A six-goal thriller followed by a lifeless stalemate – Jermain Defoe experienced the full rollercoaster of management during his first weekend at Woking.
A chaotic 3-3 draw against Eastleigh on Friday marked Defoe’s first match in charge of the National League club, raising hopes of an exciting new era, before a forgettable 0-0 draw at Braintree Town on Monday brought a dose of reality.
With six games of the season remaining at the time of his arrival, Defoe has an ideal opportunity to settle into the job and assess his squad, with Woking only having a top-10 finish to play for. Eastleigh and Braintree, both sitting inside the bottom five, offered an inviting pair of fixtures to start with.
Sky Sports attended both matches as the Premier League’s 10th-highest goalscorer of all time took to the dugout following his shock appointment at the fifth-tier side – and what unfolded offered an early glimpse into his ideas and the scale of the task ahead.
Defoe warned at his unveiling last Wednesday that his footballing philosophy would not necessarily follow the same path as his goal-laden career. He stressed there would be a “balance” to his team, that they would be, before anything else, “hard to play against”. That quickly went out of the window on Good Friday.
Harry Beautyman, an experienced midfielder and a National League title winner with Sutton United, scores the first goal of the Defoe era inside 16 minutes. Defoe, dressed in a slick suit and fashionable jacket, celebrates with a beaming smile and his arms aloft. This one thrilled him just as much as any of his own. “It’s amazing,” he said of the feeling of watching his side score for the first time. “You can’t even describe it, to be honest.”
It is the perfect start in front of a bumper 3,500-strong crowd, almost a thousand above Woking’s season average, and one that would have been more but for the club being hit with an untimely capacity limit by the local Safety Advisory Group – a sign of how much progress they still need to make off the field if they are to achieve their lofty ambitions.
Defoe was dressed for the occasion on his first game in charge of Woking
Among those in attendance is Defoe’s old Spurs coach and the former Newcastle and Brighton manager Chris Hughton. Woking’s American owner, Todd Johnson, has flown over for both matches. The ex-Sky Sports commentator, and Woking fan, Martin Tyler watched on from the terraces at the Laithwaite Community Stadium too.
Tyler has seen almost everything at the Surrey-based club since attending his first game in 1953. He likened Defoe’s appointment to Woking’s hiring of former Nottingham Forest captain and European Cup winner John McGovern in the late 90s, but this is bigger.
Tyler also knows how difficult it is for Woking to achieve their ultimate objective: promotion to the EFL. He has promised to help build a statue of the manager who does it because in the club’s 139-year history, all have failed. Defoe seems genuinely grateful for the opportunity he has been given, despite it being much lower than where he spent his playing career, and the chance to leave a lasting legacy excites him.
“People talk about it being impossible,” said Defoe of their EFL aim. “That means nothing. I truly believe that we can do something special. When you become a manager and a coach, you want that sort of challenge. You want to get up in the morning and have a goal to strive to.”
Beautyman’s early opener suggests the journey to the EFL is beginning. Woking had picked up from where they left off under their interim duo Craig Ross and Jake Hyde, who oversaw four wins and four draws in nine games, after Neal Ardley was sacked, to secure their National League status for another year.
The optimism is soon crushed in a way some believe only Woking could manage. Centre-back Tunji Akinola heads a back pass beyond his goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen, son of Jussi, just before half-time which sparks a collapse.
Eastleigh lead 3-1 by the 70th minute and the Defoe bubble has been burst. The away supporters taunt him with chants of “Jermain Defoe, you’re having a laugh” and “You’re getting sacked in the morning”. Defoe, though, has the last laugh.
Defoe and Woking right-back Aaron Drew
The ex-England international has shown himself not to be a ranter or raver in the dugout, but as cool and calm as he was in front of goal. He changes from a 4-4-2 formation to a 4-2-3-1, introducing playmaker Dale Gorman, who helps unlock another substitute Kian Pennant, the nephew of former Liverpool winger Jermaine. Defoe had told the Pennant prodigy he reminds of him Raheem Sterling. “It’s the way he moves”.
The 21-year-old winger, signed in March from Leicester’s U21s on a deal until the end of the season, provides his two best moments in a Woking shirt so far, setting up the second and scoring the third to rescue a point.
“I’m even more excited by this challenge,” says Defoe afterwards. “I only had one training session. I’m just so grateful. You’ve got to be grateful for any opportunities you get in life.”
And so with only one more light training session, Defoe takes Woking to the humble surroundings of Cressing Road just three days later on Easter Monday, searching for his first victory.
It is his first taste of what he can expect on the road in the National League although instead of a hostile atmosphere, dozens of home supporters wait for pictures and autographs, even after the club’s relegation is confirmed. Defoe delivers on every request. Is there a part of him that just wants to be able to focus on management?
“There were a lot of Spurs fans here today. It’s a humbling feeling still,” he tells Sky Sports as another group of adoring fans wait patiently.
“To come away from home and still get that sort of love from the fans, it’s nice. Of course, at the same time, you want to just focus on the game, but I would never change it for the world.”
Defoe watches on at Braintree
On a dry, bobbly pitch, Braintree know they must win to delay their inevitable relegation. They have a goal disallowed not long before half-time in the only significant moment of a drab first half in which Woking struggle to find any control.
Gorman and Pennant are handed starts after their impressive cameos on Friday, but neither hit the same heights, while Defoe experiments with winger Matt Ward in the No 10 role. The fifth tier, an almost entirely professional level, is littered with inconsistency, which will be one of Defoe’s biggest challenges.
He is also managing a tired squad that has now played 11 matches in six weeks. But Woking are much-improved in the second half and only a string of saves denies them victory.
“More urgency, more intensity. I felt like in the first half, even when we pressed, I didn’t feel we pressed hard enough. The second half was a lot better.
“You don’t want to coast across the line. You want to finish strong, make a statement, show teams that next season we’re really going to have a go.
“A lot of it’s psychology, trying to get the players to believe how good they are. I see the quality. That’s why I took the job.”
After six days and two games, the early signs of Defoe’s reign have already shown both promise and the scale of the challenge ahead.
“You can’t just assume that just because you’ve played up there, all of a sudden you’re going to become the best manager, or the best coach in the world overnight, within a week. It takes time to get to know the players, your best system. When you have that, then I suppose the job’s a lot easier.”
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