Woking 2-3 West Ham United – Morgan shines as Woking Lose.
By Declan McCarthy
Twitter: @Dec11mcc
Two attacking sides met on Tuesday night as Woking themselves played there last pre-season match against London side West Ham. As expected the London based side fielded a young team, mainly made up off under 18’s and it was Woking who kicked of the first half as both side’s looked very attacking from the off.
It was West Ham who went ahead, when a good cross from Kieran Sadlier met with striker Elliot Lee who had enough time to turn and hit home his 1st goal of the match. Woking tried to create opportunities throughout the 1st half, but there was just no end product as John Nutter crossed a ball into the box which was then flicked on by John Goddard only for Scott Rendall to miss the volley leaving it to go into the keeper’s hands.
Shortly after West Ham got there 2nd in the game after a good move by Winger Blair Turgott who outpaced and sprinted past John Nutter to find himself with a lot of space and the winger done well as he took his time and picked out team mate Lee who scored his second goal of the game tapping in from 3 yards out. Woking found themselves 2-0 down
Woking’s first real chance of the game came in the 25th minute when a well delivered free-kick from John Nutter was headed by an unmarked John Goddard and from then on the midfield and how Gary Hill likes to call it the “Nucleus” of the squad started to get in gear creating yet another chance from a John Nutter free-kick, this time it was Joey Jones who was on the receiving end of the cross and headed on target only for the young West Ham goalkeeper Sam Howes to be in the way and saved well.
At this point in the game striker and free agent Dean Morgan looked sharp, trying to create chances in the game and really tried to link up with Rendell in various stages of the game and shortly after Morgan was in the mixer again, after laying the ball of too his left hand side for Nutter who whipped in a brilliant cross from Rendall, who headed and what looked like a good goal, it was once again saved brilliantly by Howes in the West Ham goal but then pulled up for offside for the resulting rebound.
(Half-Time) Woking 0-2 West Ham XI
Mr.Hill made two changes at half-time with McNerney and Hewitt coming onto the field of play and making way was Murtagh and Jones.
Both team’s took time to settle back into the game and the first real chance of the half was when Turgott the young West Ham Midfielder sprinted past three Woking players and showed some real class and should have really passed to team mate Lee but instead went for glory only to shot wide. Mike Cestor came on as a substitution as did James Clarke as he make his Woking Debut and made way was midfielder talisman Josh Payne and John Nutter.
Woking first opportunity of the half came when defender James Clarke (Who really made a good impact on the game) lobbed a beautiful cross to Morgan who knocked the ball down to Goddard, who had space and time to turn and shot and came close but ended in a goal kick.
At this point in the game Gary Hill made more changes with more Trialist’s entering the field as Goddard and Newton made way for Nelson-Abby and Xapi.
Woking tried to create chances in this second half but the end product just was not there, until Dean Morgan received the ball on the right flank and with a bit of beautiful skill cut in on his favoured left foot and slotted into the opposite bottom corner, a minute later from absolutely nothing Dean Morgan scored again after he received a lofted ball and really did just turn and with Howes out of position in the West Ham goal Morgan just hit home the 4th goal of the match.
With the crowd very impressed by Morgan, the smiles were back on myself and the Woking fans around the ground, However, In the 89th minute prolific goal scorer Lee glided past defenders and finally beat Aaron Howe as he went down early leaving the goal open for Lee who slotted home, ending all hope’s for a draw as the ref blew his whistle and confirmed Lee’s hat-trick won the hammer’s the game.
So it ended 3-2 to West Ham, but I do feel that there were a lot of positive things we can take away from that game, the first one of course would be, “Give Morgan a contract”, as he really did impress me and so did James Clarke who looked quick, sharp and had a good sense of technical ability when the ball was at his feet and played very well considering he had only just got back from injury, so we kick off at Alfreton Town on Saturday and we will have it all covered on Saturday Sports this Saturday, so do join us.
Woking: Aaron Howe, Adam Newton (Xapi* 66), John Nutter (Mike Cestor 56), Joey Jones (Joe McNerney 46), Mark Ricketts, Josh Payne (James Clarke 56), Keiran Murtagh (Troy Hewitt* 46), Theo Lewis (Reece Beccles 74), John Goddard (Ebby Nelson-Abby* 66), Scott Rendell (Giuseppe Sole 66), Dean Morgan* (Adam Brice 86)
Unused subs: Jake Cole
Goals: Dean Morgan 81, 82
*denotes trialist
West Ham United XI: Sam Howes, Sam Westley, Nathan Mavila, Josh Cullan, Manny Onariase (Moses Makasi 71), Jamie Harney, Blair Turgott, Kieran Bywater, Elliot Lee, Matthias Fanimo (Joe Powell 68), Kieran Sadlier (Jaanai Gordon 78)
Unused subs: Modibo Maiga, Tim Brown, Decarrey Sheriff
Goals: Elliot Lee 14, 18, 89
Attendance: 1072
MOTM: Dean Morgan- Looked a different class and scored two great goals, Will need to work on fitness before we see better performances though.