An Undeserved 1-0 Win Is Child’s Play For Out-Of-Form Croydon Athletic.
A wonderful community initiative saw a local school receive Free Family Passes to attend this game.
Apparently, the pupils have been told that, unless they behave in class, they’ll have to come again next week!
This was a shocking performance by Farnham with individual errors all over the pitch.
And it says it all that the Town’s man of the match was the player whose error cost them a point.
It could be argued that a tough midweek fixture against Jersey Bulls had taken its toll on the Town players, and it should be pointed out that Farnham were missing a couple of key players through a combination of injuries, suspensions and unavailabilities.
However, this really doesn’t excuse how bad they were against an AFC Croydon Athletic who were little better themselves.
There was no creativity in midfield and seemingly no game plan other than to hit long balls into the channels.
A totally forgettable first half produced little of note from either side.
Farnham ‘keeper Richard Ossai made a couple of sharp saves and George Pilbeam saw a snapshot just off target, but the Farnham midfield were misfiring, neither full back was able to push on to provide width and the forwards continually ran into blind alleys.
A half time substitution saw the first change in formation but little real change in the match tempo.
Farnham skipper Ashley Lloyd, who had started the game in central defence to replace the suspended Kayode Conteh, was moved back into his more natural role in front of the defence and here, at least, was able to supply some ‘bite’ to the midfield.
What it couldn’t do was address the issue of creativity, or more accurately, the complete lack of it.
Unbelievably, the second half was even worse than the first, and not helped by a further change in formation.
The Town might have had a penalty in a passage of play that appeared to see two players brought down in separate incidents. Manager Colin Millard certainly thought so and was booked for making his views on the referee’s decision known to the officials.
At least this provided a talking point in a match that produced so little of note.
And then, just as it seemed that everyone had settled for a 0-0 draw, Croydon launched a winning attack in the 89th minute.
The otherwise impeccable Ashley Lloyd rashly dived into a challenge he was never going to make, allowing the ball to be played through to Croydon striker Luwayne Greenwood who had the easiest of opportunities to secure his side an undeserved three points.
The fan’s disappointment was shared by Farnham Town manager Colin Millard :
“That was the first time this season where I can say I have been very disappointed with the team.
We’ve had halves where we haven’t been at the races but not full games like we did today.
There wasn’t anything I liked about the performance.
Maybe the first 20 minutes of the second half was a bit more like it, but that’s nowhere near good enough.
During the week I talked about getting above our stations. Maybe we had a case of that today.
You have to compete. You have to win tackles. You have win headers. You have to win second balls. You have to do all of the crappy sides of the game first before you can win it.
We forgot that today. Let’s see what sort of reaction we get going forward”.
MOTM : Ashley Lloyd
A bad day at the office for Farnham and one they must improve on if they’re not to be sucked back into a relegation battle.
The Town’s next home match is the league game against Balham on Saturday 23 October. Kick off 3:00pm
