A child-free weekend in Farnborough

Farnborough 0 Wealdstone 5, FA Cup Second Round Qualifying, Saturday 21^st September 2019

A few months ago, my wife received an email which seemed to stir in her an unusual level of excitement.

Thoughts as to what could be contained within the message instantly began to whirl around my mind.

Had she received an unexpected inheritance from a long-lost, wealthy relative? Had she won a luxury ‘trip of a lifetime’? Was a wealthy Nigerian Prince promising to make her a multi-millionaire simply in exchange for her bank details?

The answer was none of the above… yet far more exciting.

It was an email from our children’s Cubs and Beavers leaders inviting them for a two-night camp. Two nights without the kids! Bliss.

What’s more, the dates for this excursion just so happened to fall on the weekend of our thirteenth wedding anniversary.

‘You know what this means, don’t you?’ my wife stated, suggestively raising her eyebrows.

‘I certainly do,” I responded, mischievously tipping her a wink, a beaming smile plastered across my face.

Turns out I didn’t know.

Apparently, she wasn’t actually thinking ‘that will give you a chance to get a bit further afield with your groundhopping endeavours that weekend'. She was actually thinking… well… something else entirely.

I’ve never been able to understand women.

Anyway, with the promise of stopping off for a meal on the way home, an afternoon of groundhopping was agreed upon.

Despite not having the boys, I still had to work at 5Ways Football School in Brighton on Saturday morning, but without having to get them home afterwards, it gave us a bit more scope of where we could get to in time for kick-off.

Being FA Cup weekend, I’d already decided on going to a match in that competition, and ultimately narrowed my selection down to two choices both located around a 90-minute drive from Brighton: Farnborough vs Wealdstone or Badshot Lea vs Hayes and Yeading.

A quick Twitter poll ultimately narrowly decreed that a visit to Farnborough to see the Southern League Premier Division South side take on higher division National League South leaders Wealdstone was what lay in store for me and my lucky other half this weekend.

On a baking hot sunny afternoon, we arrived at Farnborough’s Easy as HGV Stadium (otherwise known as Cherrywood Road) at just after 14:30, and paid £2 to park in the car park located right outside the ground.

Entrance to the Stadium was £12 each and… my, what a stadium it is. It’s a ground that you could easily imagine gracing the lower EFL divisions, with covered seating available on three sides of the ground, including a main stand which runs the entire width behind the near goal. Covered terracing occupies the rest of the stadium.

Bearing in mind that, until financial woes began to dog the club a decade ago, Farnborough had spent a fair amount of time in the highest echelon of non-league football, I suppose it should have come as no real surprise to discover that the club’s ground is more impressive than that belonging to many other teams at a similar level.

The professional feel of the club was only enhanced by the matchday programme, which was professionally produced and informative. Well worth the £2 cost.

The club shop is also well worth a look around, and programme collectors and aficionados will no doubt take great delight in browsing through the various crates of old (and modern) programmes on offer from the lowest levels of non-league right through to those in the Premier League.

While the set-up at Farnborough is certainly of a high-standard, on the pitch it was visiting Wealdstone who took the opportunity to shine.

From kick-off, the high-flying Stones were utterly dominant. They could have been ahead as early as the fifth minute, when following a spot-of penalty area pinball, the ball arrived at the feet of Nicholas Arnold whose stinging effort was somehow hacked off the line by some desperate Boro defending.

However, while the higher ranked visitors certainly looked the more composed of the two teams, this isn’t to say that Farnborough were without their moments early on. Andrew Sealy-Harris went close to giving the hosts a surprise lead in the twelfth minute, but could only send his shot from an angle into the side netting.

Liam Beech in the Farnborough goal - decked out in a frankly horrific stripy pink kit - was certainly earning his money in the first half-hour, making two or three good saves to keep his side level, but as the half-hour mark approach it seemed a case of when, not if, Wealdstone would take the lead.

Indeed, the opening goal finally arrived just after the 30-minute mark when Ross Lafayette managed to stab home from close range, after yet another scramble that the hosts had looked like they might somehow get away with clearing.

Boro full-back – and for me the home-sides stand-out attacking threat – Andrew Musungu did well to force a comfortable save from Stones’ custodian Aston Oxborough, who spent of the game as little more than a spectator, but the home side’s already rare attacking forays were becoming less and less frequent as the half progressed.

The second goal arrived five minutes before half-time, when former Love Island contestant Dennon Lewis picked up a loose ball on the edge of the area, and fired home an unstoppable effort that sailed into the top corner.

Yet another fantastic save from Beech denied Daniel Green from a free-kick (see video below) as the game entered the 45^th minute, but still Boro could not reach half-time just the two goals behind. From the resulting corner, the visitors worked the ball short before crossing for Lafayette to head home his second of the afternoon. Barring a second-half miracle, the game was up.

If anything, the Stones were even more dominant in the second period. It wasn’t so much that Farnborough were playing badly – they weren’t – but more that the visitors looked very, very good.

A flurry of chances for Wealdstone to extend their lead came and went in the opening 15 minutes of the second period, and even the substitutions of the talented Lafayette and Billy Clifford did little to stem the flow. Still, I suppose it helps when one of the replacements, Sanchez (Herschel) Watt has previously made professional appearances for both Arsenal and Leeds.

The fourth goal arrived moments after the substitutions, with the other introduced player, Jacob Mendy, striding into space on the left before unleashing a low drive which seemed to take a deflection before beating the helpless Beach.

With Boro looking increasingly ragged, and Stones players really starting to enjoy themselves, it always looked like more goals would arrive. Indeed, were it not for some committed defending and yet more good work from Beach, the scoreline could have been far more comprehensive.

With time almost up, a fifth goal did arrive, albeit in highly fortuitous circumstances. Two Boro defenders made a hash of clearing a ball by getting in each other's way, before Mendy’s wildly sliced volley flicked off the top of Watt’s head and looped over Beach and into the net.

Despite the best efforts of the Farnborough players, who certainly can’t be faulted, there could be little argument about the final result. Stones were simply too good for them, a class apart, and looked every bit a side that could be lining up in the National League next year.

It may not have quite been the Saturday afternoon my wife had envisaged upon receiving that email many months ago, but at least the sun shone, the surroundings were great and the goals flowed.

And we did stop for dinner on the way home – and get a lie in on Sunday morning.
What more could you want from a child-free weekend?

Enjoyed this blog post? Then you may be interested in reading my kindle book which recounts my 2018/19 groundhopping journey (take a look, it’s only 99p).