Match Report

Thirds at home in a must win game against Bexley Reserves who were sitting just above us in the league. Despite having a few games in hand we still desperately needed the 3 points if we were cut down the difference between us and the rest of the teams in the league. We went onto the pitch, which the fourth team had left 'nice and neat' for us after their defeat in the game before us, with the following line up:

GK -Jake Byrne

Mark Friend Steve Blanchard Marvin Sinclair Jason Hardy

Tony Maillardet Daragh Nott Dan Head (C) Chris Landy

Simon Davies Ben Tomkins

and the luxury of 3 subs - Josh Walsh, Jim Halford and Ed Turkel

Neither team started off particularly well, with the game starting at a frantic pace with neither team really getting a foothold for the first 10 mins, Farnborough started to settle down and look for passes to feet with the front two of Tomkins and Davies holding the ball up and trying to bring the midfield into play...however by doing this we had nobody up top to try and get behind the defence and were therefore forced to try and play the ball along the Bexley backline. When Bexley were on the ball they kept looking for the pass over our very high backline and caught us out a few times and had it not been for the covering Sinclair and Hardy on several occasions we may well have been a few goals down early in the first half.

There were a few good exchanges of passes down the left with Hardy, Landy and Head combining well to try and force a chance for the strikers and Maillardet on the right beating a few players but unable to get the shot away. Our best chances were coming from our stable of long throw specialists Hardy, Sinclair and Friend who were looking for the big lads Davies and Tomkins and finding them on most occasions but with Farnborough unable to make the most of the chances that resulted, we were made to pay with a quick breakaway, Bexley beating the offside trap and the striker rushing forwards to beat the exposed Byrne in between the Farnborough sticks. 1-0 Bexley at half time.

No changes at half time with Farnborough starting the better of the two teams in the second half with some neat passes and good combining down the left trying to fashion a few chances knowing we needed to test this keeper in the second half. The best chance through the whole game for Farnborough came as a shot bounced off the crossbar and fell to Tomkins with the ball in mid air he opted for the spectacular volley from 6 yards out which unfortunately for us came to nothing more than an air kick, a shame as it would have been a nice finish to a good bit of pressure from Farnborough.

A few minutes later and largely against the run of play Bexley again beat the backline and the striker finished past the oncoming Byrne, an undeserved 2-0 scoreline. Sub Halford on for Landy, with Nott going wide left and Halford slotting into the centre. There were a few breaks from the midfield but Bexley's stubborn backline who played fairly deep (which worked pretty well) managed to stave off any real attack Farnborough had with us having no real pace to get in behind the defence. The closest we came to scoring was an ambitious 30 yarder from Halford which the keeper fumbled round the post for a corner. Subs Walsh on for Friend and Turkel on for Davies. At this point I lost who was playing where; as we pushed for a goal we seemingly got overrun at the back with the ball being crossed over from the right and finished by 1 of the 2 players rushing in at the back. 3-0 followed shortly by 4 and 5 as Bexley put a bit of glossing on the scoreline.

Everyone needs to improve for our next games if we are to pick up some much needed points, we need much better performances all around and to keep that sort of play going for the whole match instead of just the short spells where we looked the better team.