City and Dorking cancel each other out in goalless clash

City and Dorking Wanderers played out a competitive goalless draw at the Meadowbank Stadium this afternoon. After a tough seven days, with the seven goal thrashing against Wealdstone quickly followed by a FA Trophy exit at the hands of Concord Rangers, it was a positive result for the Romans against one of their play-off rivals. The hosts came into the game with the poorest disciplinary record in the division and several early challenges showed why but they also passed the ball around well on the 3G surface and enjoyed the better of the opening exchanges. However, City dealt well with this threat and looked dangerous when they broke forward. It wasn’t until the latter stages of the half that either goal was really threatened, Prior netting for Dorking only for an offside flag to rule the effort out and Frankie Artus directing a header narrowly wide. The referee was finally forced into action early in the second half, booking Gallagher for another wild challenge on Sam Pearson, before Dorking were denied by a great Ryan Clarke save, diverting Prior’s shot over the bar. On 68 minutes Pearson finally tested Huk in the home goal and several other City efforts flew wide of the target. Both sides continued to look for a winner in the closing stages but couldn’t fashion any clear sights of goal and had to settle for a point apiece.