Woking slipped to a 1-0 defeat at FC Halifax Town in the National League on Saturday.

The first shot on target came in the tenth minute when Halifax midfielder Florent Hoti found space to unleash a shot from 25 yards out, but it lacked power and Cards keeper Will Jaaskelainen collected it easily off the deck.

Shortly afterwards, Jack Stretton’s well-struck volley was heading towards the bottom corner until it was blocked by Halifax keeper Sam Johnson.

The resulting corner was cleared by Halifax, who launched a quick break down the centre of the pitch. Adam Senior played the ball wide to Angelo Cappello on the far side, and he cut inside well and curled a low shot into the far post to put the hosts ahead on 14 minutes.

Shortly after the restart Deon Moore hit a shot straight at Johnson, who could only parry it a few yards in front of him, but he managed to quickly recover before a Woking player could follow up.

The game settled down with Woking continuing to control the ball, but they were unable to sustain any pressure around the Halifax area with the Shaymen looking to hit the Cards on the break. They almost did this perfectly when Jamie Cooke was played through but Timi Odusina showed good pace to get back and defuse the threat.

Woking continued to look for an opening and they found one when Moore and Stretton performed a nice give and go which saw the latter lash his shot wide.

The game began to get scrappy with many soft fouls resulting in free kicks – much to the frustration of Cards boss Michael Doyle who was booked for his complaints.

Dion Kelly-Evans was replaced by Matt Ward shortly after half-time, and Ward was immediately into the action and driving at Halfax players.

Woking began to dominate, with Halifax committing many fouls to break down the sustained spells of possession. After a spell of maintained possession, Jamie Andrews flashed a shot well wide.

Woking were spending a lot of time in the Halifax half with Ward being the key threat for the Cards, as he showed when he burst forwards and fizzed a hip-high cross onto the boot of an arriving Lewis Walker, who blazed over the bar.

Ward was proving dangerous and turned his man expertly and delivered another dangerous cross which was deflected over for a corner.

The travelling Cards fans then screamed for a penalty in the 72nd minute when a goalmouth scramble led to the ball appearing to have hit the arm of a Halifax player, but the referee was unmoved and the game continued.

Halifax finally got some relief from the Woking press after they worked the ball well around the edge of the box and the resulting shot was blocked. Cooke’s quick feet saw him burst past three players into the box and he then squared the ball to Andrew Oluwabori, who dragged wide.

Oluwabori burst through the Woking defence as the game entered four minutes of additional time, but a superb sliding tackle from Max Dyche prevented him from firing at goal.

Woking will host Boston United in the National League on Saturday (3pm).

By Toby Farrell