Match Report

Five Star Guild Back to Goalscoring Ways

The Guild travelled to the peace & tranquillity of scenic Abbey Wood in this league encounter to build on current good form with the sole intent on putting a further three points on the board. It was a horrible, grey, rainy day with the added woe of a late kick off, a truly shocking pitch, a match already been played on it before us and a debacle over the changing rooms! How this gets allowed in this fantastic league defeats me.

Once again, the Guild looked depleted without the services of Perkins, Stevens, Mumford, Williams J, Judge & Kendall and due to the location of the ground, had some logistical problems to overcome.

Once the game kicked off, our attitude and commitment was spot on and we pretty much dominated this fixture from the off. We decided before kick off that the pitch was never going to be inductive of good possessive football, so we went for a far more direct approach which suited the decided formation.

After twenty minutes we took the lead. Cooke was sent clean through by a Williams L flick only to be thwarted by some good goalkeeping by Dill, but the save was parried straight into the path of Hughes who smashed the ball home to give the Guild the lead.

Soon after a second goal was added, a fantastic angled ball into the box by Davis was met by the monk-like head of Hughes, whose fantastic header found the corner of the net leaving the keeper with no chance.

Five minutes before the break, Cleaver added a third and killer goal with a tap in from three yards out after the ball broke out from an attacking play and it was toe punted via a massive deflection and a bobble into the corner of the net…not too sure what the wild celebrations were for such a lucky goal?!

3-0 at the half.

At the break, we spoke about maintaining the good, direct football that we had played. It wasn’t long ball stuff, just putting the ball into good areas; as for some reason, Old Bex decided to play a very high line against a side with lots of attacking pace.

The second half got underway and the first ten minutes we switched off slightly and thought that the game was won, but Old Bex never gave up and had their best spell of the match. When Farnborough did get going, the dominant Selmes added a fourth after supporting the attacking play and finishing from close range to put the game beyond doubt. Old Bexleians desperately tried to strike back and a tremendous power drive from 25 yards out nearly wrong footed Hawkes in the Guild goal, but fantastic athleticism from the Guild No 1 denied the effort, keeping his sheet clean for the second out of three matches.

Five minutes from the end and Cooke added a fifth, final and deserved goal as he jinked past three defenders, sat the keeper down and poked into an empty net. Yet again, another fabulous finish.

The referee bought proceedings to a close and the Guild ran out convincing winners in both result and performance with their third victory this season over Old Bex.

Tactically, we were spot on today and Old Bex played straight into our hands. Defensively they played a very high line and our pace suited that style of play. Secondly, the dangerous Washbrook who has caused us problems in the past was pushed out wide and rarely caused us the problems he did when pushed upfront.

All performances were decent today and once again we kept a clean sheet and have by a long way the best defensive record in the league but also added five much needed goals to our tally. Cooke and Hughes returned today and that certainly adds to our attack and that should see us add to our current tally.

Man of the Match was George Selmes who was a constant threat driving forward in the middle of the park and scored a goal which epitomised his play. With only a couple of games under his belt this season, George will look to build on his fitness and play a major part in our end of season push.

This week we have Greenways at home. They have seemed to have returned to their good form of last season. We know what a good team Greenways can be and will need to replicate the way we played today and the attitude we brought into that game.

All our performances have been born from hard work, graft and persistence and earning the right to play. Let’s endeavour to replicate these aspects of our game and look to end March on a high.

Farnborough: 1. Hawkes; 2. Warren; 3. Davis; 4. Elliott; 5. Wray; 6. Abbott; 7. Hughes; 8. Selmes; 9.Williams L; 10. Cooke; 11. Cleaver
Subs: 12.Travers for 9.Williams L
Sub not used: 15. Mace

Old Bexleians: 1. Dill; 2. Washbrook, M; 3. Washbrook, J; 4. Brookes; 5. Catchpole ; 6. Jarvis; 7. Ramos; 8. Washbrook, D; 9. Roberts; 10. Harris; 11. Turner
Subs: 12. Dixon; 14. Moore; 15. Morgan

Referee: Mr J. Rudd