We make the trip to Woking this evening as we look to return to winning ways in the Vanarama National League.
Defeat to Chesterfield at the weekend ended our six-game unbeaten run in all competitions, but we’re handed a swift opportunity to bounce back.
That’s something we’ve done well throughout the campaign – registering away wins against Harrogate and Boreham Wood on Tuesday evenings after losing three days previously on both occasions.
In fact, we’re unbeaten in midweek matches, and will hope to climb back into the play-off spots by 10pm tonight.
If we do, it may well be at Woking’s expense. The Cards are sixth but are on a 12-game winless run in all competitions.
They came out of the blocks flying, earning victories in seven of their eight matches in August, but they’ve not won since.
Woking come into this one on the back of a 1-1 draw against Eastleigh and both sides will be eager to take three points tonight.
The boss says…
“It’s about how we bounce back, and we’ve done that well throughout the season.
“It’s another test for us to do it again and pick up some points to get back in the play-offs.
“Woking show a lot of energy and have individual qualities one-on-one so they’ll cause lots of problems if we get stretched.
“They’ve probably surprised a lot of teams but you can see why they’ve won games, so we’ll have to be on our guard and do a lot of things right.”
Team news
Connell Rawlinson missed out at the weekend with a slight calf injury but Neal Ardley told the media on Monday afternoon that the centre half had returned to training and is in contention.
Nathan Tyson has been suffering with illness, so it remains to be seen whether he will make the trip to Surrey.
Woking boss Alan Dowson gave loan signing Glen Rea a debut at the weekend as he made five changes to his side.
Moussa Diarra, Nathan Collier and Jamar Loza came back in, as did top scorer Jake Hyde.
All will hope to be included again, with Tyreke Johnson the only injured player.
Head to head
We’ve met Woking just once before, back in 2004 in the first round of the FA Cup.
There were 4,700 in attendance at Meadow Lane to watch Julien Baudet and Gavin Gordon seal our 2-0 victory.
The officials
Referee: Gary Parsons
Assistants: Michael Chard and Hugh Gilroy
Fourth official: John Pike
Around the division
LV BET, the National League’s official betting partner, highlight the pick of the fixtures this evening...
Bromley v Stockport County
Top of the table Bromley ended a run of three defeats in four with an emphatic 5-0 win against FC Halifax Town on Saturday.
The leaders are now the second highest scorers in the division with 32 – an average of 1.7 goals per game.
Conversely, Stockport are struggling to find the target and have only bagged 19, but they were winners at Dover at the weekend – their first away victory in five attempts.
Sutton United v FC Halifax Town
Sutton slipped into the relegation places for the first time after their weekend defeat to Ebbsfleet United and have won just one in ten.
Third-placed FC Halifax Town haven’t scored in their past three matches and have let in seven in their last two.
Liam McAlinden, the Shaymen’s top scorer, has found the net seven times, while Sutton’s leading marksman is six-goal Harry Beautyman.
Torquay United v Wrexham
Torquay are the division’s top scorers with 33 but just two sides have conceded more than the 28 they have.
Wrexham have won only once in their last eight National League outings and still haven’t recorded a victory away from the Racecourse this season.
The Red Dragons were 4-0 winners in January 2018 when the sides last met.
Chorley v Ebbsfleet United
Bottom club Chorley have only lost once in five but they haven’t won since beating Stockport nine games ago.
They have only conceded two goals in nearly 500 minutes of football but have scored just once themselves in that five-game period.
On the other hand, Ebbsfleet have only failed to hit the target in three of their last 17 and ended a run of four straight National League defeats with victory at Sutton on Saturday.