Cards don't fall despite Bees presence

Entertaining game marred by contentious decisions

Woking vs Barnet warm ups

Woking away. The last time I was in that stadium was to witness a final game of the 2019-20 season before we got locked down and the season was halted for most. That night was a Barnet masterclass in the driving rain, something worth getting wet to witness at the time.

Tuesday night was a much different story, both the Bees and the Cards enjoying fruitful seasons so far and both expected to feature in the play-off’s in around five weeks’ time, but placings as yet unknown and up for grabs.

Having dispatched the hosts earlier in the season another double was lined up but Woking had massively improved and if it wasn’t for the two outrageous teams at the top they would be leading the table closely pursued by Chesterfield and Barnet.

No rain this time around, a dry night on the terrace although not so for young Max who had consumed enough wet stuff to have literally no idea what was going on around him, and consequently probably only knows what happened during the game by watching the highlights on Wednesday.

He missed a pretty decent game if you take out the performance of one man, but we’ll get to him a little later on. The hosts were tentative, almost afraid to attack and Barnet made all the early running, no surprise to see the visitors take the lead through Harry Pritchard, a sweetly curled strike days after the clincher at Wealdstone.

That makes it 13 for the season from the impressive midfielder, a crazy number of goals but some oh so crucial this year, he’s firmly a player of the year contender.

I expected that to draw Woking out, but it didn’t and the Bees should have had two or three more during the first 35 minutes, Woking then finally woke up and the pressure cranked up for the final ten minutes of the half, their best chance however volleyed over from three yards out by Rhys Browne, more on that a little later too.

As expected though after the tepid first half showing, Woking came out for the second half. And within just four minutes they were level, Browne afforded too much space with no pressure to close him down and fired past Laurie Walker, the keeper rooted to the spot.

Now, there was something that preceded that goal which I will also allude to a bit later in the piece, these points are stacking up.

The Bees did struggle to clear their lines and their own penalty area, such was the level Woking finally moved up to, indebted to some dogged defending and superb saves from Walker.

Woking were coming good constantly, but Barnet almost snatched the lead back, Dale Gorman beating former Bee Craig Ross in the Woking net but not the crossbar.

14 minutes to go and Woking are given a penalty, looked like a stonewall effort at first glance, on the replay shown by the highlights it looked minimal contact by Dom Revan on the Woking player at best, Browne stepped up only for Walker to go the right way and pull off a fantastic save.

The odd counter came our way but the pressure was still coming from the hosts and they were awarded another penalty in the 90^th minute, absolutely nothing in it with both players holding each other, Browne again stepped up and Walker once again was equal, another magnificent save to keep the scores level.

The six minutes of stoppage time passed without much incident, the points shared at the end of a very good game worthy of two sides battling out for the top spots below the runaway title contenders.

Now from that I’ve taken the good points from this contest but only if you take out the performance of the man in the middle Daniel Middleton. I am loathe to criticise referee’s, because I wouldn’t do their job for all the money in the world but there are occasions when they really do get my moan.

Now, this man has form. He was in charge for our Boxing Day win over Boreham Wood, a game he let get out of control resulting in two red cards, one of which for Nicke Kabamba was overturned. When you analyse his record over the course of the season, he likes a card, red or yellow.

Eight cards he dished out in this game alone on Tuesday night, are we suggesting here that every game he seems to control it’s the players at fault all the time? One of the managers after the game alluded to the fact he’s still a National League referee after four or five years, one EFL game he’s had this year, tends to speak volumes.

Now, above I mentioned a few points I needed to come to later and here they are courtesy of Mr Middleton. The first, the missed chance from Browne, clearly seen on the highlights and something I felt when I saw it live the ball rolled down his shoulder onto his arm before he skied the shot. Neither the referee nor the assistant on that side took the blindest bit of notice despite good views for both.

The next point, Woking’s equaliser came from a goal kick that was a corner, again clear view for the hapless official to see who the last touch came off, a poor decision which cost the visitors.

And onto the penalties. The first I can understand being given, but it’s far from clearcut from the highlights replay, poor judgement once again. The second was laughable, both players were holding each other and he took the easy option.

If you watch just the 20 minute package Woking put out you can pick around half a dozen holding fouls not given across the pitch, mainly for Barnet but a few the other way, so why decide to give that one in the penalty area? Complete lack of consistency, well he was consistent in not giving any holding fouls until that one I guess.

His use of the advantage was just as poor, no clue to if he was playing on with no arm movement to suggest he was allowing play to continue nor was it right to on most occasions, there was no advantage!

For both managers to go and see him at half time tells you all you need to know, the game was about him and not the 22 players, I don’t like that about a referee, it screams a poor performer to me. It was a complete contrast to the weekend where the game against Wealdstone was controlled pretty well for a local derby.

Testament to both sides they managed to put on a great game of football, it didn’t need his chaotic involvement and I hope not to see him again this season anyway.

Anyway, a good point towards the total but the biggest game of the season to come this weekend, 90 minutes from Wembley, the closest since 1972 to a trip to Wembley, great strides made this season so far, this could be the largest step yet……………..