City fall again in the Trophy to Woking

Oxford City finished with ten men as Woking knocked them out of the FA Trophy for the second season running, narrowly winning 1-0.

Although the better side were the victors, City will have felt they could have snatched something from the game, however the sending off of Jose Lapoujade for a second bookable offence left them with an uphill task in the last ten minutes.

Woking had taken the lead through Joe Quigley five minutes before half time, and were good value for their lead. However they weren’t able to make heir dominance count with more goals.

Having swung the changes for the midweek Oxfordshire Senior Cup tie against Banbury United, Justin Merritt made three changes from the side that started the abandoned match at Whitehawk last weekend. Matt Bevans, who was cup tied, Lee Henderson and Kynan Isaac were replaced by David King, Adrian Santiago and Julen Lafuente. New loan signing Matt Whichelow was also cup tied.

After Cheltenham Town widely a very inexperienced side in the last round against City, Woking have made a point of taking this competition seriously. They made only two changes from their 2-2 draw with Barrow last weekend, with starts for Shaun Jeffers and Keiran Murtagh.

Woking had most of the early chances, with Jeffers, who joined the Cards on loan from Yeovil Town in the week, coming closest after being given plenty of space to shoot, but Marlon Jackson shot over for City after good build-up play from the visitors.

It was a tough battle for City, and Santiago looked liked he would have to go off with a shoulder injury, and was clearly in some pain, but was able to shake it off eventually.

Meanwhile goalkeeper Laurie Walker got on the back on of the Woking fans behind the goal, after going down injured when punching away the ball. A foul was given, and they clearly felt he was making the most of it. He got plenty of grief from them for the rest of the half.

Lapoujade, captain in place of the injured Darren Pond, then somewhat harshly found himself in the referee’s book for a shirt pull. Innocuous enough, but it would come back to haunt him later.

Bradley Bubb, who counts Woking amongst his former clubs, didn’t have many opportunities, and he didn’t make the most of those he did have, with two tame strikes easy pickings for Woking keeper Jake Cole.

As the half wore on, Woking were starting the turn the screw, and individual errors started to creep into Oxford City’s game.

They had a let off when Quigley shot barely wide from just outside the box, but weren’t so lucky when he had another chance a few moments later, with their defence falling apart and the Woking striker able to fire the ball into the top corner, leaving Walker and Jon Arzamendi left arguing over the blame.

Thrice Woking came close to doubling the lead before half time, with Bruno Andrade and Cameron Norman having chances deflected then Jeffers hit the side netting. Bubb came close for Oxford, his cross-shot beating Cole but didn’t quite have the direction to go in.

Early in the second half City had a good shout for a penalty, with Jackson being going down in the box, but the referee didn’t think it was a foul. He looked miffed, but tellingly there were no great appeals from the noisy City contingent behind the goal.

He was soon to be replaced by the Oxford United loanee James Roberts, although the youngster failed to make a huge impression on the game.

City had further chances, with Lapoujade’s header on goal deflected out and the following corner resulting in a big scramble in the box, but in truth Woking were on top, although City worked well to limited their chances on goal.

When they did test Walker, he proved his worth, with two excellent saves off John Goddard, the latter after the red card, and another save as substitute Giuseppe Sole and Jeffers combined in the air.

There was still every chance of City snatching something from the game, but once Lapoujade saw his second yellow, it was pretty much game up for them, an unwelcome reminder of the game here last season, when Santiago had seen red.

They tried to defy the man disadvantage, but an equaliser never looked like coming, and the hosts were able to comfortably see the game out to deservedly secure a place in the Quarter Finals of a competition they have won three times in the past.

So a disappointing end to a record-breaking Trophy campaign for City (their first time in the last 16), and not the result their superb fans deserved, but attention will now by solely focused on the League (give or take a couple of Senior Cup matches), looking to make up on lost ground in their promotion chase.

Woking: Cole, Norman, Griffiths, Saah, Jones, Ricketts, Murtagh, Andrade (Smith 82′), Goddard, Jeffers (Robinson 77′), Quigley (Sole 68′). UNUSED SUBS: Hamann, Caprice.
Oxford City: Walker, King, Lapoujade, Benjamin, Arzamendi, Santiago, Jackson (Roberts 51′), Fleet, Bubb, McDonagh (Pifarre 71′), Lafuente. UNUSED SUBS: Henderson, Patterson, Awadh.

Attendance: 923