Match Report

Stroll in the Park for Young Vets

Licking our wounds from last weeks disappointing performance against Wellcome Vets we made the journey on a glorious Autumnal morning to Stone in Dartford to play the very hospitable Princes Park Vets, one of our bogey teams over the past few seasons, in fact we had not posted a victory against them since October 2010 (having drawn every game against them since).

With several first team players absent yet again Farnborough took a squad of 13 players, including a late call up for Si ‘The Brummie’ Reynolds and Matt Wright who emerged after the kick off we lined up as follows:


G. Rosslee ©

R. Davies A. Cobham B. Cheesman M. Friend

P. Tanton P. Bailey D. Nott C. Rawley

P. Aitkin B. Grainger
Subs

S. Reynolds.
M. Wright

Farnborough won the toss and elected to play away from the sun and downhill (literally) but made uphill work of it in the opening 10 minutes as on too many occasions their final ball was not accurate enough and they gave the ball away needlessly but with that said Princes Park never really put us under any real pressure as they also followed suit!

Paul Aitkin (who is charged match subs by the minute) came off injured within the first 5 minutes and was replaced by Simon Reynolds and it was the latter whose snap shot was nicely saved by the Princes Park keeper but it allowed Barry Grainger to coolly chip the rebound into the net to give the visitors the lead and record his first goal since the opening game of the season, 0-1 OGB’s.

Princes Park nearly grabbed an equaliser with a speculative shot from some 20 yards out that was tipped on to the bar by Rosslee in the Farnborough goal and then with the goal at his mercy and Rosslee scrambling to get back to his feet the Princes Park striker tried to copy what Barry did at the other end but got his effort all wrong and the danger was cleared, much to the relief of Farnborough and then Rosslee was on hand again moments later to parry a fierce effort that was to be fair straight down his throat, a yard or two either side and it may have been a completely different story but Farnborough weathered the Princes Park pressure to keep the slender lead in tact.

This gave Farnborough a wake up call they needed and with that they started to keep the ball a lot better and eventually their domination and possession led them into being awarded a penalty, Barry Grainger did well to lose his man only for the defender to pull him down in the box leaving the ref with no alternative but to point to the spot. Richard Davies stepped up and coolly converted the resulting spot kick to maintain his 100% record for the Young Vets from the penalty spot, 0-2 OBG’s.

Simon Reynolds had a goal chalked off for offside after he actually started the move back by the half way line when he won the ball with a brave header whilst actually on the floor which was almost as comical as Mark Friends cheeky back heel that hit the upright that had Grainger in fits of laughter!

Barry was at the heart of Farnborough’s third goal after he was mauled down in the penalty area which was a far more ‘stone-wall’ decision and again Richard Davies kept his composure to score from 12 yards out, 0-3 OBG’s.

Half time

Matt Wright was introduced in the second half for Mark Friend with Rawley dropping back to the left back berth and that change paid dividends immediately as Matt went on a surging run up the wing and delivered a cross that somehow went straight into the far corner maybe the ball hitting a divot or something to completely fool the keeper, 0-4 OBG’s.

The game should have been completely put to bed by now but Farnborough took their foot of the pedal and allowed Princes Park to get back into the game albeit in a fortuitous manner as Rawley and Nott both jumped for the same aerial ball and the ball skimmed off of the head of the former and found the bottom left hand side corner, OG for Rawley, 1-4 OBG’s.

Daragh Nott found the net for his second goal of the season after Barry Grainger mishit a shot and Daragh was on hand to poke out his foot to guide the ball home, 1-5 OBG’s.

Princes Park somehow scored a second goal and again it was all Farnborough own doing, Rawley failed to connect with a Rosslee thrown out which allowed the left sided midfielder to run in on goal but his effort was poor and it actually ran behind Andy Cobham who had done exceptionally well to get back and cover and although he managed to block the first effort he was unable to block the second effort that was eventually crashed home, 2-5 OBG’s.

Simon Reynolds should have put the game beyond any further doubt but he hesitated on the ball with just the keeper to beat which allowed for a covering defender to get his block in.
Princes Park now sensed that they might be able to get something from this game and laid siege on the Farnborough goal and caused problems from a couple of decent corners, Matt Wright was on hand to deal with one with a towering header and Rosslee was on hand to bravely punch through a crowd of players and then knew nothing about it when he saved the ball with the back of his head whilst landing awkwardly. For all of their possession towards the end of the match Princes Park were unable to find another goal and Farnborough held on to run out eventual 2-5 winners.

Next week we face the same opposition again but this time at Farrow Fields and the Farnborough catering team better bring their “A game” as we were kindly treated to a good selection of hot and cold Après match food at the nearby ‘Lads of the Village’ public house.

MOM today was a joint effort for the second week in a row with Paul Bailey and Simon Reynolds both getting 4 votes each.