Lainton (7) Made 2 excellent saves and clattered by their CF.
Carrington (7) A few mistakes but mostly sound.
Lawlor (7) Excellent in first-half but strong throughout.
Pearson (7) Strong and organised the defence but his distribution was mostly poor.
Kennedy (7) Best game in a while.
Jennings (6) Better than of late but remains a weak link.
Rutherford (5) Effort as per usual, but little influence.
Young (7) He and Jarvis kept the midfield going in the first-half.
Summerfield (7) Great strike for the goal but looked slow and wayward in the first-half. Big improvement in the second, and excellent penalty.
Jarvis (7) Improved as the game progressed. Did more and better than Redmond and Grant combined. Exciting signing and hope his injury isn’t serious.
Hooper (6) Isolated up front but kept going. However, he did fluff his chances, which raises concerns.
Subs:
Keillor-Dunn (6) Looked a bit rusty but has ability. If we can play he and Jarvis together we will be a threat.
Reid - Lent back and missed a glorious chance.
Oswell - Should have come on earlier.
Woking were a very cynical team and look a mid-table finisher. However, that does not belittle our performance yesterday.
I still think this 5-3-1-1 formation is too defensive — especially at home — and ask if it is to protect Pearson and negate having a weak midfield. With these 2 new signings — with the prospect of yet more new faces before the window shuts — there may be scope to revert to a standard 4-4-2, especially as we have no one capable of doing the wing-back roles.
Finally, although still far from convinced by Keates, he does deserve some credit. He has identified 2 improvements in our failing midfield, and dropped the ‘undroppable’ Grant. Keates has his faults, but credit where credit is due. However, we still have a long way to go, but talk of his losing the dressing-room also seems bollox when judging the effort yesterday. Could it be that Grant was the spanner in the works?
All-in-all, more efforts like yesterday will ensure we ease away from danger. Well done Keates, players and — dare I say it — the Board for supporting Keates with the necessary resources. That doesn’t mask previous poor decisions or the set-up of the WST, but it gives some hope that they are beginning to listen. I hope so because no one wants this club to fail. Despite yesterday’s optimism, we still have a massive task to stay up, with no room to let up the work rate.