Eversley & California 1, Farnham Town 2

ANOTHER game, another victory. But this was another game in which Town had to fight tooth and nail to come away with all three points against a side who performed far better than their lowly league table position suggests.

Indeed, it was the home side who were by far the better of the two teams in the opening period and got to grips with the hard, bumpy pitch much quicker and more effectively than the Town players did.

The normally rock solid Farnham defence found itself exposed on several occasions and was indebted to a combination of goalkeeper Stuart Norman and some wayward finishing from the home side to still be level at the interval.

Such was the home side’s dominance that it would not have flattered them had they reached the end of that first 45 minutes with a 5-0 lead after squandering at least a handful of gilt-edged chances.

Town boss Luke Turkington’s half-time team talk must have done the trick, however, as the Farnham players emerged for the second 45 minutes looking a completely different outfit – managing to get the ball down on the floor much more and using their pace and movement to good effect.

And Town had already threatened several times before taking a deserved lead in the 61st minute. A good move resulted in the visitors winning a corner and when the ball was swung in it caused confusion in the home ranks before Sean Evans turned and smashed the ball home from inside the six-yard box.

The goal seemed to sting Eversley back into life and they restored parity just seven minutes later. Town didn’t seemed to have learned their lesson after a couple of near misses from corners and, from another, Eversley’s Guest was able to outleap a static Town defence and nod home an equaliser at the far post.

The game started to heat up a little with all to play for, which wasn’t helped by some bizarre decisions from the officials, but the Town players refused to let the equaliser get to them and started to push hard to regain their lead.

And that lead duly arrived seven minutes later when Nick Medcraft headed a left-wing cross back across goal which found the onrushing Elliot Cardona, who powered in a header that gave the home goalkeeper no chance.

The rest of the game was a stop-start affair with a series of niggling fouls that the referee seemed unable to deal with, but Farnham were able to deal with everything that an increasingly desperate home side could throw at them as the game ended 2-1.

This result saw Town maintain their four-point lead at the top of the table having dropped only five points in their opening 10 games – a start to the season that even the most optimistic Farnham supporter couldn’t have imagined just two months ago.

On Saturday, Farnham Town host Bagshot at The Memorial Ground in Combined Counties League Division One, while next Wednesday sees them visit Godalming’s Wey Court for a game against higher league side Guildford City in the first round of the Southern Combination Cup.