Match Report

Just as some of us were suffering with withdrawal symptoms as we had not been to Kidbrooke for at least 3 whole weeks the OBG tour bus delivered us to our what seems to have become our second home. Thankfully with Libya dominating the newspapers and TV as of late this was enough to soothe the craving of yours truly and just take that edge off.

There was good news and bad news as a result of the Senior Vets game being called off against Old Albany, the good news is we managed to acquire a few of their players to help us make up the ever depleting numbers, but the bad news meant that Vic Farrow will be eating Shirley’s sandwiches for the rest of the week!

We lined up as follows

Gary Rosslee – GK
Robin Lipscomb – LB
Paul Brett – CB
Tony Simpson – CB
Paul Bailey – RB
Jay Hardy - LM
Grant Gable – CM
Richard Cooke – CM
Stuart Manwaring – RM
Paul Tanton – CF
Pete Harvey – CF

Subs
Sinisa Gracanin
Mehmet Bozyigit

On a very hard and in areas somewhat barren pitch Farnborough controlled the game early on however without any real conviction, but even when Farnborough didn’t have the ball they rarely looked troubled in either the midfield or at the back. So without any real surprise it was Farnborough who probed and continued to ask the questions early on and after Pete ‘Shakespeare’ Harvey was fouled in a dangerous area (and no I don’t mean Kidbrooke) he picked himself up and delivered a sweet cross into the Tamponians 6 yard area but it just agonisingly evaded the Farnborough players in red. The signs looked good for Farnborough.

Paul Tanton then easily went the closest to breaking the deadlock after he was greeted with an open goal but a last ditch tackle by the opposing defender ensured the scores remained level. Peter Harvey was then fouled ONCE AGAIN and as a precaution he decided to watch the remainder of the half from the dug out with Sinisa taking the role of left midfield and Jay Hardy filling Pete’s position. Word has it though Pete came off to practise his lines for his upcoming amateur dramatics play – bravo luvvy bravo!

Half time and 0-0 with no real notable efforts on either goal, both defences had done their jobs, Farnborough’s only real panic came when an unmarked Tamponian enjoyed the freedom of a free header from a corner but it was cleared away to safety. I do not recall the home goalkeeper having to make a single save in the first 45 minutes.

Farnborough started the second half the strongest and had the luxury of playing without the bright midday sun in their eyes but still could not exert enough pressure that would trouble the hosts with Stuart Manwaring having a decent opportunity to volley home with the goal at his mercy, but his side foot effort went despairingly wide. Farnborough eventually took the lead and it was Pete Harvey the provider who squared the ball across the box for Jay Hardy to smash home on his emergency loan debut; also a mention should go to Robin Lipscomb as well as the link up play with Pete was instrumental in the goal.

Unbeknown to Robin, he would go on to be a lot more instrumental in this game than he would have hoped for - but for all the wrong reasons! With Old Tamponians still not troubling the back line of Farnborough they brought on a player who must have been one of the oppo’s sons as he was only 15 years young. The hosts looked to capitalise on this new injection of speed and energy and they played a very good ball between the left back and centre back through to the youngster but Rosslee had decided to come off of his line to clear the ball upfield, unfortunately Robin did not hear the call for keeper's and inexplicably got the last touch on the ball which deflected it past Rosslee and it trickled into the bottom corner of the goal. This was very unjust on Farnborough who did not believe that they should have been level. Robin then found himself on the receiving end of the youngster’s mistimed challenge and that was the end of an eventful day at the office for him! The ref blew for full time and honours even.

Farnborough had not done enough to score more than the one goal today against opposition that were not in the same league as the previous week but at the same time they did not put a foot wrong at the back other than “that incident” that will be known as ‘Lipscombgate’ so unsurprisingly it was a defender who got MOM.

MOM - Paul Brett

Moan of the match – Bloody egg & cress sarnies all week for Vic!