6s WARD OFF SPIRITED WOKING COMEBACK

The 6s’ expansive approach has seen goals flying in from all angles during pre-season but, on a Woking pitch baked asphalt hard by the late summer sun, settled touches and opportunities to work the ball into the opposition box proved difficult to come by.

During the early part of the game, though, it became apparent that Wokes’ goalkeeper had something of a penchant for wandering off his line. A few shots from distance which went narrowly wide failed to deter him so it was just desserts when Mendes’ lofted effort from 30 yards looped over the keeper’s head and dropped just under the cross bar to give Boro the lead.

Shortly afterwards, perhaps overcompensating for his earlier tendency to roam, Woking’s keeper then inexplicably stayed rooted to his line when a Boro corner was whipped right into the middle of the six yard box. The bouncing ball could have gone anywhere but ended up rebounding into the net off the knee of an unfortunate defender.

Come half time, the scoreline remained 2-0. Neither goal had been one for the purists but Boro had had the lion’s share of possession and were deservedly ahead.

Poor defending, however, opened the door for Woking on the hour mark as we allowed them to score from a scrappy corner to make it 2-1. Boro’s response was positive, streaming forward in search of another, decisive goal in a period of sustained attacking that saw Swirkowski denied twice and Skalicky’s long range wonder strike miraculously tipped over the bar.

But, alas, the sought after goal was not forthcoming and, on 86 minutes, an unfortunate ricochet in our box caught Sweeney’s arm and the referee had no option to give a penalty, which was scuffed past our wrongfooted keeper and into the bottom corner.

As Woking players celebrated their equaliser and Wandsworth heads dropped at the prospect of having to play 30 minutes extra time under the sun’s unforgiving rays, the referee pointed again to the spot, having apparently been the only person in attendance to spot an illegal encroachment by a Woking player before the penalty had been taken.

Their penalty taker duly stepped up and sidefooted the ball calmly at Andy Ward, who managed to scramble the ball to safety – sparking scenes of wild jubilation among the watching crowd of three people.

Dejected, Woking posed no further problems as we closed out the remaining few minutes before heading for a well-earned victory repast of floppy burgers and cheap beer.