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First Team, Match Report

25 Jul 2021

Composed Farnham Tame Toothless Bears

A strong second half sees Farnham Town beat Broadbridge Heath 2-0

 

This pre-season friendly may well have done more than merely give the Farnham Town players additional minutes under their belts before the serious stuff of league and cup campaigns commence.

Indeed, it may well have offered a blueprint of how Farnham intend to play this season.

Those of you who followed England’s progress in the European Championships will have recognised the 4-3-3 formation and the Pickfordesque clearances from the keeper seeking knock-ons that allows pacey wide players to get in behind opposition defenders.

And this appeared to be the approach that Farnham favoured for much of this game.

 

In a first half of few chances, Farnham’s one standout moment followed the script to the letter as Josh Ogunseye ran on to beat his man and round the keeper only to be thwarted by a fine defensive tackle by the covering Broadbridge Heath defender.

At the other end, the Bears briefly threatened from two free-kicks that fizzed past each post.

However, other than the odd set piece, there was little to trouble a Farnham defence, marshalled by captain Ashley Lloyd and protected by a compact midfield that were well prepared to put in a tasty challenge or two.

 

The second half started much brighter as the Farnham midfield, bypassed for much of the first 45 minutes, linked up well after the restart to feed the impressive Ogunseye who opened the scoring with a crisp strike from just outside the area.

Minutes later, Farnham wrapped up the victory with a trademark freekick from Tom Smith that gave the Broadbridge Heath keeper no chance as it curled around the wall and into the top right hand corner.

With a two goal lead, Farnham never looked in danger of conceding and, going forward, showed some impressive movement that continually troubled the opposition defence and suggested that Farnham have greater strength in depth this season.

 

Manager Colin Millard was certainly pleased with the second half showing.

“After a disjointed first half where we struggled to find any rhythm, we completely controlled the second half with some composed, measured play.  In the short term, patience will be key to help this group of new players time to settle and to form the relationships we need for a cohesive team. But overall, another good exercise for us as we build-up to 7th August”.

 

MOTM : Joshua Ogunseye

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