Match Report

These days the Vets team has a more settled squad providing a consistent team line-up. Sunday''s team consisted of Gary Rosslee in goal, defence starred Pat Mongelard, Chris Webb, Steve Blanchard and Roger French, midfield dynamos were Paul Storkey, Chris Ponulak, Toby Harlow with Colin Ebdon and upfront heroes were Paul Smith and Toby Manchip. The team was completed with Trevor Stewart and Ian Shoebridge on the bench and running the line. The game kicked off just past 11.00am having observed the minute''s silence for Remembrance Sunday.

The game was immediately taken to Baltic Exchange with plenty of neat passing moves not often seen in previous Vets performances. I would actually go as far to say that this game was the best all round performance I have witnessed for a very long time but recent games have been leading up to this. It makes it that much harder to report that we lost 3-2 having had more of the possession and created more scoring opportunities.

Farnborough opened the scoring when Toby "what do you mean no MOM votes?" Manchip put the ball in the back of the net. Toby M also displayed a fine act of sportsmanship by passing the ball back to the Baltic stand-in keeper from the 6 yard line rather than attempting to score following a pick up from a back pass. We were told that as a stand-in he didn''t know the rules but he certainly did a good impression of a keeper and produced a number of good saves to deny further Farnborough goals throughout the game. Everybody in the team contributed to a fine performance and the passing was neat, crisp and effective. The only downside to the first half was that we failed to clear the ball from our box effectively and allowed Baltic to equalise.

The second half continued where we left off with good running and passing. Pat Mongelard and Toby Harlow were replaced midway through the half by Trevor Stewart and Ian Shoebridge who both slotted in very well. A five minute lapse in concentration allowed Baltic to snatch 2 quick goals to put them 3-1 up and in previous games this would have signalled the raising of the white flag but these days we have more fight. We pushed on and had a number of chances to level the scores and even win the game - the Baltic keeper continued to produce good saves in particular denying Ian Shoebridge in a one-on-one. We also had a goal disallowed from a free kick taken too early after the keeper had picked up another back pass - no second chances for the keeper this time. Top scorer, Paul Smith did manage to pull one back but it was not enough to get a share of the result.

At the end of the game the Vets were mightily disappointed at not getting a draw at least and really felt that we deserved the win. Chris Webb played a blinder at the back to win the man of the match vote and Mark James was spotted up another tree. Lets hope we can continue the momentum and pick up some wins in the coming weeks - we deserve it.

Rog