On a night of limited clear cut chances it was Woking who profited from two defensive errors to claim the three points and get their National league campaign off and running.

Following a very encouraging opening day performance against Wrexham, Mark Goldberg named an unchanged side for the visit to Woking hoping to carry on the positive start to the season.  For the first thirty four minutes of the first half Goldberg would have been content as both sides cancelled each other out well. The only genuine opportunity in this period of the match came with Woking’s first attack of the game inside the first two minutes. A break from midfield by Keiran Murtagh resulted in a fierce low drive that had to be well saved by Alan Julian diving at full stretch.

However the deadlock was eventually broken in the thirty fifth minute of the game. A floated ball into the Bromley area was inadequately dealt with by Ugo Udoji which allowed a quick thinking Giuseppe Sole to seize on the loose ball and play in John Goddard who flicked the ball in from close range. In the context of the game it wasn’t a lead Woking deserved but they had been clinical enough to seize on the first critical mistake of the match.

The goal aside the only other telling moments of the first half came courtesy of two enforced substitutions, in the eighteenth minute of the game injury forced Lee Minshull off to be replaced by Reece Prestedge. Shortly after the Woking goal, Bromley captain Rob Swaine was forced off with a shoulder injury to be replaced by Jack Holland. That Bromley had lost two of their starting line-up before half time leaving them with only one available substitution put Goldberg in a difficult position as to how to later affect the game. Thus the onus was on Bromley to keep the game tight enough for a third substitution to be a game-changer if possible.

Alas within seven minutes of the restart, Bromley found themselves two nil down and once again it came courtesy of Woking taking advantage of Bromley’s failure to clear their lines. A teasing cross by Kadell Daniel was intercepted by Jack Holland only for Alan Julian to have to make a fantastic reaction save to keep out Holland’s interception. However whilst Julian was able to also parry Sole’s follow up, Bromley defenders were not able to clear the ball and Goddard was on hand to smash the loose ball into the net. Julian appeared aggrieved at what he felt was a foul on him by Sole but despite strong remonstration with the assistant referee the goal stood.

With Bromley now needing to chase the game, Mark Goldberg played his last available hand by replacing Moses Emmanuel with Louis Dennis.  Yet for all their endeavour in the second half and nice approach play led by the lively Anthony Cook, Bromley lacked finesse and a cutting edge in the final third as well as being continually thwarted by the excellent Woking backline. Indeed the best Bromley had to show for their night’s work was a Bradley Goldberg effort, in the seventy second minute, from the edge of the penalty area that was gathered at the second attempt by Jake Cole in the Woking goal.

The remainder of the second half played out to little or no incident as Bromley endured a frustrating reality check. Despite never being out of the game or vastly inferior to their opponents, the match instead gave Mark Goldberg valuable insight as to the subtle differences at the National league level. Essentially Woking were clinical in the final third, Bromley were not.

With a visit to title favourites Grimsby Town up next for Bromley on Saturday, Mark Goldberg will no doubt have plenty to consider over the course of the week.

 

Woking:  Cole, Caprice (Newton 83), Arthur, Ricketts , Saah, Yakubu, Jones, Murtagh, Daniel (Andrade 64) Goddard, Sole (Poku 79)

Subs not used: Hamann, Beckles

Goals:  Goddard 36, 52

 

Bromley:  Julian, Udoji, Swaine (Holland 40), Francis, Anderson, Cook, Fuseini, Minshull (Prestedge 20), Emmanuel (Dennis 64), Wall, Goldberg

Subs not used: May, Joseph-Dubois

 

Attendance: 1507

Referee: Derek Eaton