Woking can look back on a strong season in the Conference Premier in which they went close to getting a play-off spot, before eventually falling short. The team had been progressing nicely over the previous seasons and Garry Hill prioritised quality over quantity in assembling his squad for the seasons. James Clarke, Theo Lewis and Jake Cole were the most notable additions and key players like Josh Payne and Scott Rendell stayed on from the previous campaign. It was a commanding and assertive start of the season by the Surrey side as they went nine games unbeaten until mid-September. A thumping win over Dover in the local derby clash was the highlight of that early run but excellent results like away wins at Wrexham and Aldershot further boosted the confidence of the team. Rendell was providing lots of goals up front, standing atop of the league’s goalscoring charts in these early knots of the season, but some solid defending was laying the foundations as well. There was a stutter after the strong start, with three losses in a row disrupting momentum, but Hill persisted with the fluent attacking football that he was preaching and the results remained generally very impressive, and the football very watchable. The Cards remained pretty close to the top places and started December at second place in the table. But injuries began to take a toll on a not particularly big squad and the next couple of months were disappointing. Seven games without a win during the festive run stalled their promotion charge and damaged the confidence in the squad. They were lacking assurance at the back and were not showing the same sort of quality in midfield as well. The loss of players like Jack Marriott and Lewis in the January window cut the options available too but the loan signing of Yemi Odubade from Eastleigh proved an inspired one. And, sure enough, Woking began to find their way back and actually went on an excellent run of just one loss in eight games until the start of March, with that defeat being a rather harsh one away at the leaders Barnet. Payne began to control games like he can from midfield, the goals started flowing again and the play-off charge was very much back on. Indeed, the Surrey side became one of the form teams in the key final stage of the season and some key wins, especially a 1:0 home success over Forest Green, moved them within touching distance of the fifth place. Eventually, a narrow loss at Dover on Easter Monday proved their undoing as it left them with too much to do in the remaining three games. Thus, they eventually missed out on the chance to battle for promotion but actually played some very good football and can look back on another season of progress in the right direction.
