Woking manager Neal Ardley was pleased with his side’s first-half performance after they won 2-1 at Walton & Hersham in the FA Trophy.

The Cards raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half thanks to goals from Joe Gbode and Aiden O’Brien.

Dawid Rogalski pulled a goal back for Southern League Premier South leaders Walton & Hersham in the second half, but the Cards held on to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Trophy.

“Walton & Hersham are top of their league and are well coached,” said Ardley.

“They had already beaten two teams in our league and we were playing on a difficult surface.

“We had a gameplan without the ball and a gameplan with the ball and I thought in the first half most of that came out.

“I thought we were good for our 2-0 lead and possibly could have had another – we had a couple of chances to go three up.

“We wanted our full-backs and wingers to work the sides of the pitch and both goals came from that.

“We had other chances – Matt Ward could have scored – but I was delighted with the first half.

“We scored two really good goals but in the second half we were masters of our own downfall a little bit.

“Credit to Walton & Hersham, they had a right go in the second half as you would expect at home. We probably didn't manage the game as well as we could have done.

“We knew the second half would be slightly different but we've got to learn from it.

“It was similar to the Macclesfield game and we've got to learn that when the game changes we have to sometimes change a little bit. We probably didn't do that as well as we could have.

“Walton & Hersham tweaked the way they were doing things and stopped us playing through them.

“We got a little bit nervous and played safe football trying to not give it away.

“Every time we tried to attack we turned it over and got a bit sloppy.

“We lacked a little bit of energy and tempo in our penetration and caused our own problems.

“We've got to learn from that but we wanted to get into the next round and we've done that.

“We probably needed a third goal to make it more comfortable, and we should have had that in the first half. That would have put the game to bed.

“You always become a little bit nervous at 2-1, but there was also lots of good stuff as well. It was similar to the previous round against Macclesfield.”

The Cards face a hectic run of fixtures in February, and Ardley admitted he is going to need all of his squad as he looks to fight on two fronts.

“February is going to be a manic month and we’re going to need the whole squad,” said Ardley.

“We want to keep pushing to finish in the top ten and have a really progressive season in the league.

“We also want to get to the final of the FA Trophy – so we have aims on two fronts.

“The next four to six weeks are going to prove pivotal.”