Woking manager Neal Ardley was delighted with his side’s 3-1 win at home to ten-man Maidenhead United in the National League.

The victory means the Cards have picked up seven points out of a possible nine under new boss Ardley, who has enjoyed an encouraging start in the Woking hot seat.

“I'm delighted,” said Ardley.

“There were times where we were played some good football and there were times where we got it wrong and there was an anxiety and we created our own problems.

“Maidenhead are a very tough nut to crack so we're delighted to pick up the points because even with ten men they never let us settle and they kept putting it in our box and asking questions of us.

“I challenged the players at half-time – they’d gone into their shells a little bit and stopped being brave.

“The conditions were tough but I thought in the second half they came out and kept trying to play football.

“When they got it right they caused Maidenhead problems and we got our goals.”

Reece Smith was a threat for the Magpies throughout the match and caused Woking plenty of problems, particularly in the first half, and Ardley admitted he addressed the threat posed by Smith with his players at half-time.

“We were leaving our wide areas isolated a little bit and I challenged our front wide men to take pride in the fact that no one hurts us down their side of the pitch,” said Ardley.

“Reece Smith's a good player and when you face good players you have to work together to try to nullify it.

“We were better in the second half at doing it but we had to ride our luck a little bit at times.”

Maidenhead were reduced to ten men in the second half but still caused the Cards problems, and Ardley admitted he would have liked his side to manage the game better.

“Even against ten men we got things wrong at times,” said Ardley.

“Credit to Maidenhead – they didn't make it easy for us.

“If we'd been a little bit more composed we could have controlled the game. We didn't and we caused our own problems.

“I think the players were a little bit gung-ho trying to get a third and we ended up having to defend for our lives at times.

“We're not going to be perfect but we're delighted with seven points.

“We've got a threat going forward. I feel we can get at teams but we need to tidy up the stuff without the ball. It's all part of a process we're working on.

“We can't have everything at the moment. We've got things wrong and we've got things right but we've managed to pick up some results during that process.

“We've got some tough games coming up.

“There'll be some defeats and there'll be some performances we need to bounce back from but if we can keep a tight-knit group and keep them working towards an end goal I'm hopeful we'll get there.

“Winning is a habit. We need to try to stick with that habit and keep doing what needs to be done to win games of football.”