IT’S SUPER LUKER FOR CARDS IN A THRILLER
SUBSTITUTE Jayden Luker’s quite brilliant stoppage-time strike helped boost Woking’s National League survival hopes in a thrilling 3-2 victory over Dagenham & Redbridge.
The Luton Town loanee put the game to bed with a stunning effort into the top corner after Kevin Berkoe had restored Woking’s lead with five minutes remaining.
Jermaine Anderson had earlier opened the scoring for the hosts, cancelled out five minutes later by Dagenham’s Ryan Hill.
Sub Conor Lawless still had time to net a second for Daggers after Luker’s effort but the Cards saw out a tense finale to go five points clear of the relegation places.
“We showed a lot of character,” Cards boss Michael Doyle said.
“We had the confidence in us with the attacking players we had on the bench that came down to key moments.
“We changed a lot of personnel and style of play. We brought the age of the squad down and made some bold changes based on the situation. We wanted a younger/hungrier type of player and got a good balance to help us pick up points.”
Woking flew out of the box and almost scored twice – through Reece Grego-Cox’s header and Scott Cuthbert’s driven effort – before they took on the lead on five minutes.
Daggers keeper Elliot Justham couldn’t deal with a free-kick under pressure from Luke Wilkinson and Anderson steered the ball into the empty net.
Six minutes later, the visitors equalised against the run of play. Justham’s goal-kick was flicked on by Josh Rees into the path of Hill, who capitalised on the loose ball and coolly slotted the ball past keeper Will Jaaskelainen.
Hill then forced Jaaskelainen into a fingertip save with a curling effort, before Rees blasted a shot over just before half-time.
By now, the Daggers were in cruise control and Josh Hare came closest from an inch-perfect free-kick that went inches wide of the near post.
The former Eastleigh defender had another goal scoring chance after meeting Jake Hessenthaler’s corner and headed the ball across goal that was cleared off the line by Cuthbert.
But just when it looked like it was the visitors who were shaping up for a winner, Luker threaded a superb pass onto Berkoe at the edge of the box and he coolly lifted the ball over Justham to score.
Luker turned goalscorer himself three minutes into stoppage time with his delightful effort past Justham into the far top corner from the edge of the box, deeming Lawless’ towering finish into the bottom corner as mere consolation.
Daggers boss Ben Strevens said: “Whenever you score two goals, you should at least get a point and having players playing out of their preferred position wasn’t ideal either. We weren’t settled as a defensive unit to try and be the best version of ourselves.”