Cards begin Surrey Senior Cup campaign against FA Vase winners

Woking vs Chertsey Town
Surrey Senior Cup – First Round
Tuesday 3rd December 2019

The Cards kick-off their quest for a first Surrey Senior Cup title since the 2016/17 season on Tuesday evening when they host the reigning FA Vase champions Chertsey Town at the Laithwaite Community Stadium.

Woking, who have won the competition three times this decade – in 2012, 2014 and 2017, all under Garry Hill – hold the record for the most Surrey Senior Cup final appearances (29), and they’ll be aiming to bring up number 30 by the end of the season. Only Dulwich Hamlet (16) and Sutton United (15) have won the competition on more occasions than the Cards (13).

Last season, Alan Dowson’s side were knocked out in the quarter-final by Banstead Athletic, having comfortably beaten Croydon and Egham Town in the previous rounds. With the focus firmly on promotion from the National League South, Dowse used the competition as an opportune moment to take a look at youngsters and other fringe players, with Jack Skinner emerging as one of the standout players with four goals across the three games, including a hat-trick against Croydon. Expect to see the likes of Nathan Collier, Manny Parry, Max Kretzschmar, Jake Gray, Paul Hodges and Ibrahim Meite against Chertsey, plus a number of players from the Cards’ successful and highly thought of academy.

Last season’s winners were Metropolitan Police who defeated Tooting & Mitcham United 2-0 in the final. In 2018, Merstham beat Leatherhead 3-1, avenging a 4-0 defeat to Woking in the final the previous season.

Chertsey, also known as the Curfews, currently play in the Isthmian League South Central, the eighth tier of English football, three divisions below Woking. They are newly promoted to the league after winning the Combined Counties League Premier Division last season – part of a league and cup double – their first honours of any kind since winning the Southern Combination Cup in 1999. They have made one previous appearance in a Surrey Senior Cup final – losing 2-0 to Sutton in 1986.

The Curfews played 10 games in last season’s Vase before reaching Wembley, where they beat Cray Valley Paper Mills 3-1 after extra time, whilst their squad included former Woking winger Dale Binns. Now under new manager Kevin MacLaren, they are currently sitting in an impressive fifth place in the league table, occupying the last of four play-off places. They’ve taken 25 points from their first 15 league games, scoring 38 goals in the process, led by the division’s top scorers Jake Baxter and Lubomir Guentchev, who have netted 11 each.

There are reduced admission prices for this game - £10 for adults and £5 for concessions – so come along if you can and cheer on the teams!