Despite dominating possession, the Town are held to a dull 1 – 1 draw by Cobham.
It’s safe to say that comedian Kenneth Williams wasn’t a fan of football.
Yet, for the Farnham fans, the final line from his famous diaries felt fairly apt as they drove back down the A3.
The most important point here was the one that the Town took home with them.
Yet it felt more like two dropped, as Farnham failed to overcome a poor Cobham side, content with a draw.
Injuries and non-availabilities meant yet more changes to the Farnham Town back four, and, unfortunately, it was an early error by debutant Ryan Greene that gifted Cobham the lead inside two minutes as he missed his tackle, allowing the Cobham striker to stroll through unchallenged before placing his shot past Farnham ‘keeper Richard Ossai.
Credit to Town captain Ashley Lloyd who, despite this early setback, refused to let Farnham heads drop.
In fact, having gone a goal behind, Farnham took complete control of the game, creating chance after chance without finding the net.
Defender Cavan Atkinson volleyed just past the post, Matt Glass fizzed in a free kick that only needed a touch to turn it in, and Lloyd himself saw his deflected shot loop over the Cobham ‘keeper, only to come back off the crossbar.
Then, just when it seemed that the Town would go in a goal behind, a Cavan Atkinson clearance from his own half fell to the feet of George Pilbeam, and, as the opposition defence surprisingly stood off, the Farnham forward was allowed the time and space to twist and turn across the area before calmly drilling his shot low into the Cobham net.
Back level at half-time, it seemed certain that the Town would go on and grab all three points.
And then … nothing happened. The second half was a soaked squib.
There were a couple of chances, but the Farnham midfield were combative rather than creative, Josh Ogunseye was kept quiet as the opposition doubled up on him, goalscorer George Pilbeam lacked the physical presence to trouble the more composed Cobham central defenders and, in the end, Farnham found themselves grateful to ‘keeper Ossai for a fine save that kept the scores level.
Farnham Manager Colin Millard was left to rue the Town’s missed opportunities:
“I’m disappointed not to have won the game.
After a sloppy opening couple of minutes, where we conceded a very poor goal, we absolutely dominated the rest of the first half.
Right now, things are just not dropping for us, and we’re not being positive enough to convert our game dominance to goals and wins.
The second half was more even in terms of chances, but, again, I thought we were the team predominately on the front foot in terms of territory and possession. Considering the number of players that were unavailable and the sloppy start that we made, we again showed we are extremely competitive and I honestly don’t think we are too far away from being a very good team at this level”.
The Town now face a rampant Badshot Lea, and defeat will be no laughing matter in this, the most local of local derbies.
MOTM : George Pilbeam
The Town’s next home match is the local derby against Badshot Lea on Bank Holiday Monday. Kick off 11:30am
