Woking 1

Northwich Vics 1

Nationwide Conference

Saturday, October 30

SWIRLING wind and torrential rain was always likely to make this rearranged game a scrappy affair - and the weather didn't let anyone down.

In fact, the whole day had something of a surreal quality about it, as the Vics players were forced to get changed en route to the ground after their coach had broken down.

After learning on the way to the original fixture in September that the pitch was too wet to play on, Vics will probably be glad that they have finally got the journey down to Kingfield Road out of the way.

With barely time for Vics to prepare for the game, and the home side starting with the advantage of a strong wind behind them, it was hardly surprising that Woking had the better of the early exchanges.

Firstly Scott Steele shot narrowly wide, and then Darren Hay was denied when Mark Devlin took the ball off him with the goal at his mercy.

However, it was Northwich who came close to scoring next when Liam Robinson crossed from the right and keeper Darryl Flahavan's fingertips narrowly diverted the ball out of the path of the incoming Gary Fletcher.

With seven minutes left in the first half, Vics were fortunate not to go behind when wing back Peter Smith headed against the post. In the resulting goalmouth scramble, Vics were grateful to concede just a corner.

With the wind at their backs in the second half, Vics' travelling fans were ready for their team to launch a serious offensive but, in keeping with the events of the day, Mark Gardiner's plans were disrupted again.

He was forced to bring off the promising Fletcher due to a knee injury and replace him with Ian Cooke, himself just returning from a long-term absence.

However, the substitute almost opened the Northwich account when he headed narrowly wide from a Jamie Bates cross.

Just as the game appeared to be heading for a tame draw, Woking substitute Nasseem Akrour unleashed a speculative shot from wide on the left. The ball appeared to take an unkind bounce and hit Lance Key on the chest before deflecting into the net.

This inspired the home side and Key made amends when first he smothered a shot from Steve Perkins when he was clean through, and then produced a last-ditch save in a goalmouth scramble to deny Grant Payne.

Deep into injury time, and with all seemingly lost, Bates flung one final cross into the box. This time it was the home keeper who was left to feel embarrassed when he misjudged the centre and allowed it to sail inside his far post.

Vics will be pleased to have come away with a point in what had proved difficult circumstances and much credit must go to the stoic performances of Dominic Crookes, John Robertson and Wes Simpson.

Vics: Key, Birch, Bates, Simpson (Vicary, 81 mins), Robertson, Devlin, Owen, Walters, Fletcher (Cooke, 46 mins), Robinson, Crookes. Subs not used: Gardiner, Prendergast, Gann.

Att: 1,606.

MoM: Dominic Crookes.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.