Match Report

Farnborough picked up their 1st competitive win of the season in a hard fought victory against Heathfield.

Heathfield started brightly, their 3 in the middle causing Sam Evans and Luke Hutchins a problem and chasing shadows at times and it was no surprise when they took the lead probably inside the 1st 10 minutes. Having worked the ball out to the right touchline, the ball was swung in deep to the back post and Heathfield's lone forward was there first, guiding his header home. A wakeup call for Farnborough definitely but one that didn't really wake us up (that's a beauty of a line that - poetry).

The passing was slow and after this was one of the things we spoke about before the game it really was poor to be giving the ball away constantly. Heathfield continued to have the lion's share of it and doubled their lead with about 15 played. Again suspect marking was to be blamed, the ball was swung in again to the back stick and Stewart was left with the task of marking two men, lost out in the air and it was two. This seemed to liven Farnborough up a bit but it wasn't until the last 15 minutes of the half that we got ourselves back in the game. By this time Farnborough were moving the ball quickly and it looked like a matter of time before we found ourselves back in business. Andrew Jarvis on as a first half sub for injured Dammo, got the ball rolling, a quick turn and volley that was struck well, but probably going wide, was flicked home by Chris Charlton instinctively and we were back in the game. This goal spurned Farnborough on and Heathfield noticeably lost their nerve a little, it was pretty much all Farnborough.

40 minutes gone and we were level, Sam Evans who was impressive throughout and now playing up top, got wide, swung in a lovely ball across the 6 yard box and Michael Graham reacted first to side foot home the leveller. I might be wrong about that, was it Max Richardson who played that ball through? Argue amongst yourselves, I'm happy to claim the assist in the meantime.

Half time and Vince and Darren said their bit, some of it not to be repeated (I learned a few new swear words here and will remember them for next week) and rightly so, we were poor, they knew it and so did we and were fortunate to be in at the break at 2-2.

The second half started brightly for Farnborough but we quickly found ourselves playing at their level and in truth half hour passed with very little being created by either side. Max Richardson looked lively though and was probably a rare plus point in the second half, his direct running down the right hand side was causing a problem to their left back, arguably our best player incidentally and it was no surprise that he made the eventual winner for Barry Cleaver. Cutting in from the right he slid a lovely ball through Barry collected, steadied, got his head up and slipped it past the keeper to round off a 3-2 win which looked unlikely 15 minutes into the game.

Overall a good result which to be fair showed a lot of character, that said we've got to stop giving teams a head-start, against better sides we will get beat. Overall though, we're in the next round of the cup and got our first win of the season and will look to build on that in the league at the weekend.

Man of the Match was a tough one, Andy Jarvis looked good on his first outing in the middle, as did Sam Evans in the middle and up top but overall Nick Eales takes the spoils with a confident display at left back.