Macclesfield Town suffered an agonising 5-4 defeat but spared some of their blushes as they almost pulled off a stunning fightback.
Stand-in manager John Askey was clearly frustrated following the ‘crazy’ game, which saw Macclesfield head into the interval 5-0 down but launch a four-goal comeback in the second half.
According to Askey it was a comeback “born out of embarrassment.”
“Games like that are not games I want to be involved in really,” he said. “It looks poor for the club, it looks poor for myself and the players, and it needs to stop.
“The first half was a nightmare to say the least. It was just attitudes that changed at half-time. The players realized that they’ve got to run about, otherwise we were going to become an embarrassment.”
Neither team had much to play for, with both settled in mid-table with no hope of promotion or danger of relegation.
But any bragging rights Macclesfield were hoping to come away with were nabbed by the home side.
It’s been a rigorous few weeks for the Silkmen. Eight games in 18 days, and the loss of manager Steve King earlier in the month has done nothing for the team’s morale.
And it was a miserable start for them, with Woking going ahead only three minutes after kick-off on a sodden Kingfield Stadium pitch.
Rhys Taylor had done well to deflect a header from Jayden Stockley onto the crossbar, but Billy Knott followed up with a belting strike that sailed past Taylor’s outstretched hands.
Kevin Betsy deepened Macc’s malaise moments later as he fired straight across the front of goal into the bottom right corner of the net.
They had to wait a while for their next strike, but it was handed to them on a plate in the 23rd minute as Ryan Jackson carelessly took Knott down in the area, giving Stockley a golden opportunity to widen the gap from the spot. He didn’t
disappoint, sweeping it neatly into the left-hand corner.
And he bagged a brace shortly before the half-hour mark. Left with a clear run towards goal from the right wing, he chipped over Taylor, who had run out to meet him, and watched with glee as it rolled into the net. Another chip over the stunned keeper left Woking five to the good 10 minutes before the interval as Knott secured his own brace.
Macc had few opportunities to pull a goal back. They were missing top-scorer Matthew Barnes-Homer, whose season ended with a fractured cheekbone at Wrexham.
Any chances that did come their way were curled over the crossbar or sent straight into the waiting arms of Elvijs Putnins in Woking’s goal.
The rain failed to ease off after half-time, and there were no signs of mercy from Woking either as they went searching for their sixth, running rings around a desperate-looking Macc.
But the tables turned in the 60th minute as Waide Fairhurst sent a long-range effort into the roof of the net.
The sliver of hope offered by a goal seemed to lift the?Silkmen, and 10 minutes later Guy Madjo added another, scrambling the ball past Putnins for his first in Macc colours to make it 5-2.
With only eight minutes to go Fairhurst pulled the Silkmen within touching distance as he found the bottom corner of the net, and there was more drama in extra-time after substitute Arthur Gnahoua brought them to 5-4.
Woking fans were beside themselves as the final seconds ticked down, incredulous as to how their team had gone from leading by five at half-time to scrabbling for the win, but Macc had just left themselves too much to do.
Macc : Taylor,?Jackson, Audel,?Mills, Winn, Mackreth, Wedgbury (Gnahoua 81),?Murtagh, Kissock, Fairhurst,?Madjo. Subs not used: A?Mills, Amores, Burgess, Martin.
