With the season as a whole ending in 82 points, Woking’s second-best points total at this level ever, and their third-best by PPG (Conference seasons were 42 games for the two higher totals), a lot of satisfaction can be taken from Darren Sarll’s first full season in charge, both statistically and on the pitch.
Breaking it up into American-style ‘quarters’, we take a further look at how the metrics shaped the season for the Cards.
Q1 – A steady start
Of course, after an exciting pre-season, hopes were high heading to the York Community Stadium, but a comprehensive 2-0 defeat to York City was a far from ideal start to the season.
Nevertheless, home comforts were very welcoming for the Cards in the next week, as a 2-0 win over Dagenham and Redbridge, with goals from Rohan Ince and Reece Grego-Cox, the latter’s first since re-joining the club in the summer, was backed up by a Kyran Lofthouse double over newly relegated Scunthorpe United.
A 2-0 defeat at the Hive to Barnet and a 3-2 loss to Wrexham in front of the BT Sport cameras were followed by a 3-1 win at Torquay United, with James Daly grabbing three goals across the two games over the August Bank Holiday weekend. This left the Cards with nine points from their first six, three wins and three losses apiece.
September saw a 1-1 draw played out on BT Sport at Grosvenor Vale, with a cracker from Jermaine Anderson cancelling out the inevitable Max Kretzschmar penalty, before three wins from four left the Cards in a steady position at the end of September; only defeat to Maidenhead United at York Road put a dampener on a month in which 3-0 and 2-0 wins over Oldham and Solihull Moors were backed up by a 4-0 drubbing at the Shay over FC Halifax Town.
Jacob Greenwood, Woking fan and co-host of ‘CardsCast’ reflected on a positive start to the season following the defeat on opening day, adding “The response from the loss away at York City was impressive to say the least. Our defensive capabilities really shone through in the early part of the season and played a big part in our impressive form. Wins at home to, what we thought would be, bigger hitters such as Oldham Athletic and Scunthorpe United as well as last season’s play-off finalists Solihull Moors really set the tone for the season.”
19 points from 11 games meant that Woking temporarily sat 7th, with 19 goals scored and 10 conceded. Joint top scorers at this time were James Daly and Reece Grego-Cox, both with four goals.
Rohan Ince celebrates his goal against Dagenham
David Holmes
October started in a mixed fashion, with a 1-1 draw against Southend at Roots Hall followed by a 3-2 defeat at home to Notts County, but following this game, Woking wouldn’t lose another league fixture in their next eight.
Perhaps it has something to do with the acquisition of Rhys Browne, signed from Wealdstone for an undisclosed fee after scoring seven in his first thirteen for the Stones, who joined the night before a 2-1 victory in the FA Cup fourth qualifying round at home to Southend. This result was followed by a 3-1 win at Gateshead, before a 3-3 draw at home to Dorking saw Padraig Amond finally get his first two league goals for the Cards, with Browne getting his first as well.
It's important to note just how many Woking players have chipped in at crucial times with goals, as Jahmari Clarke, who only played two games for the club, was the scorer in a 1-0 win over Eastleigh, before Amond broke the resolve of Yeovil, scoring an 85th minute winner after having a penalty saved earlier on.
The wins (and clean sheets) kept on coming, as Bromley and Boreham Wood were defeated 2-0 and 1-0 away from home, two historic bogey teams for the Cards dealt with sufficiently, before an FA Cup tie at home to League One side Oxford United saw Woking edged out 2-1 in torrential rain in front of over 4,000 at the Laithwaite.
Ben Parker, lifelong Woking fan and News and Mail reporter, saw this period of the season as Woking’s best run, adding “I think that the Notts County game at home in October was quite a statement in regards to how well we played in that second half. Despite not coming away with anything, the belief from that saw us go on to be unbeaten in our next 9 out of 10 games in all competitions. This was arguably our best spell of the entire season as it even included four back-to-back clean sheets.”
A memorable stoppage time free kick from Amond salvaged a point at home to Altrincham, before Maidstone were blown away in a 3-1 win, with all three Woking goals coming in the second half. However, a frustrating 2-0 home loss to York was followed up by a 2-0 defeat to Eastleigh in the FA Trophy to give Cards fans a familiar feeling before the two Aldershot games, but the league table looked favourable heading into the festive season.
With just under half the league season gone, Woking had 40 points from 22 games, with 37 goals scored and 22 conceded. There was already a nine-point buffer between the Cards and eighth placed Boreham Wood. Top scorer was Reece Grego-Cox having scored 9 times in 19 games, with James Daly on 6 goals.
Celebrations after the second goal in the 2-0 win at Bromley
Phil Fiddes
With Boxing Day and New Years’ Day seeing Woking in 4th facing 18th placed Aldershot Town, first at the EBB Stadium and then the Laithwaite, the Cards were looking for their first league win in this fixture since 2016, and an event-packed game in Hampshire didn’t disappoint.
After an early Rhys Browne penalty, Woking doubled their lead with ten minutes to go courtesy of a Corey Jordan own goal, before Dan Moss was sent off for a second yellow card with minutes left, giving away a penalty in the process. Former Card Inih Effiong scored to ramp the nerves up inside the away end, but Woking held on for a superb victory.
Less than a week later, a sold-out crowd of 5,200 saw one of the best modern day Woking league victories at the Laithwaite, as Aldershot were beaten 4-1 courtesy of two Browne goals, former Shot Jim Kellermann, and Padraig Amond stealing the ball from Luca Ashby-Hammond and finishing into an empty net. This was Woking’s first league double over the Shots since 2016 and showed the ruthlessness of Sarll’s men.
With the festivities out of the way, Woking continued to close the gap on third placed Chesterfield, with back-to-back away wins; first a Rohan Ince inspired 2-1 win over Dagenham and Redbridge, followed by a 2-0 win over Scunthorpe United amidst all the chaos going on at the doomed Lincolnshire outfit. After this, Woking would win just one of their next six, however, it was arguably their best performance of the season.
Chesterfield were blown away by a 30 minute opening spell that saw Woking 3-0 up at the Technique Stadium, with goals from Amond, Daly and Kellermann giving the Cards dreams of third place and an automatic bye to the play-off semi-finals.
Before this, Woking had been held at home to relegation battling Torquay, followed by a 1-0 loss at in-form Eastleigh, and this result in Derbyshire was followed by a home draw with Boreham Wood, and a 2-2 away draw with Wrexham, the only point taken at the Racecourse by an away side all season. Q3 is rounded off with a 3-1 away loss at Altrincham, a 2-1 home win over Bromley and a 1-1 draw over Wealdstone with yet another Max Kretzschmar penalty.
And Jacob Greenwood once again reflected positively on the third quarter of the season, highlighting stand-out results over Christmas and in the two games against top three sides and adding, “Doing the double over Aldershot reignited our season after a difficult run up to Christmas, and is clearly one of the high points of the season.
“The away game took a lot of grit and determination to break our recent bad form against them, but seeing the team fire on all cylinders on New Year’s Day was the best game I’ve seen at Kingfield in years. Taking the game to both Chesterfield and Wrexham when playing them both away was impressive and those results are up there with the best this season.”
Woking ended February in third place with 62 points from 34 games, six points ahead of Barnet in fourth, seven ahead of Chesterfield in fifth, although both had two games in hand on the Cards, with top scorer now Rhys Browne with 10 goals for the club, Amond and Grego-Cox joint second on 9, despite the latter being injured since December.
The Cards blew away Chesterfield at the Technique Stadium
Phil Fiddes
Woking started March with a 1-0 away win over relegation threatened Yeovil courtesy of Lofthouse’s first goal since September, before a cruel 1-0 defeat at Boundary Park to Oldham Athletic in injury time. A comprehensive home win over Maidenhead seemed a crucial momentum builder before a crunch match at home to Chesterfield in front of the BT Sport cameras, but the Spireites ran out 1-0 victors, a real blow to the Cards’ hopes for third place.
This was followed by a dramatic 96th minute Padraig Amond winner at Maidstone United in a 2-1 win against the bottom club, before a frustrating home game saw Laurie Walker denying Rhys Browne twice from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw with Barnet.
A trip to Dorking on Good Friday saw over 1300 Woking fans treated to a goal of the season contender from Rohan Ince, whose double secured a 2-1 win, before the Cards confirmed their first ever play-off campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Southend. Two wins (2-1 at home to Gateshead and 1-0 at Solihull) and two losses (3-0 at Notts and 1-0 at home to Halifax) closed out the season with Woking reaching 82 points from 46 games, enough for a fourth place finish and a home eliminator.
Of course, it wasn’t to be on the night, as Bromley deservedly came out as 2-1 winners in front of over 5,000 at the Laithwaite after Ince’s stunner opened the scoring, but despite not making it over the line, there is plenty to reflect on from a hugely successful season.
Celebrations as the winner is scored at Dorking
David Holmes
Overall, Woking were consistent across all four quarters of the season, with PPG in Q1 of 1.72, in Q2 of 1.91, in Q3 of 1.83 and in Q4 of 1.67. To put this into context, a PPG of 1.60 was needed for 5th place, meaning that across all four quarters, Woking were on track for at least fourth place the whole season, where they ultimately finished, with an overall PPG of 1.78.
Rhys Browne, with 13 goals in 28 league games, finished as top scorer, and with 20 league goals across the season, finished as fourth top scorer across the league, whilst Josh Casey and Padraig Amond both registered 11 assists in the league.
15 Woking players scored a league goal for the club, whilst 17 registered an assist, with five Woking players (Browne, Amond, Grego-Cox, Ince and Daly) scoring 48 goals between them. Woking were the fifth highest scorers in the league (72) and the sixth best defence in terms of goals conceded (48).
Darren Sarll used 30 players across the season, with the second highest average age in the division at 28.9 years old on average, only behind Boreham Wood.
