The Salts knew they faced a difficult Surrey Senior Cup tie at home to Farnham Town and suffered their heaviest defeat since the start of last season with a 1-5 defeat to a side sitting in third place in the Non-League Premier Southern South. In front of a decent crowd of 122, the only consolation was that The Salts won the second half 1-0, having found themselves 0-5 down in the first half.

The damage was done in a 7-minute spell at the end of the half, when Farnham scored three goals. Max Johnson was forced to make changes from last Friday’s victory over Chipstead due to more injuries, and Adam Green and Luis Oliveira were still suspended.

Damien Čech resumed his goalkeeping duties in the cup. Ayran Kugathas replaced Connor McShane for his first start of the season. Callum Wilson replaced Antonios Nazareth in central defence and as captain. Luke Miller came in for Jason Vincent.

As expected, Farnham started on the front foot and showed the difference in class between the two sides. The game was played in our half for most of the first half, with Farnham No. 10 Liddle seemingly controlling the game. It was he who had the first chance after five minutes when the ball was deflected to him after a shot, but he hit the ball high over the bar. Farnham continued the pressure without really troubling Čech, who dealt with any shots as you would expect. He was also very calm under pressure when we were playing the ball across the back, with Evans, the Farnham No. 9, closing down, but Čech always cleared and found his man. On 18 minutes, Farnham’s pressure finally paid off and a shot, well blocked by the defence, fell nicely to Liddle, who was able to quickly adjust his feet and slip the ball past Čech.

Farnham continued to control the game and it was 30 minutes before Epsom & Ewell had a half chance, when a good passing move found Emmanuel Limpo, whose cross missed everyone but went for a corner. On 32 minutes, Farnham broke away from the corner and Evans, on their left, put a smart pass to Liddle, who ran through unopposed and slotted past the onrushing Čech.

Just minutes later Farnham found themselves on goal again, and a shot from No. 7 Dean was brilliantly saved by Čech, tipping it around the post for a corner. Andrew Herring was replaced by Ali Fofahan on 35 minutes after he had been injured earlier on. When we played the ball around, we did look good. Another move across the pitch and back found Luke Miller, who tried a pass similar to Farnham’s first goal, but unfortunately he couldn’t quite find Jake Brown up front, showing the difference between the two sides.

A couple of minutes later Farnham had the ball in the net again, but the tap-in from Evans was ruled offside. We then seemed to fall apart and, in the 40th minute, Evans was able to tap in again, and this time he had stayed onside. Two minutes later, Farnham attacked on the right and the ball was played across the goal; the first shot from Evans was somehow kept out by Čech from two yards out, but Joe Jackson finished it off. Three minutes later it was 5 when a similar move on the right saw Owen Dean driving into the box, and he hit a powerful shot into Čech’s right-hand corner.

We did have one more chance amongst the goals, with Brendan Murphy-McVey putting a lovely ball over the top to Luke, who ran onto it, hitting it first time, but it sailed high and wide.

The referee blew after four minutes of injury time, much to The Salts’ relief, hoping to regroup during the break.

HT: Epsom & Ewell 0-5 Farnham Town

There were no further subs at half-time. Farnham kicked off and the game continued as in the first half, with the visitors dominating the game and shots on goal. On 48 minutes, Eagles was played in after another swift break, but Čech was quickly off his line to make a fine save. On 60 minutes, Ryley Merrett replaced Niall Stillwell, Obasanjo Akinniranye replaced Jake Brown, and Teddy Ralph came on for Murphy-McVey when Epsom & Ewell decided to make a go of it. With Farnham still having the majority of the play and chances, we started to make inroads on their defence, and a number of times we managed to get into good positions without really making Walker in the Farnham goal make a save. On 67 minutes, we made our last substitution with Craig Dundas coming on for Wilson and taking the captain’s armband too.

On 70 minutes, Dean showed great skill controlling a ball out of defence and hitting a powerful volley towards goal, but Čech made a fine save, tipping over the bar. On 74 minutes, we got our reward for some good play on our left, moving the ball across to Oba, who played in Fofahan; he finished nicely to the keeper’s right-hand side. Epsom & Ewell 1-5 Farnham Town.

Farnham continued to dominate the game, but every time we got the ball out of defence our front line really caused them trouble. Kionte was played in on the left, but his shot was weak and easily saved by Walker. Merrett then had his chance and a fine shot was blocked and went off for a corner. Kionte again had another chance after a shot had been charged down, but he was unable to control his shot and it went into the keeper’s arms.

The referee didn’t play much injury time – maybe he felt sorry for us – but the game finished Epsom & Ewell 1-5 Farnham Town.

A thoroughly deserved win, and our players probably found this a harder game than against Eastbourne Borough, who were more physical than skilful. Some of Farnham’s one-touch football was sublime and they always seemed to have two options. You have to say, apart from the 7-minute spell at the end of the first half, though, The Salts acquitted themselves well, especially with the number of players unavailable.

Good luck to Farnham Town for the rest of the season. It was a shame some of their “fans” let the club down with their behaviour behind the goal and running on the pitch after the game. It is difficult to manage all fans, but Farnham have gracefully apologised for the trouble and hopefully they can weed out individuals before they cause more serious problems.

We are back to league action on Saturday away to Tadley Calleva at Barlows Park, KO 3pm. Tadley have had a difficult start to the season and surprisingly sit 18th on 7 points, although they have only played seven games (one more than us). We then move to our new ground at Chalky Lane, home of Chessington & Hook FC, for two home games:
11th October v Thatcham Town
14th October v Tooting & Mitcham.

We look forward to seeing you there.