Preview: Woking vs. Yeovil Town - prediction, team news, lineups

Woking will be seeking a little retribution when they welcome Yeovil Town to Kingfield Stadium in Surrey for another National League encounter on Saturday.

Last October, The Glovers won the opening league fixture between these teams (2-0) and followed that up with a 3-1 victory in their third-round FA Cup tie in December.

Match preview

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After a hard-fought victory over Wealdstone (2-0) last weekend, The Cardinals failed to maintain that momentum earlier this week, conceding a first-half strike to Jude Arthurs after 22 minutes, as they lost 1-0 to Bromley.

Alan Dowson has seen his side come out with plenty of intent in their matches so far in 2022, scoring after only seven minutes versus Aldershot Town and taking a 1-0 advantage on Saturday before that game was 20 minutes old.

Defensively, this group have had their issues throughout the campaign, conceding multiple goals in six of their final seven domestic encounters of 2021 and starting off the New Year by allowing three in the second half against the Shots, so to see goalkeeper Mark Smith only have to collect the ball out of his own net once in their previous two fixtures has to be somewhat encouraging.

They always seem to make their games interesting, mounting several comebacks, although this group have struggled to win when conceding first, losing five of their previous six contests when that has happened with the other match ending in a 1-1 draw.

Working well as a unit has been among the main messages from the coaching staff to the players as The Cards have shown some quality in attack, scoring 38 goals domestically, and the hope for this side moving forward is that they can improve when it comes to cutting out crosses and limiting the amount of opportunities that they allow the opposition in a game.

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Yeovil were able to start their match last Saturday the way Darren Sarll had hoped, although a couple of unfortunate breaks that did not go their way proved to be their undoing, as they have now dropped four successive league games, with the last three being by a 2-1 margin.

The final 45 minutes continue to plague this side, as eight of their last nine goals conceded in the league have come in the second half, including two to Wrexham last weekend.

It is hard to criticise this team given the energy and aggressive play that we have seen from them in recent games, but the Glovers continue to struggle when it comes to putting opposing sides away, and that is part of the reason Yeovil sit in 13th instead of being in the top half of the table.

Defending crosses has been a problem for them as well, as they have a tendency to panic when balls come into their six-yard-box, and there is some work to be done when it comes to dealing with them more effectively.

Creating enough space and chances has not always been as easy as it looked for them at times last Saturday, as they have scored the fourth-fewest goals domestically so far this season, though facing Woking seems to bring out their best quality, with five goals against them in their two encounters in this campaign.

Team News

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Louie Annesley will be suspended for this encounter after being sent off late in their defeat to Bromley earlier this week, while David Longe-King has made a solid early impact on loan from Grimsby Town, playing a full 90 minutes in each of his first two matches for his new side and providing some much-needed stability to the back end.

Tahvon Campbell is third in the league in goals with 13, two behind Michael Cheek of Bromley, but well back of the leader Kabongo Tshimanga from Chesterfield who has 21, while Max Kretzschmar has found the back of the net for Woking nine times in this campaign.

A controversial equalising goal from Wrexham forward Paul Mullin did not sit well with Yeovil Town as Dale Gorman took a knock to the head just before that, and an own goal from Morgan Williams with just over 10 minutes to play sent The Glovers to defeat last weekend.

Adi Yussuf and Tom Knowles each have two goals in their two games played against Woking this season, with Yussuf notching a brace in their 3-1 FA Cup victory in December, cancelling out the opener from Campbell.

Woking possible starting lineup:
M. Smith; Lofthouse, Longe-King, Casey, Diarra; Kretzschmar, Ince; Nwabuokei; Johnson, Kabamba, Campbell

Yeovil Town possible starting lineup:
G. Smith; Barnett, Little, Williams, Robinson; Staunton, Worthington, Gorman, Knowles; Yussuf, Reid

We say: Woking 1-1 Yeovil Town

These teams are evenly matched in many respects, possessing the same amount of points (31), while they seem to have opposing strengths, as Woking have some quality strikers who can find the back of the net, but Yeovil can counter that with a stingy backline who have only conceded 23 times in this campaign, so we do not expect either side to have a distinct advantage that will propel them to victory in this match.

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