A blunder by Wokingham keeper Freeman towards the end of the game gifted the vistors a point at Stag Meadow on saturday. A dangerous backpass by Kenny Hughes was difficult for Freeman to deal with but instead of putting the ball into row Z he tryed to take on the oncoming Witham striker. Freeman was tackled and then pulled down the player to give Witham a penalty from which they equalised.
The game started well for Town who dominated the first half hour. It was easy to see why they had conceded 93 league goals this season and not won away as Wokingham continued to threaten the Witham goal. Puckett and Fearon were the most dangerous both of whom had chances to give Town an early lead. It was Fearon though who on 16 minutes converted a cross from the right which was neatly finished into the bottom right hand corner. 1-0 and it looked like Town could vastly improve their goal difference. However as the first half wore on Witham began to enjoy a bit more of the posession without really creating much danger and at half time Wokingham went in confident they would take all 3 points.
Wokingham came out after the break half asleep as Witham got an unexpected equaliser almost within seconds of the restart. One of their players found space in the box and hit a sliced shot that looped over Freeman. This gave Witham heart and they went in search of a second. The Wokingham defence and midfield seemed to retreat to the edge of the box and let the Witham players run straight at them leaving the Wokingham strikers isolated up front and with little chance. All was not lost as about 10 minutes later Puckett broke free on the left wing and hit a powerful shot at goal. This was saved but with Fearon running in for the rebound there was only going to be one outcome, 2-1. With the crowd at ease again it was time for Wokingham to put the game out of reach, no such luck. With Puckett becoming increasingly annoyed with Tarring, his strike partner, who was not getting his head up and passing the bench brought him off to be replaces by Soares. This worked well as Soares and Puckett linked well on a number of occasions but failed to get that all important thrid goal. Then came the moment of madness from Freeman who could then do little from the resulting penalty. 2-2 and a now out of sorts Wokingham side had to endure a nervous last 10 minutes as Witham grew in confidence and looked like the side that most wanted to win it.
I was impressed by Mitchell at the back who is very commanding in the air and useful at set pieces at the other end of the pitch. Hughes also was composed in defence and made some important tackles in the second half. We seemed to lack a bit of bite in centre midfield and we need to build our attacks more slowly than we did in the second half.
