Sat 28th Apr 2018
Suburban Football League Premier Division
TAFC Development team 5-3 Woking
TAFC goals: Ollie Ruttle (3, 1 pen), Will Bisney, Teddy Paul
Tring Athletic Res. 5-3 Woking Res.
To say that we have been on a poor run recently is a massive understatement. Our performances have ranged from not being able to get a side out last Tuesday, a reasonable performance in a 4-1 defeat to Maidenhead last Thursday to an absolutely dismal ,totally unacceptable effort in a 4-0 home defeat against Knaphill 2 weeks ago that was so poor I was not only unable to do a match report but also seriously considered calling it a day.
The signs for Saturday were not good as 3 regular starters were on First team duty and it was the Devils own job to get a squad of 14 together which had an average age of about 21.
We started with the 3-5-2 which had worked reasonably well against Maidenhead where the defeat was caused by individual errors rather than a poor team effort.
Custodian Mark Richardson was back to his old self and in front of him the back 3 of James Byerley, a greatly improved Gareth Terblanche and especially Paolo Bagatti were outstanding. In front of them Teddie Paul continues to improve ,A team loanee Will Salmon put in an almost faultless performance ,while skipper Ross Hazel was also confident in possesion and defended well. The two wide players Frankie Hercules and especially Will Bisney ,with a combined age of about 20 and weighing about 10 stone between were excellent both in going forward and defending in front oft the heir respective full backs. The front 2 of Joe Naylor and Ollie Ruttle worked their socks off trying to make Woking play long and keeping their defence occupied.
We hit the post in the 2 nd minute after a flowing move and it threatened to once again be one of those days. From somewhere we then put on 25 mins of football that not only was a joy to watch but also resulted in 3 goals ,2 to,Ollie Ruttle inc a penalty and the other from Will Bisney .
Woking who had demolished Royston Town 11-1 and were unbeaten since Jan 13 th were always going to come back into the game and for 10 mins we partially lost our shape and eventually from a clumsy challenge Woking converted a penalty to go in 3-1 down.
Half time was a combination of rightly taking pride in the performance so far but also of a reminder of the importance of the next goal. After an even 15 mins Ollie Ruttle completed his hat trick and made our task easier as Woking would have to push on to get back in the game.
Our response was undoubtedly the team goal of the season when a flowing move down our left hand side resulted in a tidy Teddie Paul finish.
With James Byerleys early departure( for work) meant we changed to a 4-2-1-3 formation .
To their credit Woking got 2 goals partly through their efforts and partly through poor game management caused by understandable inexperience and tiredness but the Referees whistle meant we could celebrate a good win but more importantly a proper performance which will hopefully lead us away from relegation.
We now play Maidenhead ,Woking and Tonbridge Angels in the next 8 days.