Barnet 2 Woking 0
Vanarama National League
Saturday 20th August 2022
A trip away to the league’s early leaders was the task in hand for The Cards, following two impressive home wins both garnering clean sheets to boot. Leaving home comforts behind, the short trip to North London proved to be an evenly contested clash where the visitors would be making their way back to Surrey slightly aggrieved of not taking a deserved point with them.
Darren Sarll saw fit to reward the same XI that won well on Tuesday with starting places, the start itself being delayed by five minutes, owing to the delayed arrival of the visitors from Surrey. Craig Ross and Reece Grego-Cox were return to North London to face their former side. Facing them would be former Cards Nicke Kabamba, who has been in rich scoring form in August, and Moussa Diarra who returned to Barnet’s bench.
The opening exchanges showed neither side demanding immediate control of the match, the first glimpse of possible threat came in the fifth minute when Amond had space to control the ball in the box, only to trip over ball. Soon after, Ricky Korboa began what would become a fruitful spell of up field efforts throughout the first 45, as he carved out a good attack down the left for Woking.
This was a continuing pattern, as Korboa prospered plentifully down the left, either forging chances for himself to get off a shot, or setup teammates. Sadly, for the vocal travelling support, none were capitalised on to break the deadlock. Amond and Grego-Cox were kept relatively quiet for large durations, meaning snap chances only presented themselves to Korboa and Kellerman, though only driving attempts that fell outside the box, going amply off target.
Minutes before the break, pressure built via Woking’s captain who attacked down the left, crossed in, to Lofthouse who knocks it to Moss on the right, corner to visitors. The resulting corner punched in by Casey, met Cuthbert’s head at the back post, a melee ensued, only for Amond to snatch at it and then be blocked, the ball gathered by Walker.
Nicke Kabamba was a thorn in the side of his former team, as the lion’s share of the hosts’ attacks went through him and as the sides traded blows, attack after attack, his interplay with De Havilland and Mason-Clark gave the home crowd hope whilst drawing the first proper save of the match, though it fell comfortably for Ross.
On the cusp of half time, it was those two who combined, with Mason-Clark attacking down the right wing, then skidded a cross along the deck to find Ryan De Havilland in the box to tuck it home The goal brought to a close a half that, in truth, had very few gilt edge chances and that left Woking how they were heading in behind at the interval.
Half-time: Barnet 1 Woking 0
The visitors made a change at half time to bring the returning James Daly on for the creative Ricky Korboa. The half also started brightly for Sarll’s men, with Grego-Cox finding himself more involved in the play, when he broke down the right. His pace allowed himself to position well, playing a one-two with Lofthouse, to then float a cross into the front post, but headed just over.
New man Daly looked lively from his first forays on the pitch, being involved in good attacking work from The Cards. He required treatment having drawn a foul from Ben Wynter’s high boot, leading to a free kick drifted in by Wilkinson, that then provided a corner in front of the travelling faithful. It was flown in by the dependable Kellerman and met at the back post by Rohan Ince, who headed back across the goal, but over the bar. The woodwork got its first of many workouts on the 55-minute mark, as De Havilland stuck cleanly from the right, which passed Ross, but rattled the left post and then out for a goal kick past a relieved Ross.
Kyran Lofthouse battles past his man
Phil Fiddes
By now the hour mark, play had become more committed with both sides forging more chances, granting the crowd to be encouraged, with a more boisterous atmosphere as a result. This was typified by Daly, who challenged hard and well in the middle of the field, then took the ball on, decided to shoot, but drove it well wide. In close pursuit was Grego-Cox, who’s pace again took him through the Bees’ defence down the middle and into the box, skipped across two tackles, then drew a foul; a penalty was claimed by the travelling support, but play on was the referee’s call.
Kabamba persisted in the second half and played out to the right from the centre circle, leading to a dangerous attack into the box by Barnet substitute Rob Hall, but he was foiled for a corner. An immediate Woking counterattack from the resulting play, led to Amond in space on the right crossing into the impactful James Daly on the edge of Barnet’s box, but failed to control and danger was averted. Not for long though, as minutes later it was Woking’s time to test the woodwork with a powerful shot by Kyran Lofthouse from the left, proving small margins were to decide the outcome.
Following a ball out wide to the right chased down by Dan Moss and Sam Beard, a 50/50 challenge left Beard on the floor requiring the physio. High spirits boiled over in the dugouts with a disagreeing words and actions were shared between the benches, with managers needing to be separated.
One dugout was celebrating soon after, however, as the Bees were awarded a corner on the left, it was played deep, missed by the first attacker but netted by the head of Ben Wynter for the hosts to make it two
Nine minutes of stoppage time granted the men from Surrey further chances, including a strong run from Lofthouse on the left, who cut in, beat 3 men, then being brought down on the edge of the box. Kellerman bent the free kick in low, drawing a save from Walker, who parried just beyond the boot of the awaiting Daly. The final minute saw an effort from Amond, dragged wide following a nice flick down from Daly.
Sarll will feel that it could have been a different outcome, had more chances have been taken in the periods when they were on top against the hosts. This defeat leaves them all square with two wins, two defeats and zero goal difference, something that they’ll doubtlessly work towards rectifying when they next return home on the Bank Holiday weekend to face last season’s play-off semi-finalists Wrexham, in front of the BT cameras.
Barnet 1 Laurie Walker, 21 Ben Wynter, 4 Daniele Collinge, 6 Jerome Okimo, 8 Dale Gorman, 33 Ryan De Havilland, 23 Sam Beard, 32 Sean Shields (Robert Hall, ’64 (Moussa Diarra, ’91)), 11 Ephron Mason-Clark, 14 Harry Pritchard, 9 Nicke Kabamba
Unused subs: 18 Connor Smith, 12 James Callan, 44 Michael Phillips
Goals: De Havilland, 45’ Wynter, 82’
Bookings: Wynter, 83’
Woking: 13. Craig Ross, 12. Dan Moss, 6. Luke Wilkinson, 4. Scott Cuthbert, 3. Josh Casey (Tyreke Johnson,’71), 2. Kyran Lofthouse, 24. Rohan Ince, 17. Jim Kellermann, 7. Ricky Korboa (James Daly, 46’); 9. Reece Grego-Cox, 10. Padraig Amond
Unused subs: 1 Ethan Wady, 23 Jermaine Anderson, 5 Joe McNerney
Goals:
Bookings: Moss 75’, Kellerman 95’
Referee: Aaron Bannister
Attendance: 1,465 (280 Woking)
Man of the Match: James Daly – Whilst only playing one half, his impact in the second 45 opened up the match and he made sure he put himself amongst the chances that could have altered the outcome.
