Farnborough - an alternative report by runwell

[Dagger03]

This has appeared on the another forum, from Runwell - sorry but I do not know who runwell is.

 

FA Carlsberg Trophy, First Round Proper

AFC Hornchurch 0(0)-(0)0 Farnborough

Bridge Avenue Athletics Stadium, Upminster, Essex/East London

Attendance: 302

Admission: £9. Programmes had sold out by 2:20pm

 

Also purchased: Bottle of water and Mars bar £1.70

 

A bitterly cold afternoon, but luckily the frost had cleared late morning and we were all good to go, with the smell of another upset under our nostrils before kick off. The Ryman Prem Urchins continue to push for the title, and after their demolition of Thurrock in the last round, would have fancied their chances against another struggling BSS side, with problems off the pitch as well as on it. A few dozen had come round the M25 to watch this one, with a place in the last 32 at stake and a lot of prize money as well, when the competition goes national.

 

It was the home side - mysteriously wearing their Hazelnut Quality Street wrapper of an away kit - who started brightest, but some of their balls into the box were lacking the quality of recent matches that I've seen. That did generally improve after a while, but the game at this point, and for much of the first half was very poor, very scrappy and full or errors, as Farnborough made their way back into the game. Hornchurch's best chance - of sorts - came on 38 minutes when the ball was passed to Martin Tuohy, whose shot was blocked just inside the box. The visitors had the best chance of the half however a few minutes later, when Ronnie Fletcher inexplicably slipped on the halfway line, and a player ran through unopposed down the right, and his shot went past the outsretched hand of Joe Woolley, but just wide of the far post.

A big moment of controversy just before half time though, as Hornchurch's Lewis Smith was sent off by the referee for his second yellow of the game, after leaving his boot too high and making contact with his opponent's shin. A bit careless from Smith, and I was right in front of the incident at the time. I didn't see his first booking though, but people told me it was quite harsh. A tough second half for the Urchins, as a dire game paused for fifteen minutes....

 

Second half was luckily - for the most part - a good deal better, probably because the ten men actually played better, and to my surprise did not sit back, and took the game to the Hampshire side. Early on a cross was headed just over from Tuohy, and then the fine Joe Anderson found himself with the ball just a few yards out, though dithered a little too long and was unable to strike or find a colleague. A great chance however for the visitors who continued to threaten occasionally, when a player put over in a good position just inside the box. The Urchins' Frankie Curley then just couldn't quite beat the keeper to a long ball forward, then on 71 minutes a lucky moment for Farnborough when they headed a free kick awarded against them, back into their six yard box, but there was no Urchins player nearby to pounce. There was a little bit of late pressure from the high league opponents near the end, including a shot inside the box from a cross in stoppage time that went just wide. It was the ten men though who had looked quite decent, but unlike a fortnight ago when every ball fell perfect at Thurrock, today it was just not their lucky day.

 

So both sides do it all again on wednesday. Hopefully the replay will be a better spectacle. Hornchurch's fine away form though means they still have a good chance of reaching the next round, but, while not playing as great as some recent games, showed a lot of heart and spirit to push hard despite the man disadvantage.

[Eastside Urchin]

First booking was deserved unfortunately

[cup of tea]

Yep, afraid so

[urchinman1961]

Lewis runs his socks off for the club but nothing really ran for him all afternoon looks more like frustration than anything else still in it though

[cup of tea]

I'm not complaining about Lewis at all, he's been really good for us, a key player. Just one of those things that happens.