THE torrential rain at Woking in midweek helped produce an FA Cup tie to remember.

In what was already a tasty looking first round fixture between an in-form non-league side and an Oxford United team just getting going this year, the weather and raucous home crowd nudged things up a notch.

Crucially, it allowed us to see a side to United which we don’t get to all that often.

The constant downpour was remarkable, as it seemingly got heavier every five minutes.

While the pitch did hold up pretty well, the conditions still meant the U’s had to roll their sleeves up and prove they had the fire in the belly to match a hungry Woking side.

That’s not to say it became a scrappy tie, as credit to both teams, they kept the ball on the turf and did what they could with the hand dealt to them.

It was end-to-end, frenetic stuff – especially in the first half which saw chances and shots at both ends.

United acted professionally throughout though, and after going ahead, weathered another storm as Woking battered the door in search of an equaliser that arguably their efforts warranted.

The win summed up the resurgence at United recently: it was a mixture of style but importantly, steely grit too.