Woking - Home
Season 12 (H) 6/11/10 FA Cup R1 - 0-0
The Blue Square South outfit sold about 900 tickets for this trip down Surrey - Sussex roads, to visit the highest ranked club in the competition to date. They took over the East and NE end stands and remained in good spirits throughout proceedings. The gate was nearly 5900, on a typical November afternoon of mixed weather in gathering gloom. Gus Poyet made numerous changes to his L1 line-up, bringing in reserves from usual spots on the bench. He still wanted them to play like the 1st 11 and used a diamond shape in m-f. Woking were expected to defend in depth and it was up to Poyet's revised squad to keep the ball and attack. Brighton's home league form had been commendable, so spectators sat back to watch yet more goals go in.
At half time it was still nil-nil and many wondered how the part-timers were going to get on as ninety minutes approached. But in truth, their massed defenders didn't chase the ball, preferring to pick it up from Albion errors. Then Cards front runner broke forward at pace, backed by m-f support. GP made early subs by his L1 standards at 53, 60 and 73 min. But nowt seemed to get past Woking's 451 mass rearguard anyway. By final whistle, Brighton had 17 goal attempts and Woking four, with possesssion 60/40. And yeah, it was goal-less to boot. Fresh goalie Brezovan made one block via feet from a one on one, in a fairly tame game. Barnes, Baz, Dicker, Calderon, Hart and Battipiedi all got chances to settle the issue but missed the target most of the time. Gus wasn't happy with affairs but said they'd get another go in the replay. For entertainment value this local tie was a dud, where the only fireworks to be set off were in relief by Cardinals faithful. Brighton lacked spark, therefore fans were kinda left in the dark as to our lack of pyrotechnic display come dusk.
Brezovan, Calderon, Elphick, Dunk, Painter (Smith), Bridcutt, Sparrow, Dicker, Baz (Hart), Murray (Battipiedi), Barnes.

Woking - Away
Season 12 (A) 16/11/10 FA Cup R1 replay - 2-2 aet ~ Sparrow, Bennett.
Albion went into R2 from 3-0 scored on penalties (Murray, Sparrow, Baz)
Brighton didn't exactly go into this match with no worries. Although still top of League1 by six points, our anticipated second eleven didn't quite turn out again. In the event, the biggest surprise was debut for Asst Mgr Mauricio Taricco at left back. On the previous Saturday, the usual suspects got a right drubbing away at Hartlepool, leaking 3 goals and an unbeaten run going back to mid August was finally halted. To complicate things, Bridcutt got sent off and banned, plus cup-tied LuaLua was stretchered off with a broken ankle. So now the squad looked a bit light in terms of attacking substitutions. At least there wasn't a 700 mile round trip to contend with and all. It was a foggy nite prior to k-o but plenty of action stirred the place up. The crowd was just over 4k, with nearly 800 supporting blue & white visitors.
You might say Woking had a right go and all credit to part-timers, positioned over eighty places below top of L1. Sound defensive tactics from Cardinals maintained status quo at nil-nil by the break. Albion upped the tempo second period and went ahead when Sparrow slotted from Barnes knock down (57min). Poyet made 2 subs immediately and expected a positive response. Woking had to come out and against long odds, equalised when Greer's og put a cross into our net (73m). Both sides had chances to win it but off targets piled up stats. GP put Baz on before ninety mins were done. It duly went into extra time and the home outfit incredibly led from a free header at a corner (102m). Next, Bennett restored parity quickly from a decent trademark drive (104m). Then Taricco got himself sent off for bad mouthing Ref (105m). Ten man BHA held out with this tie still in balance. There was yer mandatory shoot-out, where Woking missed two but Brezovan saved one. Battipiedi hit the bar, although team-mates didn't to seal an unlikely victory. Lucky old Brighton and some.
Brezovan, Calderon, Elphick, Greer, Taricco, Bennett, Kishishev (Battipiedi), Dicker, Sparrow, Hart (Baz), Barnes (Murray).