Woking 4 Tooting and Mitcham 0
FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round
22nd September 2018

At a dreary and drizzly Kingfield, Woking saw off Tooting with much credit attributable to their two Oxford loanees. This was the Cards’ first FA Cup fixture of the season, Tooting & Mitcham – the ‘Terrors’ - coming into the second qualifying round after defeating Horsham YMCA 2-1, with the Cards hoping to emulate or even go one better than the memorable run last season.

Tooting and Mitcham lined up in a catching pink strip and took on a 3-4-1-2 formation, which they stuck doggedly to throughout the game. The visitors have had it hard of late, finishing bottom of the Bostik Premier Division last season and currently not lighting things up in Step 8. Woking took to the field with their usual 4-2-3-1 line up with Collier and Little in Centre Mid and notably no Hodges or Ferdinand in the starting team.

The early exchanges saw a glorious chance spurned by the prodigious Harvey Bradbury in the 3rd minute. Woking had a bit of joy on the right through Luer who put Bradbury through who, with an onrushing keeper, dinked it over first time with the outside of his right boot from the right of the box only for the ball to pass agonisingly close of the left post.

The slickness of the pitch due to the wet conditions was evident to see with players from both teams struggling to control the ball in the centre of the park. Moaners’ was in good spirits however and would have been encouraged to see a couple of half chances from Max and Cook from a corner in the first ten minutes during the scrappy to and fro.

It was not all easy going for Woking, there were a few moments in the first half where the Terrors looked to break on them and an inviting ball was put across by Tooting’s impressive Issiah Jones which caught the home team’s defence out but was cleared by Spence. Following this Wheeler broke on the left wing, his trickery and direct approach was a theme throughout the game, and floated a ball over for Luer to head which resulted in the first of many eye-catching saves by Morgan Campbell.

Campbell was however beaten immediately after, with Wheeler - again finding a yard of space on the left wing - after a nice pass from Casey and putting a ball over to the same area to Bradbury who was unmarked and coolly dispatched a header to the keeper’s left. Bradbury’s harrying and movement had been excellent and he was a class above the defenders trying to contain him.

There was a lull in proceedings until Bradbury was put through just before the half hour mark after a ball from the back accidentally nodded on by a T&M centre half which was somehow given as offside. Woking began to turn the screw with another strong Cook header from a corner thwarted by the Keeper and a good opportunity for Luer, curled from the right of the box just past the apex of the left post and bar. Again the pressure mounted, with a volley of shots after a ball from the right wing by Collier made its way to Little who poked a shot through an array of legs in the box only for Campbell to get down to save. Wheeler had an opportunity from the left of the box which took a deflection and looped just wide.

There were a couple more chances for Woking and the hold-up play from Bradbury was exemplary, he seemed to control every ball Casey pinged up to him. The half-time whistle blew with Woking unlucky to only be 1-0 up, Tooting had their keeper to thank for them still being in touch.

Half-time: Woking 1 Tooting and Mitcham 0

The second half started much the same as the first ended, Woking dominating and getting much joy on the flanks what with Tooting’s three at the back. Bradbury bundled in his second soon after the restart after a great inter change between Casey and Wheeler, who could have gone down as he slalomed into the box and fired a ball across to Bradbury who finished from close range.

Bradbury peels away with the ball nestling in the net for the second goal of his hat trick; pic: David Holmes

Woking were pushing forward; Little and Kretzschmar were exerting influence through the middle but Woking were caught out with the game coming up to an hour, the Terrors broke and there was two against two; Issiah Jones took a speculative shot which was deflected and the ball looped over Berti only to bounce off the base of his left post- a lucky reprieve for the Cards.

After this scare Woking again continued their dominance and pushed to kill the game; there was no lack of trying for the third goal. Young came on to replace Luer on the right wing and at the 69th minute Bradbury secured the match ball in style. Little played the ball along the floor from the centre circle up to Bradbury who controlled and turned to face the defenders who stood off him; he had options to his right and left but instead noticed the keeper off his line and from thirty yards curled a placed shot over the keeper and nestled into the centre of the goal. Bradbury was substituted for Hyde after this and was well worth the ovation he received.

The game was effectively over at this point and Ofori-Acheampong came on for Wheeler who had been lively throughout, to see out the last fifteen minutes. He was put through by Kretzschmar in the 80th minute and drew another two impressive saves by Campbell in the opposition goal from close range to the right of the six yard box.

The concluding moments of the game saw Woking dominating possession with a couple of yellow cards dished out to Little and T&M’s Edward Dines, both for cynical fouls to contain respective counter-attacks. The game was wrapped up in stoppage time, Casey spurted down the left wing and picked out a pass to Little on the edge of the box, who forcefully passed the ball through a number of T&M players in the box and into the goal; Campbell was unsighted and Woking had their fourth courtesy of their other Oxford loanee.

It was a good performance from the Cards and could have been more than four; the visitors’ goalie deserves an honourable mention for a raft of quality saves. Woking now go into the 3rd round qualifying draw hoping for favourable opposition.

Woking: 1 Berti Schotterl, 2 Daniel Spence , 3 Joshua Casey, 4 Jack Cook, 5 Ian Gayle, 6 Nathan Collier, 7 Gregory Luer (15 Reggie Young 65’), 8 Armani Little , 9 Harvey Bradbury (16 Jake Hyde 71’), 10 Max Kretzschmar, 11 Nicholas Wheeler (12 Ofori-Acheampong 75’)

Unused subs: Paul Hodges, Kane Ferdinand, Nicholas Hayes, Kiran Khinda-John

Goals: Bradbury 20’, 48’, 69’, Little 90+2’

Bookings: Armani Little 88’

Tooting and Mitcham 1 Morgan Campbell, 12 Tope Fadahunsi , 3 Peter Wedgeworth, 4 Edward Dines, 5 Quincy Rowe, 20 Lexus Beeden, 11 Issiah Jones, 14 Dan Clements, 7 Kadeem Ajeon (16 Abraham Odoh ’73), 9 Elijah Simpson (2 Danny Bassett ’63), 18 Razzaq Coleman (8 Dominic Morgan-Griffiths 45’)

Unused subs: Billy Dunn, Reece Cave, Liam Sallis, Sol Patterson-Bohnen

Goals: n/a

Bookings: Edward Dines 89’

Referee: Elliot Swallow

Attendance: 1,001

Man of the Match: Harvey Bradbury, a great performance by the young striker who dominated the opposition defence and took the match ball home.