Defoe's Woking Held to Frustrating Stalemate by Stubborn Solihull
Former England striker Jermain Defoe watched his Woking side labour to a goalless draw against Solihull Moors in a match that will have tested the patience of both managers and spectators alike.
If anyone thought Jermain Defoe's transition from Premier League goal-getter to National League gaffer would be all silky touches and clinical finishing, Tuesday night's dreary stalemate at the Laithwaite Community Stadium provided a rather sobering reality check.
Woking and Solihull Moors served up the kind of goalless draw that makes you appreciate why football purists bang on about 'the beauty of a well-worked 0-0' - though you'd be hard-pressed to find much beauty in what unfolded on this particular Tuesday evening in April.
Defoe, who once made a living finding the back of the net with the kind of regularity that would make a Swiss timepiece jealous, now finds himself wrestling with the altogether different challenge of coaxing goals from his National League charges. On this evidence, it's proving rather more taxing than those days of sliding finishes at White Hart Lane.
The Cardinals, playing on home turf, will have fancied their chances of putting on a show for their manager, but Solihull Moors proved to be the kind of organised, no-nonsense outfit that makes life thoroughly uncomfortable for anyone harbouring grand ambitions of free-flowing football.
What the match lacked in goals, it presumably made up for in... well, actually it's rather difficult to say what it made up for in, given the absence of any reported moments of genuine excitement. Sometimes football serves up these perfectly forgettable encounters that exist solely to remind us why we treasure the memorable ones.
For Defoe, the post-match interview will have been an exercise in diplomatic frustration - the kind where you acknowledge your opponent's defensive discipline while privately wondering how professional footballers can spend 90 minutes on a pitch and fail to produce a single moment of genuine goal threat.
The draw does little for either side's ambitions, serving as one of those results that leaves everyone feeling slightly deflated without being entirely disappointed. It's the footballing equivalent of a soggy sandwich - not actively offensive, but hardly what anyone ordered.
As Defoe continues his managerial education in the unforgiving classroom of non-league football, matches like these will test his patience and tactical acumen in equal measure. The glamour of international football feels a long way from Tuesday night draws in the National League, but such is the beautiful, frustrating nature of the beautiful game.