Our 1st game under Gaffer Hopkins and it's a pre-season against a new team in Farnham Park. We arrive with a squad of 11 but thanks to the King Moaner Jono going between the sticks, we have 12. Starting formation is 3-1-4-2 (or a conventiaonal 3-5-2 for the football purists). New Boy Ben is on the bench with a promise of at least an hour playing time
We start off the stronger. Keeping the ball on the deck, and stretching the opposition with gaffer Hoppy having a header cleared off of the line from a Darren May corner. With the pressure amped up, it surely couldnt be long till we broke the deadlock and the goal came in the 13th minute. Darren played a through ball to Hale who with a few twists and turns, stuck one off of his left foot and found the bottom corner. 1-0. The Farnham CB couldn't cope with Hale's pace and movement and resorted to keep fouling him which led to Hale having to come off to be replaced by Ben for his Boro debut.
1 nearly became 2 when the ball dropped to Craig 20 yards out only for his shot to go whistling inches over the bar with the keeper beaten. Ben went even closer when his rasping driver from the edge of the box rattled the crossbar with the keeper grasping at thin air.
Farnham's only real outlet seemed to come from their number 12 but Kev matched him only losing him on a couple of occasions.
They pulled a goal goal albeit through fortunate circumstances. A rare attack down their right ended with a low cross which Kev couldn't get out of the way of and toe-poked the ball into the bottom corner. 1-1 Their 2nd followed swiftly after with their number 12 finding space in the area and picking out the bottom corner beyond Jono's despairing dive. 1-2
30 Mins hardwork undone in less than 2mins by us being a little sloppy. We continued to press with Tim having a header tipped over from a Ben throw and Tim hitting the post from another long throw from Ben. Farham came close again but it took a goal saving challenge from Home-Alone to stop them increasing their lead.
Half time came. We'd created enough chances but a combination of the woodwork and the Farnham defence & keeper kept it at 1-2. A good half for most of it. But 2 acts of sloppiness let them back in.
2nd half came with a slight shuffle with Ralsty taking a breather, and Alex taking his role as left sided defender and Hale going left mid.
Farnham came out fired up and looked the better team, pinning us back and unable to exploit the space in behind, and they soon took advantage when another scrappy goal conceded to make it 1-3 to Farnham.
We were soon back in it though when a long ball by Pringle led to newbie Ben racing clear and smashing the ball past teh keeper. 2-3.
Things started to get a litle heated when Ben was gave away a foul only to have the Farnham captain make more of it then went down clutching his face despite Ben being nowhere near it.
We still created chances, twice coming close from corners but were denied by their keeper. Then a break from Farnham led to their right winger finding space in the box to put the ball over Jono's shoulder into the far corner. 2-4
A forced change was thrust upon us when things got a little heated with Ben again and we were told to sub him. Dan came on to replace him and moved Hale up top. This soon paid dividends when he cut in from the left and smashed it in and the near post. 3-4
With the seconds slipping away, Darren May came close to grabbing an equaliser when his left footed effort was tipped over by the keeper.
Final whistle came and a 4-3 loss but we had a lot of positives to take from it. New system worked well, defending corners worked well, people played with a smile on their face and if he can control his temper, we may have unearthed a gem in Ben.
