Match Report

This should more accurately be termed a weather report rather than match
report as the conditions yesterday were appalling. The warning signs were there on Friday night as several inches of rain fell out of the sky assisted by gale force winds. This was followed on Saturday by blue skies with patchy cloud in places but predominantly dry with strong gusting winds. Sunday morning felt like the lull before the storm and at this point I could imagine Michael Fish saying "Hurricane...what hurricane?” Anyway the boys turned up in force with Gary Rosslea in goal, back four of Chris Bourlet, Pat Mongelard, Chris Webb and Trevor Stewart, midfield comprised Toby Manchip, Chris Ponulak, Toby Harlow with Colin Ebdon and chasing the goals were Paul Smith and Ian Shoebridge. Subs this week were Paul Storkey and Roger French.
The opposition this week were Old Bromleains who have been around slightly longer than the Old Boys Guild but it transpires that the Vets have never played them in an 11-a-side game. With the weather rapidly deteriorating and no sign of the opposition on the pitch the only player mad enough to go out for a pre-match "warm-up" was Gary while the rest of the team stayed in the relative warmth of the viewing gallery. Eventually both sides braved the howling wind driven rain soaked conditions and Farnborough continued in the recent style of total football with which we are now becoming accustomed. This was highlighted by the fact that from our kick-off we managed to string together 6 passes before the opposition got a touch of the ball - not so long a go they would have taken the lead but times have changed. The Vets dominated possession for the first 20 minutes with a series of good passing moves preventing the opposition from getting into the game. It took a huge slice of luck courtesy of the wind for Old Bromleains to take the lead when a shot on goal which was easily covered by Gary stopped in mid-air and dropped at the feet of an opposition attacker who promptly despatched the ball in the back of the net before anybody else could respond. This sparked Old Bromleains into life and the half continued but was more evenly balanced. The Vets dropped back too much which allowed space for Old Bromleains to press forward but we continued to pass the ball around without creating any real chances on goal.
Half-time came and both subs were brought on to comments of "what ...now?” The weather went from bad to worse, the pitch was getting heavier and heavier and everybody was now resembling the proverbial drowned rat. The game continued for 20 minutes or so during which time Gary pulled off a fantastic one handed tip over following a one on one even though the player was clearly a good 6 yards offside. Shortly after these things got so bad that the ref decided that enough was enough and the game was called off. No complaints were heard in the stampede for the changing rooms.
Tough game next week at home to Wickham - let’s hope it stays dry for the rest of the week.