Match Report

Back-to-back clean sheet, back-to-back 3-0 victory

We returned to familiar surroundings and back to Farnborough to play a home game for the first time in a month. The let up in the recent wet weather meant that we could look forward to a game with no threat of postponement. This positive news was tempered by the news received on Saturday that our captain Michael Hills had been forced to withdraw due to an injury picked up playing in a charity game on Friday.

FOBG Squad: Tom Girling (GK), Colin Mant, Peter Harvey, Giles Foister, Dave Morgan, George Kleanthous, Sinisa Gracanin, Jay Hardy, Simon Thomas, Kypros Michael, Evran Arkali, SUBS: Gordon Thompson.

Referee: Paul Parsons. Another steady performance from the man in the middle.

Kit sponsor: The Dog and Duck, Outwood.

Manager:  George Kleanthous.

Interim Chief Football Correspondent:  George Kleanthous.

We were ready to start with a squad of 13, however, Waine Hetherington conducted a self-assessed on-pitch fitness test in the warm-up and sadly declared himself unfit to play due to the lingering issue with his thigh strain picked up last week. This meant that Evran Arkali stepped in to notch his first start for Farnborough.

We were warned pre-game by the Farnborough groundsman that the pitch was quite firm and this proved spot on and would impact the general quality of our play in the first half with the ball seemingly running away from us and often being overrun. We did get to grips with the surface and played better in the second half.

Despite this and the late enforced change and potential disruption to the starting line-up we started strongly and settled quicker than our opposition. In the early portion of the first half we had a couple of half chances with shots that were snatched at but the chance that stands out was probably the double chance we missed when Kypros Michael found himself played into the area, he took the ball skilfully round a defender and then dummied the keeper, he cut back and it seemed a goal was a certainty but Kyps hit the ball right into the defender standing on the goal line, the ball then rebounded off him to where Jay Hardy was standing so from only a few yards out right in front of goal it appeared Jay would mop up and finish the chance, however, Jay went for power over precision and he hit it with considerable force but unfortunately for Farnborough, that also hit the defender who was still standing on the goal line and was subsequently cleared away and the chance was gone.

Midway through the first half, a good passage of play involving the whole right side of the team, led to the opening goal. Simon Thomas and Dave Morgan initially worked the ball out from where Jay Hardy and George Kleanthous played a one-two on the edge of the area, and on Jay's return pass to George, George got a shout from Peter Harvey behind him and as the defender closed on George to block a potential shot, he stepped over the ball and let it run through to Peter where he had a clear sight of goal. He cut across the ball with his left foot and the ball kept low and fizzed right into the bottom corner giving their keeper no chance. On the balance of play, it was no less than Farnborough deserved.

Any threat that Sanco offered in the first half was being dealt with well by both centre backs, Sinisa Gracanin and Giles Foister, both playing the ball out well from the back with Colin Mant supporting them well from his full back position.

When the second Farnborough goal came, it came out of the blue. There was no real lead up to it, there was no intricate set up play. All there was was Dave Morgan receiving the ball about 30 yards out, pushing the ball out from under his feet and unleashing an unstoppable drive which the keeper had no chance of keeping out. He hit it with barely any back lift, but the ball flew in at considerable speed, swerving and dipping as it dropped just under the crossbar. My first thought is that this would certainly be a contender for goal of the season. As it transpired, it didn’t even end up being the best goal of the game.

Half-time came and we took a 2-0 lead into the second period. Our play in the second half was much more measured and although we were only to add one more goal to our tally, we seemed to be much more cohesive and the chances we allowed the opposition were even less than the first half. Similarly to last week, we decided to change formation and went from our usual 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2 and this gave us an extra man in midfield which seemed to lead to us retaining possession even more.

The reason that Dave’s goal is not going to win goal of the season is because we were about to witness another fantastic long-distance strike that would incredibly trump Dave’s effort. Not by much, but the general consensus when discussing the merits of both goals in the changing room after the game, this next goal just came out on top.

Jay was out wide right where he played the ball inside to George, George then got a call from Peter who was standing just behind him to his left. George waited to draw the defender and then rolled the ball across to Peter who thumped it from a full 30 yards out and the ball flew as straight as an arrow straight into the top corner, the ball still rising as it hit the net. Once again, there is not much the keeper could have done to keep it out, in fact, I will go as far as to say that no keeper, not even our keeper Tom Girling, who has been in sensational form all season, would have saved it.

A final noteworthy mention is unfortunately a stain on what would otherwise have been another good day for Farnborough and that is that Gordon Thompson came off the bench but barely 5 minutes later hobbled off succumbing to a recurrence of the injury that has kept him out for most of the season. He has been plagued with injuries recently and the worry is that this is a setback which could once again spell a long layoff. We hope not as he is an important player for us, and we were looking forward to integrating him back into the regular squad.

Man-of-the-match:  

We were treated to some very good goals; however, one was a very special goal by a player on top of his game today. Peter Harvey tallied a strong majority of the votes and was an overwhelming choice.