Farnborough OBG FC

Match Report

Sunday 4th October 2009



Sunday XI
Jason Miller, Ben Donaghey
2 - 1
Cudham United

By Danny Clark

A carbon copy of last week's performance...high tempo, dominant and a scoreline not reflective of the gulf between the two sides.

Once again changes made to last week's squad with Michael Clark and Adam Benningfield returning to the fold having missed the previous week's victory over Chelsfield.

The pre match team talk mainly consisted of emphasising the importance of a quick start, competing for every ball, winning the 2nd ball as it dropped and moving the ball around quickly...2/3 touches.

After a slow opening 5 minutes Farnborough very much picked up where they left off last week. The excellent surface enabled Farnborough to play to their strengths in shifting the ball around at pace, utilising the wide pitch and really stretching the opposition, who without sounding disrespectful where competitive at best. Without really creating many clear cut chances, Farnborough were by far the better side in the opening 45 minutes.

Being the better side doesn't always entitle you to a victory however and the two sides went in 1-1 at the half. Cudham took the lead against the run of play following good work down the right by their busy centre forward, who capitalised on some slack marking and an indecisive piece of goalkeeping by crossing to an unmarked midfielder to head home in to an unguarded net. Farnborough were soon on level terms following an excellent team move involving a number of players and finished with confidence and conviction by Jason Miller.

The 2nd half really was all Farnborough and although never really in danger of losing the game, the longer the score remained level the more the possibility of a cruel injustice. It was left late, but Farnborough got the winner with just minutes remaining courtesy of a Ben Donaghey strike when put through one on one with the goalkeeper following a quick throw in from Jason Miller. The final minutes were played out without much of a threat from the opposing Cudham side.

All in all another convincing performance. Whilst the opportunities created were not as clear cut as the week before, there were still plenty of chances that came and went due to a couple of pieces of excellent goalkeeping by the Cudham no 1 and some wayward and rushed shots from the players in red and yellow. This really needs rectifying as soon as possible as Farnborough certainly won't dominate all the games they play in this season and so the chance / goals scored ratio really has to improve.

With sound performances all round, MOM was by no means a foregone conclusion and it was Tom Skrine, who at left back picked up the majority of the votes. This was down to a solid defensive display and Tom's willingness to join the attack at every opportunity with great effect often making up the extra man in advanced positions.

This week represents Farnborough's sternest test of the season so far with an away encounter against Ex-Blues. Newly promoted, and having won promotion each each of the last two seasons, a side accustomed to winning and a side with high aspirations for this campaign. Based on the form Farnborough have shown in the last two performances confidence should be high and a good game will be anticipated.

Todays team: GK - G. Burkett, RB - J. Adams, CB - B. Beesley, CB - A. Benningfield, LB - T. Skrine, RM - J. Miller , CM - P. Butler, CM - M. Wilson, LM - D. Head (M.Clark), CF - J. Ellis (S. Small), CF - D. Clark (B. Donaghey)