Farnborough OBG FC

Match Report

Sunday 24th April 2011

Friendly

Vets
Paul Bailey (pen.), Danny Clark, Paul Tanton, Grant Gable
4 - 1
Cudham Vets
Colin Benningfield

By Gary Rosslee

On a wonderful Easter Sunday morning Farnborough lined up against physical competition that are Cudham as follows.

GK – Gary Rosslee
LB – Daragh Nott
CB – Chris Greenhough
CB – Paul Brett
RB – Richard Davies
LM – Neil Connelly
CM – Grant Gable
CM – Danny Clark
RM – Paul Bailey
CF – Pete Harvey
CF – Paul Tanton

Subs
Jason Miller
Barry Putt

Within the first 5 minutes of kick off Cudham enjoyed the best spell of the play and had the first effort on goal, a corner swung in from the left hand side was met with an unmarked header which Rosslee was thankful to get a hand to. This seemed to be the wake up call Farnborough needed and soon after Danny Clark who was making his Vets debut started to show his excellent array of passes in the middle of the park and it was Danny Clark who actually opened the scoring. Paul Tanton whipped in a cross form the right hand side to which the Cudham goalkeeper loudly came to claim but Danny was able to nip in to nod the ball home. 1-0 Farnborough.

Farnborough were playing with a level of confidence and always looked assured at the back with Paul Brett and Chris Greenhough equal to the wave of Cudham attacks which seemed to be limited to route one balls, and with the half time whistle Farnborough had their 1 goal lead intact. Second half and Cudham pressed on in search of an equaliser and had almost found one but Rosslee was able to watch a daisy cutter through a crowded penalty box and safely gather the ball after it seemed to squirm away from him. Farnborough squandered a couple of good chances at the other end and then Paul Brett was adjudged to have handled in the box. Referee Mickey Gearing pointed to the spot and the penalty was dispatched expertly by ex-FOBG Colin Benningfield to level the scores 1-1.

On other occasions this may have effected the OBG’s but they went on to restore their lead soon after courtesy of a penalty of their own and with regular penalty taker Richard Davies basking in the sunshine on the touchline up stepped Paul Bailey to smash the ball home past the Cudham goalkeeper. 2-1 OBG’s. It looked like Barry Putt would open his account for Farnborough but his header was smartly saved by the Cudham goalkeeper to give them a glimmer of hope. But any hope Cudham had was soon quashed as Grant Gable added to his tally of 9 goals for the season by coolly placing the ball home after a neat pass square inside the Cudham area. 3-1 OBG’s.

Cudham by now looked shell-shocked they simply could not cope with Farnborough in all areas of the pitch today as they were totally outplayed and out battled to every first and second ball and Paul Tanton was on hand to wrap up the game when he shot across the goal into the far corner to end a torrid couple of weeks for him in terms of finishing!! 4-1 OBG’s.

Farnborough were very good value for the win today against one of the better Vets teams they are likely to play this season and if they can take that type of performance going into next week's fixture against the punctually challenged ‘Old Albany Vets’ it should make for a very entertaining game indeed.

The MOM award today was one of the closest I have seen this season, as the likes of Chris Greenhough, Paul Brett, Danny Clark and Paul Tanton all deserved it.

Man of the match: Chris Greenhough