Match report: Fleet Town 1-3 Farnham Town
Fleet Town welcomed one of the title favourites, Farnham Town, to The Mustard Seed Stadium on Saturday afternoon. With Farnham looking to extend their 100% start to their League season, Fleet knew they would have to bring their best defence to the game to try and deny Farnham.
The early exchanges saw both sides probing each others defences, with the defences coming out on top without any clear threats to either goal, even when Farnham Town had an early corner this was easily cleared by Fleet.
Farnham pressed Fleet back for large parts of the first half hour, without creating any clear chances until a poor clearance only reached Owen Dean who stabbed the ball into the net from very close range to give Farnham Town the lead.
Fleet carved out an excellent chance, from a free kick the ball reached Connor Young, he played the ball out wide to Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb who cut back in and across the box, he kept the ball well under pressure and passed back to Louis Blake to shoot, Louis saw his shot blocked by a defender in front of the Farnham keeper, Pat Nash.
The last minute of the first half brought a second goal to the visitors, a deep cross from Harry Cooksley found Shamel Edwards waiting at the far post to head the ball past Callum Smart in the Fleet goal. Moments later the half time whistle blew and the two sides made their way back to the changing rooms with Farnham Town 2-0 ahead.
The second half started as the first, with good build up play, from both sides, but not being able to force a clear opening, until just after the hour mark when Fleet launched a long throw deep into the box, to the delight of the home fans the ball ended up in the net, from an own goal by Farnham Town, the first league goal Farnham had conceded all season.
Fleet town manager Jermaine McGlashan then brought himself on and immediately his fast direct running was causing problems for Farnham and won himself free kicks for shirt pulls, Fleet were well on top for ten minutes and looking dangerous around the box, until Farnham were forced to make a triple change, bringing on fresh legs and regroup to keep Fleet at bay.
Inside the last ten minutes Farnham carved out one last chance for themselves when Adam Liddle crossed to substitute Lewis Flatman, who scored to secure the win for Farnham Town.
Not to be on the day for Fleet Town, but a solid performance saw them run Farnham Town as close or closer than any other side this season and plenty to build on for the next game. On Saturday 7th October, Fleet Town are home at The Mustard Seed Stadium to Tooting & Mitcham United, before an away match on Tuesday 10th to Wokingham & Emmbrook in the Combined Counties League Cup.
FLEET TOWN
1 Callum Smart, 2 Rayon Atkinson, 3 Mohamed Konte, 4 Luke Phair, 5 Liam Pestle, 6 Sam Marks, 7 Fareed Hakeem-Habeeb, 8 Malcolm Dixon, 9 Louis Blake, 10 Connor Young, 11 Chris Zebroski.
SUBS
12 Naz Miah (on for Dixon 52 mins), 14 Jermaine McGlashan (on for Blake 62 mins), 15 Mihail Marinescu (on for Atkinson 89 mins), 16 Joshua Nunes (on for Konte 83 mins), 17 Bradley Manning (on for Hakeem-Habeeb 62 mins).
