Match Report

Today’s match against The Buff had all the hallmarks of a typical local derby, whether it was Celtic v. Rangers, which is affectionately known as the ‘Auld Firm’ derby, or Norwich v. Ipswich, which apparently is known as the ‘Old Farm’ derby! Farnborough were looking to eradicate their drubbing at the hands of The Buff back in October which would go down in Farnborough folklore as the ‘Halloween horror show’, in football terms this would be as a poignant date in history such as the ‘Mother's Day Massacre’ between Millwall and West Ham back in 1994!

Farnborough lined up as follows

GK - Gary Rosslee
LB – Robin Lipscomb
CB – Chris Greenhough
CB – Paul Brett
RB – Richard Davies
LM – Neil Connelly
CM – Grant Gable
CM – Jim St John
RM – Paul Bailey
CF – Pete Harvey
CF – Paul Tanton

Subs
Barry Putt

Farnborough should have been 1 up within a few minutes but Paul Tanton managed to smash the ball over the bar from a matter of yards out, but thankfully It did not take Farnborough long to open the scoring when Paul Tanton redeemed himself by squaring a ball that seemed to take an eternity to find Pete Harvey in the box and he found some space between the last defender and goalkeeper to coolly slot home 1-0 OBG’s. The game then took a turn for the worst when Steve from the Buff went down after an innocuous challenge with Chris Greenhough and had to be replaced; It later transpired that he had broken his leg; we all wish him a speedy recovery. The game then went a bit stale after that incident until Pete Harvey was on hand to net his second of the game after Grant Gable's header had been saved by the Buff goalkeeper low down to his right but only to see the rebound fall nicely to Pete Harvey for the simplest of tap-ins. 2-0 OBG’S. Richard Davies then condemned The Buff to an even bigger mountain to climb as he slotted home a first half penalty to give Farnborough a comfortable lead going into the second half.

The Buff started the better team in the second half and soon grabbed a goal when their substitute neatly smashed the ball past Rosslee albeit with a toe-punt but a good finish nonetheless, 3-1 Farnborough. The Buff should have pulled a further goal back but the chance went begging after Rosslee had committed himself and left an open goal but The Buff attacker’s first time touch took the ball too far for him to finish the move. Then a moment of Pete Harvey brilliance surely sealed the game for Farnborough as he collected the ball out wide on the right and cut inside and curled a peach of a shot into the top left hand corner - not too dissimilar from a recent Jay Bothroyd effort for Cardiff against QPR (according to Pete) 4-1 OBG’s.

The Buff not to be outdone did pull another goal back to reduce the deficit to 4-2 but Farnborough ran out eventual winners and were very good value for the win, luckily they did not rue the plethora of chances they missed in front of goal.

Full time approached and local pride was restored, with interest.