DARREN SARLL accepts full responsibility for Woking’s shock 2-1 defeat at minnows Ramsgate in the Emirates FA Cup first round last Saturday (November 4).
The Cards’ boss has come under fire from supporters in recent weeks as the team have slipped down the Vanarama National League table. And that criticism reached new levels after the loss in Kent.
Indeed within minutes of the final whistle sounding, a post appeared on the club’s online fans’ forum Cardboard saying Sarll had to go. And around the same time, a post was made asking for thoughts on who should replace Sarll in the hot seat.
Those posts would have been unthinkable only six months ago, with Sarll having just taken Woking into the play-offs and being hailed as the man to lead them into the Football League.
Despite a growing number of Woking followers rounding on the gaffer, the club still have an excellent chance of getting into the play-offs again this term.
They are currently only five points adrift of the play-off places – but, worryingly, they are only six points ahead of the relegation zone.
However, things change quickly in football, and the picture will be a lot rosier for the Cards if they win at second-bottom Oxford City in the league this Saturday, November 11.
Woking have achieved some notable giant-killing acts in the FA Cup over the years, most recently toppling Swindon Town at the County Ground in 2018. But they received a taste of their own medicine as Ramsgate – who play in the step-four Pitching In Isthmian League South East Division – came from behind to snatch victory and secure a trip to AFC Wimbledon in the second round.
Dennon Lewis put the Cards into a 13th minute lead and it appeared that a regulation win for the big boys was on the way.
But the Rams levelled through TJ Jadama in the 40th minute and stunned their visitors when former Manchester United and Rangers player Lee Martin scored from a 72nd minute free-kick.
Sarll said: “I have to take absolute responsibility for it because as manager you sign the players.
“Nine tenths of the law in football management is recruitment, and when you get it right you can have some amazing seasons, and when you get it not right, wrong, you can have days like today.
“Ultimately, regardless of the team that’s picked, the shape it plays in, the players there are players that I’ve signed and therefore I’m absolutely responsible for it.
“This current group of players – whichever it is, last year’s ones, or new players – really struggle with adversity, there’s enough evidence to know that now, and the minute we come up against something that’s not in our plan, not in our strategy, not in our field of thinking, we really struggle, and that’s a lot of character.
“On a day that was difficult with the conditions, we had nowhere near enough character to impose ourselves.
“After a really intense start [like Woking made], a good team in form probably has two or three goals in that first 25 minutes, but we’re not that team. We have to digest what’s happened and whether there’s an effective stimulus to that problem, whether we can develop the players’ character.
“Young players like Morgan Williams and Zak Bradshaw – that will do them well in their careers today. A difficult day, a difficult outcome, difficult conditions. They handled themselves with maturity and character.
“What we have to do is make the decisions and we also need to know that this is a business, not an endless pot of money, and we need to understand that with the injuries we have that sometimes you can’t afford to put the same calibre of the injured players in the team.
“Unless the team has that maturity and character within it to deal with adversity, deal with things going against us, it will be a tough season.
“What we do know is we’ve got others round the corner waiting to come back who probably have got that maturity in them to deal with days like today. And on another day with those, maybe it’s a different outcome.
“But I have to stomach what today is and it’s a bad, bad defeat and we’re very humbled as a football club.
“The way Ramsgate defended their penalty area, the amount of first contacts that the central defender got, was very impressive but it’s demeaning on our side.”
Ramsgate: Hadler, Parter, Ellul, Christie, J Paxman (Andidugbe, 69), Taylor, Green (Bioletti, 72), A Paxman, Martin, West (Elito, 76), Jadama. Unused subs: Young, Procopi, Simmons, Oliver, Hennessey, Holden
Woking: Jaaskelainen, Moss (Taylor, 77), Casey, Cuthbert, Odusina (Akinola, 77), Bradshaw, Ince (Habergham, 80), Williams, Lewis, Browne, Wakefield (Amond, 55). Unused subs: Andre Jr, Hilton