Match Report

How very unfitting that on this bright yet slightly chilly Remembrance Sunday morning the Young Vets were pitted against Toby Vets in a match that “on paper” should have had all the hallmarks of a game to remember, but alas this was one to that would definitely slip out of the old memory bank and test even the most hardened of grey matter!

Sure we scored 6 goals today, and we kept our first clean sheet of the season but yours truly and several other OBG players likened today’s match to that of married life intercourse, in other words we were just going through the motions heading towards that all important inevitable outcome…. OK maybe the only difference was that we lasted 90 minutes!

After both sets of players respectably observed a minute’s silence Farnborough lined up as follows.

GK, Gary Rosslee
LB, Matt Wright
CB, Andy Cobham
CB, Paul Brett
RB, Paul Bailey
LM, Ben Clunn
CM, Paul Tanton
CM, Daragh Nott
RM, Rowan Foggitt
CF, John Delaney
CF, Simon Davies

Subs,

Danny Saines
Chris Rawley

With several first team players absent today it was good to see the return of Rowan Foggitt who was adopting a wider position on the right wing, a position where he first started his playing days with Farnborough before being deployed as a very useful centre half. It didn’t take Rowan long to get back in to the swing of things and he was at the centre of Farnborough’s most offensive play during the opening 10 minutes, as he gave the Toby Vets left sided midfielder and full back a real torrid time. Farnborough opened the scoring through an excellent solo effort by Rowan Foggitt as he opened his body up to drift inside from the right and beat 3 Toby players before firing a fierce effort low down to the home keeper’s right hand side, 0-1 OBG’s.

John Delaney was also making his first start for a few weeks and he looked dangerous and created a couple of decent opportunities for himself to add to his tally of goals this season but his efforts were just wide of the target on both occasions. Toby’s tactics were pretty straightforward from the get go, they would play the ball up top to their centre forward who was a big bloke but also very mobile and had a good touch and he in turn would link up with their diminutive midfielder who would make intelligent runs and collect to ball from him and then try to the release the former. Luckily for Farnborough both Andy Cobham and Paul Brett were on top of their games today as they managed to handle the Toby attacks making Rosslee in the Farnborough goal a mere spectator. The one and only notable chance for Toby fell when a lapse in concentration presented the centre forward with a run in on goal one on one, Rosslee was able to rush off of his line and get enough on the ball to buy Farnborough some time for Paul Brett to get back and cover on the line, this was enough for the centre forward to actually skew his effort wide.

This gave Farnborough a wake up call and they soon doubled their lead courtesy of a Simon AKA ‘Oliver Giroud’ header which appeared to go in off of the Toby post, stanchion and even crossbar just for good measures, and a special mention must go to Paul Bailey for his delivery that made it easy even for Simon to score, 2-0 OBG’s. The home side held on to the goal deficit til half time courtesy of a good double save by the Toby keeper first parrying a Paul Tanton effort from the edge of the box and then more notably getting up in time to block the rebound by Ben Clunn, half time 0-2 OBG’s.

The second half started with Farnborough kicking into what used to be affectionately now as the Ferrier Estate end and were soon 3 goals to the good as Rowan Foggitt grabbed his second of the match with an improvised ‘Chilena’ that’s bicycle kick to me and you, a feat that left cries of Hugo Sanchez echoing around the Kidbrooke Village vicinity, 0-3 OBG’s.

Any fight that Toby had left in them prior to the restart had now clearly been knocked out of them and matters became worse for when Rowan turned provider to set up Simon Davies unmarked in the box to poke home his second of the match. 0-4 OBG’s

Farnborough introduced both substitutes into the fray and Toby also made a rather unusual change as their goalkeeper was moved out into midfield and an outfield player who didn’t appear to be carrying a knock took over the duties between the sticks?? Farnborough inevitably scored a 5th with the goal of the game. The play started with Paul Bailey at right back who then passed to one of the centre midfielders (probably Daragh) who laid it off to Rowan whose perfectly weighted ball across the Toby penalty area to Simon Davies (clearly brimming with confidence) as he met it with a first time right footed curling effort that the goalkeeper could only watch and admire as it found the net, 0-5 OBG’s.

Toby gave Farnborough a rare scare in the second half as their centre forward rattled the Farnborough upright with the ball then being cleared to safety, and dare we say it but it looked as though a first clean sheet might be on the cards? Farnborough did their best to try and deny themselves of a first clean sheet of the season as yet again the centre forward who was Toby’s main point of contact spurned an opportunity to pull one back as his effort went just wide of the post after Rosslee had done well to close the angle down.

Farnborough continued to lay siege on the Toby goal from their on and should have added at least 2 or 3 more goals to their name. They eventually added a 6th and again it was a Paul Bailey / Simon Davies combination as the latter was able to head home another exquisite delivery from the former to put the extra gloss on the finish, the ref blew for full time and Farnborough ran out worthy 0-6 winners.

As we trudged back to the dressing rooms from the far sided quaggy pitch a few of us were left to reflect that this had not been the most memorable or even enjoyable of games although the scoreline could easily have suggested it was but a win is a win and more importantly in the goalkeeping fraternity a clean sheet is a clean sheet! This had been yet another fruitful visit to Kidbrooke, we are now unbeaten in 13 visits having won 12 of those games and netting 60 goals in the process, that’s an average of 4.6 goals a game!

Shot of the match: Rowan’s second half overhead kick

Save of the match: The Toby keeper’s double save to deny Paul Tanton and then Ben Clunn

Man of the match: Simon ‘Oliver Giroud’ Davies

Moan of the match: The game was won by Farnborough by half time which meant that the post match beer didn’t taste like a hard fought well deserved one!

Next week we face stiffer opposition Inter Vyagra away, so let’s just hope we are “up for it”.