Match Report

With the added luxury of a 14-day break to recuperate, the Farnborough ‘Young Vets’ made the journey to the Beaverwood in Chislehurst for their second game of 2011 against Cudham Vets. The usual beaverwood 4 * facilities greeted us as the Guild somehow managed to fit 15 players into the Portacabin / changing room. I mean this in the nicest way but thankfully the long term absentees such as Neil Connelly, George Kleanthous and Tony Simpson were all still missing as well as Jim St John & Pete Harvey who failed to shake off their respective injuries suffered a fortnight ago in the entertaining game (for the neutral) against Lloyds Golden Oldies otherwise we would have been spilling out all over the place and this was prior to even kicking a ball.

Farnborough handed out 3 debuts today and lined up as follows.

Gary Rosslee - GK
Simon Hunt – LB
Paul Brett – CB
Andy Cobham – CB
Chris Greenhough – RB
Matt Wright – LM
Grant Gable – CM
Danny Clark - CM
Rowan Foggitt – RM
Paul Tanton – CF
Simon Davies – CF

SUBS

Richard Davies
Daragh Nott
Mark Friend
Pal Bailey

Our last outing against Cudham ended up in a comprehensive 4-1 victory to the OBG’s however that result was not to be taken for granted especially as Cudham had netted 19 goals in their last two games against Lloyds Golden Oldies and Orpington Vets, in fact since time of this report we have learned that Lloyds Golden Oldies have decided to fold their Vets team so it looks like we will never be able to record a victory over them!

The Beaverwood pitch although coated generously with the overnight rain still played heavy as it was in need of a decent cut and it soon became apparent from the kick off why Cudham had caused teams so much trouble this season. Their play was directed to their two front men, one a huge presence of a man who was no slouch with the ball at his feet and the other who is as technically as good a player we have faced. He reminded yours truly of a Chris Sutton. The word is, the latter Cudham forward unlike Chris Sutton had actually played for England’s B team!

Paul Brett and Andy Cobham were clearly enjoying the early physical exchanges with the two busy centre forwards and Rosslee in the OBG goal did well to keep the scores level when he bravely closed down an attack and took a stray boot to the nether regions for his troubles. With Farnborough holding their own for the first 20 minutes Paul Brett and Andy Cobham’s mornings were abruptly ended with Paul suffering a very nasty cut head from an aerial collision and Andy Cobham picking up a knock. Chris Greenhough was moved into the middle of the defence with Matt Wright and Richard Davies and Paul Bailey entered the fray at left midfield and right back respectively.

Farnborough weathered the storm with the new look back four and also had Rosslee and the upright to thank for not falling behind to a Cudham goal but alas their guile and luck soon ran out. A route one long ball was deftly flicked on into the path of the larger centre forward who caught out Matt Wright and was able to flick the ball home over the onrushing Rosslee. 1-0 Cudham. Farnborough did create a couple of decent chances but the best chance clearly fell to Paul Tanton who drew an excellent save from Colin Benningfield in the Cudham goal to maintain their advantage. Football is one of those types of games where if you do not take your chances you always tend to get punished and it didn’t take long for Cudham to double their lead. Again some sloppy defending presented their midfielder with a wonderful opportunity as he hit an early shot 8 yards out although he would be the first to admit he clearly scuffed it to leave Rosslee completely flatfooted and the scoreline reading 2-0 Cudham.

If the second Cudham goal was the result of a scuffed effort then the third Cudham goal was an absolute corker of a finish. The Cudham midfielder found himself in acres of space in the OBG box on the corner of the 6 yard box and he unleashed a shot of such venom that even with a hand on it from Rosslee it still found its way into the top corner. 3-0 Cudham and surely that was game over. Cudham nearly scored a fourth before the interval but again had the woodwork to save them. This time the chance came from a well-worked corner that saw the smallest player on the pitch flick his header onto the underside of the crossbar. The ref blew for half time and luckily enough it was damage limitation.

Farnborough almost conceded immediately from the second half kick off but thankfully Rosslee was alert to the danger and he was able to turn the ball away for a corner. Cudham continued to pepper the Farnborough goal and several further smart saves from Rosslee and also a goal line clearance from Matt Wright. Cudham's persistence eventually led to their fourth goal; again Rosslee was left exposed, this time he saved the initial unmarked header but was left helpless as the rebound fell nicely to the forward to smash home at the second attempt. 4-0 Cudham.

Rowan Foggitt in his full debut showed some flashes of excellent individual play as he tried to single handily drag Farnborough back into the game but his mazy runs were thwarted by what always seemed like an extra Cudham defender in the final third of the pitch, at times is seemed like Farnborough were playing against 12 Cudham players! Richard Davies saw his free kick from 30 yards spilled by the Cudham goalkeeper but Farnborough failed to hit the target with the resulting rebound from just yards out.

Cudham hit the woodwork once again but it didn’t take them long to find the net for a fifth time and again it was an easy goal for the forward to help himself to as he neatly chested down from 7 yards out and despatched home much to the cries of offside from a tired and ragged Farnborough defence that went unheard by the referee. 5-0 Cudham. The ref blew for full time and Farnborough had been taught a 90-minute lesson in football and were off to their worst start to a season having lost two games out of two and shipped 9 goals for their troubles!

Next week sees us make the journey down to Edenbridge to face the team that actually failed to show up for the Senior Vets fixture today at Farrow Fields. Let's hope this was just a one off.

MOM today was Gary Rosslee in the Farnborough goal for keeping the scoreline a “respectable” 5-0!!!!