Woking’s Elite Development Squad retained derby day bragging rights, with an injury-time winner seeing them beat Aldershot Town 2-1 and claim all three points.

“We made it incredibly hard for ourselves,” said academy manager Matt Winter. “We were well below the standards that we set, but the mark of a good team is to find a way to win, and we did that late on.”

The best chance of the opening stages fell to Joden Trickett, who forced a good save from Aldershot’s Louis Knight in the eighth minute as he struck from the goalmouth.

The Cards continued to be on the front foot and took the lead in the 19th minute through Lucas Boxall. Quincy Patterson drove into the box and saw his effort stike the far post, but Boxall made no mistake with the follow-up to score his second goal against Aldershot this season.

A period followed where much of the play was rooted in the middle of the park, with little to trouble either keeper. Aldershot’s best effort came in the 35th minute, with a strike across goal, from a tight angle, going narrowly off target.

The closest the Cards came to a second before the end of the half was through Patterson, who burst into the box in the 40th minute and was through one-on-one with Knight, but Aldershot’s keeper did well to get a foot to Patterson’s effort and keep it out.

The Shots equalised with the final touch of the half, striking the ball high into the net from the goalmouth to make it 1-1 and alter the half-time team talks for both managers.

Woking made one change at half-time, with Sonny Parkes coming off the bench to make his first appearance since December 3, returning from the foot injury that had seen him sidelined.

While promising phases of play unfolded for Woking throughout the second half, they were unable to break through until the final moment. Boxall struck the crossbar twice in as many minutes, firstly when his effort from just inside the area deflected onto the woodwork in the 75th minute, before his cross-shot, hit from a tight angle, clipped the bar a minute later.

Trickett was another Woking player who continued to look dangerous, and he went close in the 78th minute when his effort forced a smart block from Knight. As the clock ticked ever closer to 90 minutes, Woking saw most of the play unfold in their attacking third, but Aldershot were equal to every attack.

That was until an excellent delivery from Kooshan Hayati, deep into injury time, landed at the back post, with a crucial touch from Trickett directing the ball over the line to make it 2-1 in the 95th minute.

The result saw Woking complete the league double over their rivals, with the reverse fixture, played last month, also seeing a dramatic stoppage-time winner seal a 2-1 victory for the Cards.

Elsewhere in the academy, the under-18s progressed to the final of the Surrey Midweek Floodlight Cup, with a 6-2 victory over the first years, playing as Westfield, on Monday, March 16. They will now face Kingstonian in the final on Monday, March 23.

On Thursday, March 19, the under-17s lost 5-3 at home against Uxbridge in the Isthmian Youth League Central Division.

By Holly Porter