WITH a mouth-watering game against high-flying Wrexham just days away, Woking’s boss Darren Sarll has spoken about the importance of remaining calm.

On Saturday the Cards face Luke Garrard’s Boreham Wood who they beat 0-1 back in November at home. And then on Tuesday they travel to the north of Wales to face Wrexham in an eagerly anticipated Valentine’s Day clash at the Racecourse Ground. 

On those upcoming matches Sarll told the News & Mail: “This is my fourth season in this division [the National League] and Boreham Wood as a game is as tough as they come. A brilliant manager. A brilliantly structured football club. They recruit really well and Luke coaches the team very well, so they’re as tough as they come, those Boreham Wood games. There’s no getting away from it.”

And on the clash with Phil Parkinson’s side just three days later he said: “Wrexham is a completely different kettle of fish. Wrexham has become, for the teams in the division now, especially at Wrexham, almost a glamour tie. It’s 9,000 [fans] in the ground. They create a very, very big atmosphere and there’s a huge expectation on that team to dominate everyone that goes there and they’ve done that this year. 

“We’ll definitely go and try to conquer that supposedly insurmountable mountain when it comes around.”

Asked what the supporters of the club could expect from the next few weeks, Sarll said: “Every game now has that little bit more anticipation; a little bit of edge to it because everyone starts getting a little bit giddy thinking we’re almost at the promised land [promotion to League Two] which we’re not and we’re nowhere near. 

“There’s going to be games where we’re going to be tested like we’ve not been tested before. There’s going to be games where we get beat. That’s going to happen. We’ve done well thus far but there’s a few bumps in the road ahead.

“We just have to stay calm. That’s all we’ve ever done. When we’ve lost a game we’ve been calm. We look at the game and we try and create the solution. 

“I’ve said many times, football management’s just maths. You get certain problems and you have to try and find a solution. You work out one problem, then you go to the next one and the next one. And the maths of the problem is always dealt with much more efficiently in calm circumstances.”

See the full interview in the 9 February edition of the News & Mail, in shops now.