Farnborough OBG FC

Match Report

Sunday 16th January 2022

Friendly

Glendale Vets
2 - 4
Senior Vets
Kypros Michael 2, Jay Hardy, OG

By George Kleanthous

Farnborough overcome tough opponent and pitch

A regular theme of late has been the pitches and the conditions of the various pitches we have played on recently and the impact the recent unsettled weather has had. Some have been extremely good and some not so good. Today we played at the Croydon Postal Sports Ground in Warlingham. The surface today was not good, not good at all. There is no doubt that this is the most challenging surface most of us have played on in many years. The pitch more resembled a ploughed field rather than a football pitch. Despite this, we took the field looking to get back to winning ways.


FOBG Squad: Tom Girling (GK), Colin Mant, Michael Hills, Waine Hetherington, Peter Harvey, George Kleanthous, Sinisa Gracanin, Jay Hardy, Simon Thomas, Diccon Kaenzig, Kypros Michael, Danny Hetherington, Evran Arkali (debut).


Referee: 10 /10. Very fair to both teams and controlled the game well.


Kit Sponsor: The Dog and Duck, Outwood.


Manager:  George Kleanthous.


Interim Chief Football Correspondent:  George Kleanthous.


After the loss we encountered last time out, it was important to put in a good performance and get a positive result. We put in a below average performance but did manage to get the win. It would be fair to say that the ability to play well was severely hampered by the uneven, churned up playing surface. I think it’s one of those games that you don’t dwell on too long and accept that there will be better performances down the road. 


It would be fair to say that our opponents started the much brighter side and looked threatening straight out of the traps. For the first 20 minutes, they continually hit long diagonal balls in behind our full backs and caused us problems time and time again. We were having trouble clearing the ball away from our area and were fortunate that Glendale were not more prolific in front of goal. In almost every game this season, we have had the lion’s share of possession but today we were being outfought, hustled into mistakes giving the ball away needlessly and more uncharacteristically our passing was poor, we were kicking the ball anywhere rather than with purpose or to a specific target. I’m sure that most of our troubles were caused by our lack of ability to get to grips with the heavy bumpy pitch but our hosts seemed to be coping with it OK.


After this initial shaky start, we did start to claw our way back into things and about half an hour in and on the balance of things it was probably against the run of play when Peter Harvey hit a cross into the box which was heading towards Jay Hardy but before he could get on the end of it a defender inadvertently got a touch and put it into his own net. 1-0 Farnborough. 


Our lead did not last long. Glendale had forced a few corners and from one of these, their big strong centre forward rose highest and headed into the roof of the net. 1-1. A deserved equaliser.


One of the instructions this season is to play it out from the back and not just lump the ball forward. Fortunately, Michael Hills chose to ignore this when he looked up from the edge of our area, pinged a long ball up to a streaking Kypros Michael who saw the advancing keeper and delicately lofted the ball over him to restore our lead. We had forged a rare “route one” goal to give us a 2-1 lead going into half time.


During the half time break, it was evident that despite being in front, it was an uneasy lead, so something needed to change. Glendale were on top in midfield and they were having way too much time through the middle, and we almost always seemed to be outnumbered. It was noted that this was because our two wide midfield players were being by-passed and were not as involved in the game as they could have been as they were too far forward, so we needed to change formation to counter this problem. We moved to a back three and pushed Sinisa Gracanin into the midfield to give us three in the middle which meant that it gave the two wide men the freedom to stay forward and give us an outlet. This definitely had an impact as we began the half well in terms of possession and we were now getting up field more often and even made a couple of half decent chances that were not finished but at least it gave our defence some much needed respite. 


It appeared that the tables were turning in our favour, however, as in the first half, the next goal came against the run of play and it was Glendale who got it to level the scores at 2-2.  We were undone when a through ball caught out our back line where we were hoping for an offside flag to be raised which never came and their player kept his cool and finished nicely. 


Almost immediately after that, Glendale nearly made it 3-2 as there was a mix-up with communications and their forward was suddenly bearing down on our goal but Tom Girling got enough on it to smother it and save our blushes. It should be noted that as an indication of how difficult the pitch was playing, it wasn’t only our passing that was affected, our usually sure handed goalkeeper was struggling to get both hands on most shots hit towards him and he was having to rely on parrying most attempts away as the untrue bounce of the ball as it hit bobbles or divots on the way towards goal was causing havoc. 


With about 35 minutes left, we made our first substitution when Diccon Kaenzig asked to come off and we introduced Evran Arkali into the action, thus making his Farnborough debut. Evran has not played regularly for a while but we hope that with a few more games under his belt to find some match fitness, he could become a very useful addition to the squad. He has a good touch and it looks promising that he could fit into the team rather well. Our second substitution was made with about 17 minutes left when Simon Thomas made way for Danny Hetherington to come on at right back.


As the second half wore on, it was fairly even with both sides having an equal share of possession and it must be said that not a lot of clear-cut chances were created by either side, however, we continued to probe and it took a very good bit of play from Kypros Michael to finally get our noses back in front. The ball was played into Kyps and he managed to squeeze past a defender or two, dummied the goalkeeper and took it round him to slot home. This is a Kyps trademark goal and its these moments that he is capable of (as his goal scoring record will confirm) that win us a lot of games. 


After more pressure and with only a few minutes left, we finally killed the game off when Jay Hardy made space for himself inside a busy area and he picked his spot nicely to curl a shot into the bottom corner. 4-2 Farnborough and the game was won.


Man-of-the-match:  


The votes were split evenly between Colin Mant and Kypros Michael. Their contribution at either end of the field being a big part of why we got a positive result. Colin is an integral part of our back four when he plays, and it matters not whether that is as a full back or centre back. Kyps often scores an important goal when the team needs it most. Both deserve the accolade for this match.

Man of the match: Colin Mant and Kypros Michael