After two consecutive victories, we visited the league leaders and ‘big spenders’ Farnham Town on their home patch, in front of over 600 spectators. In truth, we were not expecting much from this game, as our hosts have a 100% record of wins and points and only have 2 goals scored against before this game, so it was always going to be a tall order to get anything from the game.

What did transpire was that we were beaten 5-1, but that scoreline does not bear a true reflection of the chances we created and spurned, especially early on in the game before Farnham took the lead, and also in the second half when we had the lion’s share of chances.

What of the match? We made one change from the team that won a hard-earned 3 points away at Spelthorne Sports, with Marlon Pinder returning to the forward line in place of Sirak Negassi, who took a berth on the substitutes’ bench. We could have taken the lead twice in the opening ten minutes with a better delivery or first touch, and then in the 12th minute we found ourselves behind from a needlessly conceded foul on the right touchline. The resulting free-kick was met with an uncontested header by Farnham’s Darryl Sanders from 12 yards out, and the ball nestled in the corner of our net. The second goal came approximately 90 seconds later, after a tackle was missed by one of our midfielders just outside the penalty box, and a superb shot from Sanders was fired into the top corner of our net. This was harsh after our bright start. We continued to create some good chances, and with a bit more composure might have reduced the deficit. Then with half time approaching, we found ourselves 3 down after some intricate passing in our penalty box and the ball was passed into our net by Sanders for his hat-trick.  HT 3-0

Shortly after the second half began, our management team decided to make four substitute changes, which meant that if any player had got injured in the remaining part of the game, we would have been reduced to 10 men for the rest of the match: indeed, a bold move. What this move did do was to freshen up our team, and at this point we began to create a few more good chances, especially with the pace and trickery of Miller, Negassi and Owusu upfront. With a bit more luck and accuracy we might have got a goal back in this period. Guess what; we fell a further goal behind after some ‘head tennis’ following a corner in the 62nd minute, this was every disappointing as during part of that ‘head tennis’ we could have cleared the ball from the danger area – there was also a hint of offside about the goal-scoring header by Adam Liddle. The heavens had opened about 2 minutes before, and the spectators were treated to quite a soaking for the next 15 minutes, but in that time, we got the goal that we richly deserved, after a good move which put George Owusu through, to round the keeper and put the ball into the empty net.  Again, we had chances to pull further goals back, but each chance was either well saved by feet, body or a head!! – the final goal of the afternoon was scored in injury time by Owen Dean, after a defensive slip, so the final result was 5-1.

What can we take from the game? With a bit more composure and luck, we might have got something from the game. However, we were playing a team packed full of players who have played at a higher level, and they may well have still had ‘another gear’ to go into if we had got back into the game in the second half.

We now move onto two home games, one in the league and one in the Surrey Senior Cup in quick succession. Firstly, we play high flying Knaphill at home next Saturday (3pm kick-off at the Reg Madgwick stadium in Cobham), followed quickly after on Tuesday 7th with a game against Sky Bet League Two Sutton United in the afore-mentioned cup game, 7:45pm kick-off.  It would be great to see a good crowd for both games, as the team try to get back to winning ways.