Farnham Town Fight Back But Go Down 2-1 At Home To Jersey Bulls.
Anyone who has watched Farnham at all this season will know how they’re going to play.
They harry, harass, and make it hard for the opposition, looking to hit them on the break by exploiting the pace of Josh Ogunseye.
It may not be pretty, but it is often effective, especially away from home.
And it almost secured a point against a high flying, high quality Jersey Bulls side that recently beat table topping Badshot Lea.
Missing both Matt Glass and Dan Stewart, the Town struggled to impose themselves in a first half that saw them second best to a slick Jersey Bulls side that passed the ball well and frequently found a player in space to give them another option in attack.
Having already been denied by a clearance off the line by Tom Smith and a superb save from the feet of Farnham ‘keeper Richard Ossai, it was no surprise when Jersey took the lead on 23 minutes after a further period of intense attacking pressure.
Now looking to get back into the game, the Town resorted to trying too hard, too eager to get the ball forward rather than retaining possession that would draw the Jersey defence out and create space behind for the fast Farnham forwards to exploit.
As half time approached, and with Jersey in the ascendancy, central defender Kayode Conteh was involved in a collision with Farnham ‘keeper Ossai that saw him concussed, causing the referee to blow early for half-time and delay the start of the second half by around 45 minutes as an ambulance was summoned.
Thankfully Kay was fine, but the incident understandably affected both sides who took time to regain their momentum.
In fact, it was Farnham that began the the second half brighter, with Cavin Andrew looking assured at the back and Nhoj Witter combining well with substitute Muna Mwatsiya to assert control of central midfield and unsettle their opponents, who, somewhat surprisingly, resorted to a succession of petty fouls in order to regain the initiative.
But then came the sucker punch.
With the Town back four looking in vain for the linesman’s flag, the Bulls broke the offside trap to score an undeserved second.
All credit to Farnham who, even then, took the fight to Jersey and were finally rewarded when a Tom Smith free kick from the left evaded everyone in the area, including the Bulls ‘keeper who, having misread the flight of the ball, was forced to watch it sail in.
Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, but Town manager Colin Millard was pleased with what he saw :
“We are obviously disappointed to have lost the game but there are more positives than negatives to take away.
I felt we started the game well and had a couple of good opportunities to get ourselves in front but we sort of lost our way after 20 minutes or so when we hadn’t got ourselves ahead and, in the end, I was happy to get in only one down.
In a way the injury to Kay helped us because it gave us more time to settle everything down and to remind the lads of their abilities.
The second half was very good. I thought we were much better on the ball, more aggressive in everything we did and we created more without, disappointingly, working their keeper hard enough.
Ultimately, in my opinion, there was one big difference between the two teams – Sol Solomon.
So, we take the positives and work harder on the negatives. On to the next!”
There’s no disgrace in losing to a team that many think will be promoted, but Farnham can feel aggrieved at not collecting a point.
MOTM : Cavin Andrew
The Town’s next home match is the league game against AFC Croydon Athletic on Saturday 16 October. Kick off 3:00pm