Woking 0 Dorking Wanderers 1
Specsavers Surrey Senior Cup Quarter-Final
Tuesday 11th February 2020
Peter Moore at the Laithwaite Community Stadium
Dorking Wanderers knocked out National League side Woking at the quarter-final stage of the competition thanks to a first half spot kick from Jack Barnham on a bitterly cold night in Surrey.
Cards Manager Alan Dowson named a strong starting line-up, with new loan signing from Charlton Athletic Ben Dempsey starting. 16 year-old Jayden Wareham was also handed a start, partnering Alex Wall up front. For the visitors, former Woking favourite Giuseppe Sole was named on the bench.
It was the National League South side who started the brighter, forcing four corners in the opening ten minutes with Cards keeper Sam Howes coming off his line to comfortably deal with the threat.
Wanderers had the first clear cut chance of the game in the 14th minute when defender Isaac Philpot should have done better with his effort from inside the area but fired over.
A minute later it was the turn of the hosts to go close when a wayward pass was seized upon by Wareham who went through one on one with Wanderers stopper Slavomir Huk denying the youngster.
The deadlock was broken in the 27th minute when Josh Casey brought down Matthew Briggs in the box. Up stepped Jack Barnham to drill the spot kick straight down the middle.
The Cards were quick to respond with Alex Wall’s shot pushed on to the crossbar with Huk backtracking. Dorking almost doubled their advantage when James McShane’s effort was a whisker away from the top corner as the visitors went into the break with a deserved 1-0 lead.
Woking made a triple substitution at the restart with Dave Tarpey, Manny Parry and Jamar Loza entering the fray.
The Cards started the second half the better of the two sides and should have drawn level shortly into the half, but Alex Wall blasted over from inside the six-yard area. Wanderers keeper Huk almost handed Woking a lifeline when he passed the ball straight at the feet of Max Kretzschmar, but he recovered well to block his shot.
With ten minutes remaining Woking squandered another chance when an unmarked Wall sent a free header well wide. The Woking faithful had a chance to see Cards legend Sole- who was recently awarded the accolade of Woking player of the decade- when he came on with nine minutes to go.
It wasn’t to be Wall’s night as deep into added time after a through ball from Kretzschmar he put another shot wide of the mark as Woking’s participation in the competition ended in defeat.