IT hardly represents English football's greatest accolade but Neil Smith's status as the country's second longest throw-in taker proved decisive in Woking's 2-0 defeat of York City.

Former Gillingham, Fulham and Reading midfielder Smith once finished runner-up to renowned football thrower Andy Legg in a natio-wide competition and the 34-year-old veteran showed on Saturday how he can still reach distances that will trouble uncertain Conference defences.

Both of Woking's goals came after balls had been propelled into the visitors' box by the powerful arms of their captain, but Smith was assisted by a Minstermen back line, who failed to heed early warnings and, ultimately, found no solution to his direct, basic and unsophisticated, approach.

Conference top scorer Justin Richards and winger Steve Ferguson profited by scoring Woking's first goals in a home league game since October 29.

Richards had earlier hooked over the bar from six yards and Ferguson also struck a post following the opening goal as Smith's long throws repeatedly unhinged a struggling visitors' defence, which missed the assurance, aerial presence and organisational ability of unused substitute David McGurk.

A lacklustre attacking performance also meant City were never going to compensate further up the field for their defensive deficiencies.

Appallingly, Chris Porter's wind-assisted 21st-minute punt upfield forced opposite number Shwan Jalal into his only save of the afternoon despite the Minstermen playing most of the second half with four recognised strikers following the 56th-minute introduction of on-loan Chesterfield forward Tcham N'Toya.

Woking forward Richards carried a greater threat than that posed collectively by City's disappointing quartet and almost opened the scoring after four minutes when his fierce drive was palmed over by Porter.

He then skied over from close-range after fellow striker Craig McAllister had flicked on Smith's throw-in but Richards was not as wasteful on 25 minutes when he claimed his 18th goal of the season.

Disappointingly, for City, the same trio combined in almost identical fashion with Richards receiving the ball via the hands of Smith and the head of McAllister.

But, on this occasion, Richards turned past Darren Craddock, deputising as his marker for absent skipper Mark Hotte who was receiving stitches to a head wound, before firing a low shot underneath City 'keeper Porter.

Two minutes later, Richards served as the intermediary between Smith and a team-mate, heading yet another throw into Ferguson's firing range and City's defence watched on in disarray as his shot beat Porter but struck a post.

In contrast, the visitors rarely ventured into Woking's 18-yard box and their rarer first half shots came from distance.

Aside from Porter's unintentional goal attempt, Darren Dunning (twice) and Dave Merris both tried their luck but missed the target from 25 yards.

City started the second half with more purpose but poor shots from Emmanuel Panther and Joe O'Neill failed to test Jalal before Woking doubled their advantage on 52 minutes when Smith launched another one of his specials.

This time, James Dudgeon headed out but his clearance only travelled as far as Ferguson who had carelessly been left unmarked on the edge of the box.

His finish was, nevertheless, impressive, displaying great technique to fire a left-footed strike into Porter's top corner.

From that moment, Woking, notoriously cautious under Glenn Cockerill, saw no reason to expend any unnecessary energy chasing a third goal and could afford to be complacent with uncompromising defenders Stuart Nethercott and Tom Hutchinson untroubled by City's strikers.

Half-hearted efforts saw O'Neill head wide, substitute Nathan Peat fire a shot across the face of goal which went out for a throw-in and Dunning miss the target again from 25 yards.

Woking, without trying, almost added another goal in injury time when Hotte gave away possession to Richards on the edge of the box but the former Bristol Rovers striker curled his shot just wide.

Match facts

Woking 2 (Richards 25, Ferguson 53)

York City 0

City ratings - Key: 10 - Faultless; 9 - Outstanding; 8 - Excellent; 7 - Good; 6 - Average; 5 - Below par; 4 - Poor; 3 - Dud; 2 - Hopeless; 1 - Retire

Porter 5

Craddock 6

Hotte 5

Dudgeon 5

Merris 5 (Peat 58m, 6)

Convery 5 (N'Toya 56m, 5)

Panther 5

Dunning 7

Bishop 5

O'Neill 5

Donaldson 5

Subs (not used): Reid, McGurk, Webster

Star man: Dunning - maintained his consistency while most around him were below par.

Woking: Jalal, Smith, Nethercott, Hutchinson, Karim El-Salahi, Sharpling (MacDonald, 90), Murray, Selley, Ferguson (Evans, 84), Richards, McAllister. Subs not used: Aggrey, Cockerill, Davies.

Yellow cards: Craddock 7, McLean 13, Dunning 82.

Referee: Ray Lee (Essex). Rating: Maintained control and was generally right with his decisions.

Attendance: 1,938.

Weather watch: Chilly and breezy.

Game breaker: Woking's second goal killed off any hope of a result for York.

Match rating: A poor performance from City at both ends of the pitch meant Woking strolled to a comfortable victory.

McEwan's verdict: "Two set-plays cost us. We could not deal with certain situations even though we were a bit unfortunate with the first goal as we had a player off the field at the time and it was his man who scored."

Player watch: Joe O'Neill

Shots on target: 0

Shots off target: 2

Blocked shots: 0

Passes to own player: 10

Passes to opposition: 7

Crosses to own player: 0

Crosses to opposition: 6

Pass success rate: 43.5 per cent

Dribbles ball retained: 1

Dribbles ball lost: 4

Dribble success rate: 20 per cent

Headers: 8 Tackles: 2

Clearances, blocks and interceptions: 2 Offsides: 0

Free kicks won: 1

Free kicks conceded: 1

Yellow cards: 1

Final summary: O'Neill produced a below-par performance, losing possession regularly and failing to find a team-mate with any of his six crosses. His two efforts on goal failed to test Woking goalkeeper Shwan Jalal and he was booked on 46 minutes for using his elbow.

Updated: 10:34 Monday, January 30, 2006