Match Report

So Sunday morning and what better tonic for Farnborough Young Vets to get over last week\'s poor defeat to Ditton Utd by playing their first home game of the season and scheduled to play Welcome Vets. A team they had beaten on 3 occasions and drew once over the past seasons without ever needing to overly exert themselves. Surely another easy game was on the cards, right? How wrong could we be! We assembled at Farrow Fields to be told that the Youth team would get precedence regarding pitch allocations as they was they are now playing Valley Express Kent Youth League Premier Division 2, which immediately put EVERYBODY in the wrong frame of mind prior to kick off and during the warm up.

A bemused Farnborough lined up as follows,

GK, Gary Rosslee
LB, Chris Rawley
CB, Andy Cobham
CB, Matt Wright
RB, Paul Bailey
LM, Jerry Cogetti
CM, Danny Clark
CM, Daragh Nott
RM, Jason Miller
CF, Paul Tanton
CF, Simon Davies

Subs,

Danny Saines
Paul Brett
Mark Friend
Neil Connelly
Jim St John

Farnborough had the better possession in the opening ten minutes and took the lead courtesy of a Simon Davies header from a matter of yards out with the help of an accurate cross from Jason Miller, Simon Davies beating the outstretched arm of the Welcome Goalkeeper to nod home for an early Farnborough lead, 1-0 OBG’s
Farnborough failed to build on the advantage of a one goal lead or the fact that Welcome were not really playing with a recognised goalkeeper and soon were pegged back a goal a piece, The Welcome left winger turning Paul Bailey far too easy inside the penalty box and his effort which looked like a cross to the back post beat Rosslee at his near post, 1-1.

Welcome looked like they had strengthened their team during pre season and were a vast improvement on the team we were used to facing but to be fair we had been pre warned that they gave the Met Police a bloody good game last week and were unlucky to lose 5-2. Welcome soon took the lead after a needless free kick was conceded out wide right and their midfielder whom I believe is one of the new additions whipped the ball into the box with his right foot the ball curling goal wards all the time an any slight touch would divert the ball into the Farnborough. Rawley making his second start at left back listened to the call for ‘Keepers’ and pulled his outstretched leg away only for Rosslee to allow the ball inexplicably nestle inside the left hand side post, Goalkeeping howler had given the visitors the lead, 1-2 Welcome.

Farnborough thankfully found themselves back in the game within 5 minutes after the restart after referee Andy Gable penalised one of the Welcome players for a foul inside the penalty box and this led to a Farnborough. Jason Miller stepped up and smashed the ball home leaving the Welcome GK understudy no chance, 2-2. Welcome finished the half off the stronger team with most of their play being dictated by lively their central midfielder, Rosslee had to watch a speculative 20 yarded and tip over for a corner and the game looked to be all square at half time, That was until Farnborough lost possession in the Welcome final third and were caught flat footed on the break, an initial shot form outside the box was blocked but Farnborough failed to close the second effort down and the first time shot was struck sweetly from 18 yards out and found the top right hand corner with Rosslee completely unsighted, his dive more of a gesture than anything! 2-3, Welcome and halftime was upon us.

Farnborough rang the changes during the interval and Paul Brett, Mark Friend, Neill Connelly and St John all entered the field of play with Danny Clarke pushed into more forward position. With Simon Davies making way along with Andy Cobham, Paul Bailey and Jerry Cogetti however it was the Visitors who would strike first in the second half as Welcome added a 4th goal to their name. A long ball caught out Chris Rawley and with the Rosslee committed to charge out from his area the Welcome forward was able to lob home from the edge of the box and he made it look very easy. 2-4, Welcome Vets.

Farnborough at times struggled to put any decent passes together and could have been accused of lacking any real spirit or conviction and with time running out Simon Davies re-entered the fray once again hoping to capitalise on his “Arial threat” and he soon reduced the deficit after Jason Miller put another exquisite ball on a plate for him and he duly obliged although some onlookers (mostly Jason Miller) claimed the ball had already crossed over the line, 3-4 Welcome Vets, and some renewed hope for the home side.
By now there were no more than 10 minutes of regulation time remaining and Jim St John managed to swivel on the edge of the box and fire low left footed effort into the bottom corner to give Farnborough an equaliser and it looked like it would be honours even a Farrow fields as Ref Andy Gable indicated there was no more than a minute left.

Well you could not write the script for what happened next. A deft ball over the Welcome defence saw Jim St John react to the pass the quickest but as he latched on to the ball it appeared as though the Welcome defender had done enough to shepherd him out wide, however St John powered by pure unadulterated vitamin D, (that’s a suntan to you and me) showed great strength to shrug off the defender and smash an unstoppable right foot shot into the top corner that left the Welcome goalkeeper with absolutely no chance, as St John wheeled away he pulled off his shirt with the same conviction of an escapologist removing his straight jacket just seconds before facing a grizzly end, and how apt as Farnborough looked destined to have faced their own grizzly finish only for 10 minutes of complete Houdini-esqe football. The full time whistle blew and Farnborough were fortunate 5-4 winners,

Our football may not have been up to scratch today and yes we had rode our luck today but they say football is a results driven business and a first home of the season win puts us in a better frame of mind for next weeks typically tough clash giants our mates the boys in Blue from the Warren. Ironically enough they should have been called today because our visitors Welcome must have felt like they had been robbed!!


Shot of the match: Jim St John’s last gasp thunderbolt to ensure Farnborough took the spoils

Save of the match: Rosslee’s first half tip over the bar

Man of the Match: Jim St John for his timely double

Moan of the match: The lack of effort shown by many of us today, which was probably fuelled by the fact, we couldn’t play on the main pitch. Based on our performance today we do not deserve to play on the main pitch!