Match Report

Our visitors today to Farrow Fields on this bitterly cold January morning were Crofton Albion FC, a team that we have played on a couple of occasions in the past and scored 11 goals and conceded just the 2 in the process. So with the Farnborough management having the luxury of a strong squad to pick from and the use of the big pitch they went into this game in high spirits that this would be a 3rd consecutive victory against them.

Farnborough lined up as follows.

Gary Rosslee, GK
Danny Saines, LB
Barry Simpson, CB
Andy Cobham, CB
Paul Bailey, RB
Matt Wright, LM
Grant Gable, CM
Daragh Nott, CM
Jason Miller, RM
Paul Tanton, CF
Simon Davies, CF

Subs,

Neil Connelly
Rowan Foggitt
Mark Friend
Pete Harvey.

The home team started the brightest and played some decent football with some touches and neat interchanges, Daragh Nott making his first appearance in a Farnborough shirt since December 18th was clearly the busiest player on the park in the opening 20 minutes with his usual tenacious and energetic style of play, or as others might say headless chicken like! And it didn’t take long for Farnborough to open the scoring when Daragh finished off a smart move involving Matt Wright out left and Paul Tanton in the Crofton box. The latter neatly played a slide rule pass to in to the path of Daragh and from 12 yards out he coolly side footed the ball back across to leave the Crofton goalkeeper no chance and the ball nestled in the back of the net. 1-0 Farnborough.

Crofton tried their hardest to get back into the game but they were left frustrated on many occasions, either by their final ball which failed to find one of their fellow team-mates or the ever alert and well-positioned Farnborough back four were there to quash any danger. The pick of which was an excellently timed last-ditch tackle by Danny Saines inside the box. Farnborough were now playing with confidence and the likes of Jason Miller was starting to make his trademark runs up and down the wing and knocking in decent balls into the Crofton penalty area but unfortunately Farnborough couldn’t add a second before the break.

Half time saw Farnborough ring the changes as Farnborough’s favourite thespian Pete Harvey AKA ‘Katty Hardup’ was brought on to replace Simon Davies up front and Neil Connelly replaced Danny Saines at left back, the other 2 named substitutes would feature later on as the game progressed.

Rosslee in the Farnborough goal who was clearly suffering the after effects of an ingrowing toenail he had removed during the week nearly gifted Crofton an early equaliser in the second half. He attempted to clear a routine pass back but was unable to get any height or distance on the clearance and somehow found a Crofton player 30 yards out and with the goal now gaping a certain goal looked on the cards as the Crofton player stroked the ball towards the unguarded net but thankfully Paul Bailey was on hand at the edge of the box to get a decisive touch on the shot to deflect the ball out safely for a corner. Crofton now started to enjoy their best spell of possession with most of their play coming down the left hand side and should have equalised but their centre forward was guilty of failing to hit the target from 6 yards out, his effort sailing over the bar when he maybe had more time than he thought.

Farnborough regrouped and started to press forward for a second goal and it was Simon Davies who had been brought back on to settle the Farnborough nerves after his snap shot gave the OBG’s a 2 goal cushion. The game then went through a period where the play was very stop-start, which seemed to ruin the rhythm Farnborough had found. With almost the last kick of the game Crofton nearly grabbed a consolation but Rosslee was able to tip the ball over the bar to safety. Farnborough had kept their first clean sheet of the season, and it had taken just the 16 games!

The full time result meant we had recorded a much-needed win after far too many draws this season and going into next week\'s away fixture to Diamond Vets unbeaten in the last 4 games.