Farnham Town 2, Langney Wanderers 1

FARNHAM Town boss Luke Turkington has reflected on a ‘good’ opening month of the season which culminated in FA Vase progress on Saturday.

Town saw off the threat of higher-leaue opposition in Langney Wanderers on Saturday – hot on the heels of a 7-0 thumping of Cove five days earlier which moved them up to third place in Division One of the Combined Counties League.

Goals in each half from Charlie Oakley and substitute Romaine Atkinson saw off Southern Combination League Langney to set up a second qualifying round tie away at Beckenham on September 14.

“This time last year we had won pretty much all the league games bar one, against my old club Sandhurst, and this year we’ve done exactly the same,” said Turkington.

“Are we progressive from last year? With the new players that have come in, I think we’re doing really well and hopefully we can keep this momentum going into September. It’s been a good August.

“After last year, Lee (Pollard, assistant manager), Andy (Sharratt, physio) and I got together and thought ‘where can we go to push this club forward and what players do we need?’ The majority of the team was good from last year, it just needed a little bit of tinkering. Naturally when other clubs from higher up see your success they want to take your better players. So we’ve had to do a rebuild. It takes time to get the guys gelling and knowing what their strengths and weaknesses are and I think we’ve done that quicker than anticipated.

“We were very close against Fleet (in the FA Cup), who are a league above us, and we toppled a step five team on Saturday, so I think we’re progressing quite well. It’s not the finished article yet by all means but we’re on the right path.”

Turkington was also delighted to see two of his strikers find the net on Saturday, not to mention the seven goals the team put past shellshocked Cove, as he is keen to see his Division One title chasers improve their conversion rate with all the chances they create each week.

“I know that if one of my strikers isn’t going to score, then the other one will,” he said.

“We didn’t do very well against Cove last year. Last season we seemed to switch off mentally against the teams lower down the table and we knew this was something that we had to address – and we addressed it with one of the biggest wins I’ve had in my management career.

“It was the perfect reply to a heavy defeat at home and it’s shown that with a winning mentality like the guys have at the moment they can beat anyone in front of them, and that showed on Saturday with a win against a step five side.”

Now, Town are turning their attention back to league football and a home game against league newcomers Westside at the Memorial Ground.

“It’s a six-pointer already because if they beat us they could go ahead of us and we want to ty to push on away from the other teams below us,” said Turkington.

“But the boys are bouncing and they’re buzzing and I’m hoping we can carry this momentum forward to Saturday.”

Farnham Town: Kerrison, Mitchell, Whiddett, Meaton, Sabo, H Oakley, Nash, McDonald, C Oakley, Brainch, May. Subs: Atkinson, Taylor, Bowles, Verkaik.

*Alresford Town also made it into the second qualifying round of the FA Vase with a 2-1 extra-time win over Bemerton Heath Harlequins to set up a tie away at Western League Division One side Warminster Town.