and Sam Hurrell, with Andy Forbes partnering Dave Gilroy upfront.

It was largely one-way traffic in the first period as Brentford piled on the pressure from the start and after nine minutes they were one to the good. A ball down the right had Little struggling and Forster was on hand to blast the ball past Ross Worner with the Cards’ defence missing.

Minutes later Forster had another chance as Worner was unable to gather a corner but his shot flew over the bar.

Moses Ademola, playing against his former club, looked the Cards' most dangerous player going forward and after twenty minutes he created Woking’s first real chance of the half. Latching on to a long clearance, he did well to pull back a neat pass from the right. Andy Forbes's curling shot was on target but was expertly tipped around the post by Bees’ keeper Moore.

Five minutes later Brentford doubled their lead. This time Forster was the provider, getting to the bye line and laying on a simple chance for Spillane, who scored via a deflection off Sintim.

Moses Ademola was again at the heart of a decent Woking move as he combined well with Ricky Anane and crossed for Jerome Maledon, who headed over. But after 36 minutes came Woking’s best chance of the game. Dave Gilroy, benefiting from a slip in the Brentford defence, found himself one-on-one with the keeper but his shot was disappointingly wide of the far post. Meanwhile there was still time for the visitors to threaten and again it was Forster whose free header was straight at Worner.

Half-time: Woking 0 Brentford 2

Craig Faulconbridge was introduced at the start of the second half and Andy Forbes, again showing his great versatility, moved to centre back in place of Dan Sintim.

Woking had a chance to pull a goal back after 48 minutes. Dave Gilroy was tripped on the edge of the box but Aswad Thomas's fierce free-kick from 19 yards was over the bar.

There now followed the inevitable series of substitutions for both sides. Josh Casey and Takumi Ake, two of the remaining triallists, were given an opportunity to impress as Graham Baker shuffled his pack. Aaron Gough was brought on in place of Anane at right back and was immediately exposed by the pace of Wood. His cross from the left provided a simple tap-in at the far post for Weston and Brentford’s third. To be fair, Gough looked much more comfortable when moved to centre back later in the half.

On 83 minutes Brentford made it four, with Weston racing through to score his second but with four minutes remaining the Cards put together their best move of the half. Ola Sogbanmu combined with Craig Faulconbridge and the big forward’s delightful chip into the visitors' box was almost perfect. Unfortunately, Ake, who had done well to get into a good position in front of goal, was just unable to reach the ball with his head.

Despite the scoreline, a number of the squad performed well and in particular Mark Ricketts (pictured above), who had an excellent game. As a result of his commitment, hard work and ball-winning ability the Cards' midfield was much more combative than was the case against Wimbledon. Forbes and Gilroy never stopped running with little service and Ademola and Anane combined together effectively down the right-hand side during the first half.

So that’s two tough games on the spin against two very strong sides. On Sunday we play the Pakistan International XI and hopefully will be able to create rather more scoring opportunities than has been the case in these last two games.


Woking: Ross Worner (Matt Pegler 81), Ricky Anane (Aaron Gough 53), Toby Little* (Josh Casey 53), Mark Ricketts (Charlie Turnbull 77), Daniel Sintim (Craig Faulconbridge 46), Aswad Thomas, Moses Ademola (Ola Sogbanmu 70), Jerome Maledon, Dave Gilroy (Takumi Ake 53), Andy Forbes (Frances Quarm 63), Sam Hurrell

*Triallists in italics

Brentford: (Starting Line-Up) Moore, O’Connor, Woodman, Bean, McCracken, Forster, McLeod, Weston, Spillane, Diagouraga, Osborne


Attendance: 658