Match summary
Well how do you summarise the performance today? Men v Boys springs to mind. There are some decent players in this team, who occasionally show glimpses of what they can do. However, time and time again the lads look like they met each other ten minutes before kick-off and have been thrown on the pitch clueless of each other’s strengths.
Things start off okay, with United seeing plenty of the ball without really having any clear-cut opportunities, and Woking creating a few half chances on the counter. Then on 22 minutes a sliced “hoof” clearance from McGinty gives away a corner, which Woking take short and catch United napping – the ball came to Ward outside the box, whose low shot finds the corner. From that moment on, United were beaten – never looking like getting back into the game. One soon became two, as our leaky defence showed again. James Gray pulled one back in first half added time, with a thunderbolt of a strike to give us an unlikely route back into the game.
Second half begins and we start on the front foot again without really testing the Woking keeper. A quick break down the left side on 51 minutes and it was 3-1 heads dropped again; seven minutes later it was 4. A good finish from Bawling, but he had way too much space for my liking. The introduction of Reid and Haworth brought a few good crosses in late on, but not one had a United forward attacking it with any conviction.
Full time 4-1 and we can count ourselves lucky that some poor 2nd half finishing from the home side kept it from being even more embarrassing.
Player Ratings
Lavercombe 2
Higgins 3 Klukowski 3 McGinty 2 Anderson 2
Gosling 3 Young 4 Gray 5
Keating 3 Fallon 2 Pittman 3
Subs: Reid 4 Haworth 4
Man of the Match
James Gray
Hard to pick out a stand out from the dire performance today, but for a forward playing in midfield he put in a shift and probably gets the nod for his wonder goal.
Honourable Mentions
The around 200 travelling members of the Yellow Army deserve a mention for giving up their bank holiday to watch this substandard performance. Well done to each and every one of you.
TU Goal
45+2: James Gray meets a Woking clearance from 25 yards out, catching the ball sweet into the corner and giving their keeper no chance. A special goal from a disappointing day.
The Opposition
We probably made Woking look better than they are – with pacey wingers and a big man up front they caused our defence all sorts of problems, whilst their defence had little to do from our lacklustre front three.
Tactics
4-3-3 is used today, probably through lack of options from Robbie due to the growing list of injuries! We certainly missed a defensive minded midfielder – Young, Gosling and Gray are very attack minded and didn’t offer much, if any, protection from our already shaky defence.
The Ref
Daniel Middleton was generally okay – he gave a few free kicks for some soft challenges that I have seen let go in other games this season, and did target Anderson for repeatedly creeping forward on throw ins (with the help of the Woking fans on that side!)
Player Spotlight
Sean McGinty
What has happened to the Sean that won ‘young player of the year’ last season? Maybe he is missing the calm, experienced head that Gowling showed in the Tranmere game. He seems a shadow of the player he was towards the end of last season – poor decisions and positioning let him down time and time again. Josh can’t come back soon enough!
Conclusion
Poor, poor, poor from the back to the front today. Other than the goal, it is certainly 90 minutes to forget! If the new gaffer was in the stands today, he will probably be having second thoughts from taking over this shamble.
It’s easy to blame the mounting injuries, and it certainly hasn’t helped losing players like Clarke, Gowling and Lee, but the lads out there are professionals and should be showing more of themselves. A new gaffer and hopefully two or three new faces are needed before Saturday if we are to stand any chance of taking so much as a point from Chester.
Karl Standeven – TT Contributor
