Aldershot & Farnham 2, Old Cranleighans 4

IT was a familiar story for Aldershot & Farnham as they resumed their league season after the Christmas break.

They lost out again to Old Cranleighans in a game that could easily have gone either way.

Aldershot & Farnham lost Phil Rushmere to injury in the warm up, so the versatile Joe Whelan moved from centre back to left midfield.

The A&F defence were also hampered by further injuries during the first half as both sweeper Jamie Weston and left back Ed Rushmere both had to leave the field temporarily – Weston with a split cheek after being struck by a deflected ball and Rushmere with a dislocated finger.

Despite all this they performed well, denying Old Cranleighans and setting a good platform to move forward in wide positions.

The visitors started the game on the front foot and dominated the opening ten minutes, forcing a fine save from Andrew Wilkie and also being denied by the upright.

Aaron Buchanan had Aldershot & Farnham’s best chance but slapped his shot wide from a cross from the right.

But it was Old Cranleighans who took the lead with a short corner that took a wicked deflection on its way through off Whelan.

A&F responded well and through an attack on the right a tackle from a visiting defender took the ball back toward his own goalkeeper who came sliding out only for his save to hit a charging Buchanan and rebound into the goal.

Aldershot & Farnham had a numerical advantage for the vast majority of the second half as Old Cranleighans had to start the second half with ten men after the umpire gave one of their squad a yellow card for urinating in the corner of the pitch during the interval.

And they picked up further cards for sliding tackles, poor challenges and back chatting in a poor show of discipline, making it all the more frustrating that A&F couldn’t take advantage.

Ian Metcalfe should have scored when Weston played a beautiful diagonal ball to him in the circle, but he angled the ball straight at the goalkeeper. And Old Cranleighans duly went up the other end and took the lead.

Buchanan should then have equalised, doing everything right after being put clean through by Jonny Groves. He went round the goalkeeper but shot narrowly wide from the top of the circle.

The final 20 minutes was completely dominated by Aldershot & Farnham in terms of possession, but with so many men forward they were caught on the break with an aerial ball putting the Old Cranleighans forward in the clear to leave Wilkie hopelessly exposed to make it 3-1.

Metcalfe then flashed a volley over the bar after Ewan Hammond and Rob Jervis combined nicely on the right, with Jervis playing a bouncing cut back in the circle. Whelan also came close at the left post while, disappointingly, A&F had seven short corners that were poorly executed.

Metcalfe did score with a volley after a Groves attempt at a short corner was palmed up by the goalkeeper to make it 3-2 but with a minute to go Old Cranleighans secured the points on the break with an excellent lifting strike from the right of circle.

Aldershot & Farnham: Wilkie, Hammond, Simmons, Weston, E Rushmere, Jervis, Thompson, Whelan, Groves, Metcalfe, Harrison, Powell, Buchanan.