At a soaked Kingfield, Boro beat rivals Woking thanks to a fantastic goal from Peter Vincenti. The win keeps Boro in 9th position in the Blue Square Premier, but amazingly we are now only 5 points off the top of the table. Leaders Kettering lost 1-0 at home to Weymouth yesterday, which allowed Torquay to move to within a point of the Poppies. It’s Boro’s second win this year at Kingfield, but this time it was a hard earned 1-0 win with the conditions playing a major part throughout.

Boro started the game the better and within the first 10 minutes Steve Morison had earned the visitors a penalty when he ran into the area and was caught by Bradley Quamina as he ran towards goal. Morison got up and took the penalty himself, but it was saved by keeper Lenny Pidgeley. It wasn’t the greatest of penalties, but Pidgeley guessed right and did well to save it. This didn’t effect Boro though and just a few minutes later they did take the lead when a Steve Morison cross wasn’t headed away convincingly by Colin Miles and Vincenti thundered in from 20 yards. It was a superb strike worthy to win any game.

Woking began to get back into the game and their big chance came when Daniel Spence, on loan from Reading rounded Day and shot towards goal, but it didn’t have enough power to cross the line and was cleared to safety. Both sides had a few more half chances on goal before half-time, but failed to really trouble either keeper.

The second half was much like the first, Boro started the stronger, but this time didn’t add to the scoreline. Callum Willock had a great chance to double Boro’s lead but his shot was well smothered by Pidgeley. Woking also had a good chance to equalise when Liam Marum found a way through the Boro defence, which looked a lot more solid than recent weeks, but the former Reading striker’s shot flew over the bar. You could see why Woking are struggling at the bottom. They don’t look bad defensively, but goalscoring is a big problem for them. Why Giuseppe Sole doesn’t start for them I don’t know. He looked a threat as soon as he came on yesterday.

Overall it was a well earned, professional win which was exactly what was required due to the conditions. A much better defensive performance from the whole team than in recent weeks. I thought Vincenti and Anaclet were the stand out performers. Considering Vincenti was transfer listed in the summer he has done superbly to get himself back into the first team. I wonder if there are a few BSP clubs who may be enquiring about his availability come January? Next up for us is Leicester next Saturday in the FA Cup.