Match Report

As yours truly suspected the Young Vets squad made a remarkable recovery from the serious bout of “Dittonitus” that had ripped through the team the previous week just in time for their first home game of the new season, however today was not the ‘welcome’ home they were hoping for!

In stark contrast to last week where in only our 4th game of the new season we were unable to field a team today we had 17 players at our disposal and if the likes of Daragh Nott, Jason Miller, Danny Clark, Rowan Foggitt, Danny Saines, Paul Brett and Si Davies (to name a few of the absentees) were in attendance then we would have had enough players for 2 teams let alone the one!!

With this many players available the stand-in management duo of Paul Bailey and Gary Rosslee in Paul Tanton’s recent absence (congratulations again to Mr & Mrs Tanton) decided to go with those who had turned up week in week out so far this season and lined up as follows, I must also add that Paul Bailey even unselfishly put himself as a sub, fair play to him.


G. Rosslee ©

R. Davies A. Cobham B. Cheesman M. Friend

B. Clunn St. John D. Wyatt C. Rawley

J. Delaney B. Grainger
Subs

Dave Garratty
Paul Bailey
Paul Aitken
Paul Tanton
Neil Connelly
Matt Wright

The opening exchanges showed that Farnborough were clearly not up for this match, maybe it was due to the number of bodies available on the bench with each man knowing that he might not play a full game also it did not help the cause that A) Wellcome were late and B) unlike us they were actually a man short as they reached Farrow Fields with only 10 players so new boy Paul Aitken kindly agreed to don the gold kit of Wellcome to help their cause.

Wellcome pressed us high up the pitch and closed us down when we had the ball which meant we were forced into playing rushed passes that were incomplete and we became wasteful of possession on many occasion.

Wellcome opened the scoring in fortuitous fashion as Brett Cheesman lashed at a routine clearance but he completely missed the ball which allowed the beast of a centre forward to fire home one on one from 8 yards out albeit his effort appeared to be mis-hit which allowed the ball to bobble over the advancing Rosslee, 0-1 Wellcome.

5 minutes later Rosslee then turned villain as he made a complete hash of a speculative effort from Paul Aitken some 20 yards out as he allowed the ball to somehow go through him to double Wellcome’s lead, Paul Aitken refused to celebrate as he looked rather embarrassed,
0-2, Wellcome Vets.

The first decent chance for Farnborough was from a glancing header from St. John from 12 yards out that went wide by a couple of feet and Mark Friend also saw his header from a corner go over by less than a foot. Ben Clunn (clearly showing effects of jetlag from his recent trip overseas) was bundled over in the box when he was clean through after beating his man but referee Andy Gable waved away the protests. For the rest of the half Farnborough were simply not at the races and rarely tested the Wellcome keeper but with that said they also weathered the storm at the other end to keep the deficit at 2 as they went in at half time.

Ref Andy Gable issued a warning to captain Rosslee to ask his players to curb their language as frustrations were clearly getting to them in a very frustrating half.

Farnborough made more changes than David Bowie in the second half to allow everybody some game time and Richard Davies and Mark Friend found themselves playing for the oppo for the second half, Richard taking a role up front while Mark was asked to play centre midfield. The new legs and width saw Farnborough make a better start the second half and they created some decent openings but more importantly kept the ball for longer periods but they always lacked the killer touch in front of goal as St John was wasteful of a couple of decent chances, Dean Wyatt should have scored when the ball was pulled back for him in the box and Barry Grainger struck the wall from a free kick in a decent area.

Wellcome nearly tripled their lead as Richard Davies was played in as Farnborough pushed high up the pitch but the advancing Rosslee got a good hand to his effort right on the edge of the box, I’m pretty sure I even heard Richard appeal for handball clearly forgetting where his allegiance lies for a split moment! Seeing Rosslee have a mare in the first half Richard then tried his luck from 20 yards that thankfully this time Rosslee tipped over for good measure.
For all of Farnborough’s territorial possession they eventually clawed a goal back and it was St John who was on target at the 5th time of asking as his precise downward header from a corner went under the Wellcome goalkeeper to give the home team a glimmer of hope with 10 minutes left. 1-2 Wellcome.

That glimmer of light was soon erased as Wellcome went straight up the other end and immediately restored their 2 goal cushion. Another speculative effort from outside the box came off of the head of Andy Cobham and by the time Rosslee adjusted himself to make the save he could only parry the ball which fell kindly to the unmarked centre forward who slotted home the rebound for his second of the match.

The ref blew for full time soon after as Farnborough were left to muse on their first home defeat of the season at the first time of asking. Today was a difficult game and one that did not do the team any justice, and it certainly didn’t make up for the fact that we didn’t have a game the week before as yours truly and not to mention a few others were in true Luis Suarez fashion ‘chomping at the bit’ but today did not satisfy our appetite.

Let’s see if we have more subs than the Royal Navy next week as we have another tricky fixture away to Princes Park in Stone, Dartford and with 3 of the 4 regular midfielders already absent for that match it seems that the returning manager Paul Tanton will have another juggling act on his hands!

MOM: Joint with 4 votes each Jim St John and Gary Rosslee