MATCH PREVIEW | THE CARDINALS
Under The Lights For The Surrey Derby
Dorking return to league action on Tuesday evening as they made the short journey across Surrey to face Woking at The Laithwaite Community Stadium.
Wanderers will be hoping to follow up Saturday's 3-1 victory over Wealdstone with another positive result and performance as the most congested period of league fixtures within the season continues ahead of hosting Aldershot on Saturday and consecutive midweek away trips to Halifax Town and Torquay United.
Ryan Seager's brace on Saturday took the striker's tally to 6 goals in the league so far, and in tandem with Harry Ottaway opening his account after an impressive second half display coming off the bench, Marc White will be hoping his forwards can carry that momentum on through the busy run of upcoming games. Seb Bowerman continued his good form since arriving from Bracknell Town a few weeks back with a hand in all three goals on Saturday, whilst the return of Dan Lincoln and Ed Harris in the defensive department was a welcomed boost.
Harris is likely to be in contention for Tuesday night's game after going off with cramp on Saturday, but defensive colleagues captain Barry Fuller and Isaac Philpot will remain ruled out for the next few weeks.
Opposition Focus: The Cardinals
Wanderers will take on a Woking side currently 3 points ahead of them in the league table, occupying the final play-off place of 7th. With just 1 defeat in the last 5 games, Darren Sarll's men have been in good form of late, with an impressive 2-0 home win over Solihull Moors and emphatic 0-4 victory away to Halifax Town proceeding defeat over Gateshead up in the North East on Saturday. The Cardinals ran out 1-3 winners at The International Stadium with goals from Reece Grego-Cox, Jermaine Anderson and Luke Wilkinson securing the points. The only defeat in the last month came at home to current league leaders Notts County, The Cardinals losing the game 2-3.
Manager Darren Sarll took up the reigns back in March after leaving Yeovil Town. Sarll appointed manager in Yeovil's first season back in the National League in 2019/20 and led the Somerset club to the play-off places ahead of back-to-back mid-table finishes in the past two campaigns. Prior to Yeovil, Sarll had spells at youth manager at Brentford and as first team boss with Stevenage in the football league.
Firmly putting his mark on the squad during the summer, Sarll signed player's he had previously worked with to shore up the defensive area, with Luke Wilkinson and Dan Moss following the manager over from their time at Yeovil and Scott Cuthbert reuniting from the days at Stevenage. Up the top end of the field, forward Reece Grego-Cox re-joined The Cardinals for a second spell after leaving the club at the conclusion of the 2018-19 season, spending three seasons at Crawley Town, whilst further fire power has been added in the form of young striker James Daly from Stevenage and the experienced Padraig Amond, who was prolific in his time at this level for Grimsby Town before playing for Newport County and Hartlepool in the football league.
A fortnight ago the front-line was bolstered further with the surprise signing of Rhys Browne from Wealdstone. With 7 goals to his name already for The Stones this term, Browne will provide real competition in attack with Greggo-Cox whose also on 7 so far and Daly who's found the net 6 times.
Have We Met Before?
The teams last met at The Laithwaite Community Stadium back in February 2020 in the quarter-final stage of the Surrey Senior Cup. Wanderers ran out 0-1 winners, a Jack Barham penalty just before the half-hour mark enough for Marc White's side to advance into the next round of the competition which unfortunately never reached a conclusion due to the impact of Covid-19.
KEY INFO
KICK-OFF: 7:45pm
ONLINE TICKETS: Adults £20 / Concessions £15 / Next Gen (16-22) £12 / U16s £5
Available Here: https://wokingfc.ktckts.com/event/wok2223h8/woking-vs-dorking-wanderers
Extra £2 per ticket if paid on the gate
Physical matchday programmes will be onsale at the game!
Gary Pascoe will be providing live match commentary via Mixlr, check out the Dorking Wanderers official Twitter account for information on how to tune in.
Matchday updates will be running on our Twitter page throughout the afternoon @DorkingWDRS
Getting To The Laithwaite Community Stadium:
https://www.wokingfc.co.uk/directions/