Bagshot 1, Farnham Town 0

FARNHAM Town found themselves on the wrong end of a baffling and costly refereeing decision against Bagshot on a pudding of a pitch at Krooner Park on Tuesday night.

Influential centre half Harry Oakley needed treatement for a head injury after a high boot – only for the referee inexplicably to award a free kick to Bagshot. And substitute Jordan Merriman didn’t need asking twice as he sent his free kick beyond the despairing dive of Town goalkeeper Dease Kerrison for the only goal of the game.

The result makes it just one win in five for a Town side earmarked as hot favourites for promotion after a flying start to the season – and largely coincides with the annual deterioration in the weather and playing surfaces.

But stoic Town boss Luke Turkington refuses to let Tuesday’s latest setback – after defeats against Jersey Bulls, AFC Hayes and a draw against bottom side Eversley & California – derail his side’s push for promotion.

“There was a massive call in the game and these things count and unfortunately it didn’t go in our favour,” he said.

“But to be fair to Bagshot, they played the conditions a lot better than we did. It was a terrible pitch. You could have flicked a coin to see who was going to win that one, but one refereeing decision has been the difference.

“The referee knows he’s made a mistake and that’s unfortunate, mistakes can happen. I’m sure there will be times in future when those sorts of decisions go our way. You just have to take the rough with the smooth, that’s football.”

But Turkington, who used to ply his trade as a player at Krooner Park with Camberley Town, with whom nomadic Bagshot groundshare, was in no mood to blame the pitch for his side’s latest blip – a pitch which passed a couple of inspections before being passed fit.

“I couldn’t see any reason why the game shouldn’t have been on,” he said. “It’s going back to how football was. It’s wet, it’s sticky, it’s muddy, it’s about staying on your feet. I think we’re all too soft these days in the footballing world in terms of a little bit of rain and everyone wants it off. If you were an old-school player you would be relishing those types of games, but maybe that’s just me rolling back the years where you used to grit your teeth, roll up your sleeves and try to get the job done in a war of attrition.”

Despite Tuesday’s defeat and the relatively poor recent run, Farnham are still in good shape for the top four finish they need to win promotion back to the Premier Division of the Combined Counties League next season.

On the back of their flying start to the season on good pitches, Town lie third, level on points with second-placed Bedfont & Feltham with two games in hand, and a point ahead of Tooting Bec in fourth having played one game less.

But Tuesday’s defeat, and the fact that it has allowed more teams to close up in the race to make the top four, has added a tad more intrigue to Saturday’s home ‘derby’ against Godalming Town.

“That was why it was so important to win last night, it was a bad loss. I would have taken a point but we should be winning these games, but we didn’t and now we must make amends quickly against Godalming,” said Turkington, who has this week been boosted by the signing of former Badshot Lea midfielder Ashley Lloyd.

“The players who like to play good football still try to play good football but in the middle of the season conditions are not always conducive to playing that way. We must adapt but we are trying hard to adapt. It’s tough to get that across sometimes but I wouldn’t change the way we are doing things at the moment because the table doesn’t lie – we’re third and if we win our game in hand we’ll go second. So with half the season almost gone we can tick that box. I just hope in the next half there will be another tick and then we will have done what we set out to do and that is win promotion.”