Woodards wins an aerial ball in the friendly against Norwich

Woodards was released by Chelsea in May 2005, along with fellow attacker Sebastien Kneissl and left-backs Ben Hudell and Sam Tillen. Amazingly, that actually trimmed the squad down to a positively gargantuan 84! His final appearance for the Blues came in a reserve fixture against Fulham at Aldershot Town’s Recreation Ground, when he replaced Mikkel Forsell at half-time.

On his first appearance of the campaign - a dour 0-0 reserve team draw with Woking - he formed what was described as a “lightweight” front-line, and that certainly became evident in his Southend appearance to date, when he was regularly knocked off of the ball by Canaries’ left-back Adam Drury.

In all, Woodards featured in eleven second-string fixtures during 2004/5, starting games against Ipswich Town (where he set up Michele Gallacio for the Blues strike in a 1-1 draw), Norwich City (ironically coming up against some of the same opposition that he would face for Blues), Crystal Palace, Coventry City, Portsmouth, Charlton Athletic, Derby County, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

In the match against the Addicks, he moved out into a wide position – against Norwich he performed a role on the right wing – and was much more effective than he had been as an out-and-out striker, whilst his form in the second half of the campaign improved, without every threatening selection in Jose Mourinho’s first-team.

Robert Craven
www.thelittlegazette.com