BRENNAN IN A RAGE AND CARDS TAKE ADVANTAGE
A GOAL in each half saw Woking cruise to a comfortable victory over a Barnet outfit that suffered from a large dose of “After the Lord Mayor’s Show” following their midweek win over high -flying local rivals Boreham Wood.
Goals either side of the break from Woking’s Moussa Diarra and Jamar Loza clinched a second straight victory for Ian Dyer’s men.
Barnet head coach Dean Brennan was not a happy man.
“All in all, that was a rubbish performance,” he raged. “We started well, but I was not happy with our response once we went 1-0 down. They were more street-wise than us. I feel sorry for our supporters having to watch that!
“We’re missing a few players and that has cost us but the lads that came in, didn’t do themselves justice.
The pitch was rubbish but resilience is an issue, I can’t see one positive. Our experienced players were poor and today I am not prepared to defend them.”
Brennan’s men forced the issue in the opening moments, winning numerous corners, with forward Ephron Mason-Clark coming closest early on.
Tyreke Johnson then had a shot pushed wide by Aymen Azaze in the Barnet goal in the 15th minute and from the resulting corner the visitors took the lead.
With the Barnet rearguard in total disarray following Max Kretzschmar’s in swinging corner, defender Diarra scored when he outstretched a long leg to poke the ball over the line.
The Woking defence was superbly marshalled by veteran Tom Champion. The 35-year-old Barnet-born centre-back, who enjoyed two spells with the Bees, repeatedly used all his experience to nullify Barnet as an attacking force.
Striker George Oakley, with his first start for the Cards since his summer move from Kilmarnock, gave the visitors’ attack a powerful physical presence and enabled the visitors to take the play up the pitch.
Two freekicks from Rob Hall gave the home side some hope that all was not lost, but the Bees looked a disjointed outfit and on the day the visitors showed more desire.
In the 86th minute, sub Loza displayed remarkable calmness in front of goal before arrowing the ball into the bottom corner to give the game a score line that more accurately reflected the disparity between the teams.
Cards boss Dyer added: “That was not one for the purists, but we knew what to expect as in midweek we had seen Barnet out-muscle Boreham Wood – and not many teams do that.
“We had to do the basics right, and we did that today, but it’s difficult to get the ball down and play on a pitch like that.
“I wasn’t overly pleased with our display in the first half, but in the second we had a better balance.”