Maidstone United 1-2 Woking – Padraig Amond’s double steals three points

(As seen in Woking News & Mail - 30/03/2023)

Two second-half headers from Irishman Padraig Amond saw the Cards come from behind to seal all three points against strugglers Maidstone United in the Vanarama National League last Saturday.

Amond, 34, scored his 12th and 13th goal of the season to save his side from an embarrassment and make sure Woking held onto third spot in the league table. The returning Charlie O’Connell, back on loan from Peterborough United, was the provider on both occasions, from the left and right-hand side.

At the start of a sunny but very windy afternoon in Kent, the Surrey outfit were seeking to get back to winning ways after their previous defeat against playoff rivals Chesterfield. The opposition in Maidstone had not tasted a league victory since November, so on paper, it looked like an easy day out for the away side. This wasn’t the case.

On the 90 minutes as a whole, manager Darren Sarll said, “We are pleased to win any game, whether we play well or play poorly, it’s irrelevant. We’re not really in a period of the season where the aesthetics of it are as important as the actual outcome taken from the game.”

Surprisingly, Maidstone was the better team in the first half and had plenty of chances to go in front. Sol Wanjau-Smith and Kevin Berkoe will be wondering how they weren’t able to find the back of the net, due to some incredible defending from Scott Cuthbert and Joe McNerney respectively. The Stones had no trouble with finding space out wide and when charging inside the box, the two central defenders were constantly switched on to read the danger on multiple occasions. At the other end, Rhys Browne stung the palms of Dan Barden just before half time, in Woking’s only main threat during the first 45 minutes.

At half time, Sarll made his first change, making a straight swap by taking off Dan Moss and replacing him with O’Connell. Despite this going on to be a game changer, it had its disadvantages when the Posh loanee was caught too high up the pitch, allowing Josh Shonibare in behind the defence and smash the ball past Will Jaaskelainen into the bottom right-hand corner.

He made up for it though just ten minutes later when his cross from the right found Amond whose header was too powerful for Barden to keep out. On O’Connell, Sarll said, “He changed the game and the dynamic of our play by travelling down the flanks of the pitch and adding some composure.”

The fourth official indicated a minimum of seven additional minutes of added time and with the clock ticking down, the Cards managed to force a corner on the far side of the pitch. With one last roll of the dice, O’Connell’s cross once again found Amond who headed into the roof of the net, to send the 432 travelling supporters into pure euphoria.

Sarll’s overall assessment was fair by stating, “I thought first half we looked very tight and tense, with every touch being poor but second half we made really important changes and that’s down to the recruitment I’m allowed to make through John and Drew.

Everyone has been in a losing position in their footballing career, but the most important thing is that we kept it at one, which meant that we were always in the game. During the last ten or so minutes, the game was still within our reach to go on and win it, which we eventually did.”

Maidstone Starting XI: Barden, Fowler, Brown (81), Wanjau-Smith (66), Odusanya, Booty, Berkoe, Bone, Jobe, Shonibare (74), Gurung

Subs: Hadler, Alabi, Viggars (66), Touray (74), Binnom-Williams (81)

Woking Starting XI: Jaaskelainen, Moss (46), Cuthbert, McNerney, Casey, Ince, Kellermann, Nwabuokei (67), Lofthouse, Amond, Browne (82)

Subs: Ross, Sass-Davies, O’Connell (46), Wakefield (82), Dackers (67)

Attendance: 2,187

Man of the Match: Padraig Amond