Farnborough FC under 14s: Surrey Youth League Premier Division Champions

Farnborough FC under 14s: Surrey Youth League Premier Division Champions
(...can't type that often enough!!)

 Congratulations to our whole team on this achievement and I include players, parents and coaches in that statement. This team of players have played some exceptional football this season, their attitude has been superb throughout and they are developing both as players and as young men in a way that makes me enormously proud.

We only needed a point to win the league yesterday vs a physical, direct but good Kingstonnian side and we achieved that with a good performance in the first match. Although we lost the second match, we did draw 2 x quarters; win 1 x quarter and lost the quarter of the match just after we'd won the league, which is probably excusable. We went into the game very quickly after the first and we probably needed more time to get the boys' heads straight. Both goals were scored when we'd pushed up and were out of balance, which we didn't do in the first game.

Still, that didn't take the shine off the league title, as leagues are won based on a performance across the season and Farnborough FC have been the most consistent. Fact. Add to that the two cup semi-finals, the players we have and the development they've shown and it's a very satisfactory season all round.

Most of all we have won this division at a canter, with 3 games to spare, playing good football, always playing our subs and in a way that we can all be proud to be part of. And we still have football to look forward to: 2 x league matches, friendlies/trials matches and tournaments in June. Should be good and great for the players' development.

Next season we have a lot to look forward to as well: SYL Premier Elite football, a new pitch which is being re-sown over the summer, great club house facilities and playing as part of Farnborough FC.

I'm very pleased to say that a good number of our under 16s have progressed up to the under 18s this season. This means that although winning things is great, player development is key and the main task for the coaches is to develop good players for the Farnborough FC first team. That's what will make us all really proud in the end: a Farnborough FC stuiffed full of players from this team who go on to achieve great things (....trust me, the FA Cup is still my ultimate ambition!!)

Match Report: Surrey County Cup Semi-Final: Farnborough Elite v Guildford Saints FC

Undoubtedly our biggest game of the season saw us drawn against Guildford Saints in the Surrey Cup semi-final. On the back of some good performances in the league and two great results in this competition vs Epsom Eagles and Leatherhead, this match was eagerly anticipated by all.


The first 10 minutes started well for Farnborough, with the game played in the opposition's half and a couple of half chances created. Guildford were well organised and a hard working team. Defending from the front, they closed us down well and attempted to pressure us into a mistake which is exactly happened to open the scoring, when a pass-back led to a scuffed clearance that landed at the feet of the Guildford forward, who used his pace to get down the line and cross the ball into the far post for their winger to score unopposed. 


Guildford soon doubled the scoring when they got a free kick just outside the penalty area on the left and swung a great ball in, only for the Farnborough defence to watch as the ball drifted into the goal. 


After this blow, heads went down and it was always going to be difficult to come back. The boys didn't stop working and started to slowly get back into the game, only to concede another goal when a shot managed to find its way into the net after Karl failed to hold it. 


Ryan had the best chance of the half when a through ball from Tom B beat the off side trap and round the keeper. His shot was stopped on the line by the defender, the rebound came back to him only for the keeper to save the second shot, as the ball landed back at Ryan's feet for the third time, his shot went narrowly wide.


 Half time and 3-0 to Guildford FC. 


Half time subs saw Adam come on for Karl, Okey for Harry Small, Josh Evans for James and Joe Monk for Ed. Within minutes of the second half starting we found ourselves 4-0 down when a clearance fell at the feet of the Guildford forward who clipped it over the defence and into the top of the net. Four became five when a shot bounced in front of Adam and he could only parry it into his own net. 


Now it was all about just keep battling and see if we could make the score more respectable. This is what the boys did. Working hard they managed to get a free kick in the centre of the pitch about 30 yards from goal. Tom B took the free kick which was parried, as the ball came out Ryan was on hand to score a well deserved goal. 


Tom B then scored another for us with a great free kick from fully 30 yards that he drilled into the top of the net. A great goal and a moment to savour from an unlucky match.


At the final whistle the boys, although dejected, realised that they are as good as Guildford and on another day could have won the match.


In the end Scott's suspension, three players with heavy colds, Callum's injury and fatigue proved too much against a Guildford team who chased harder, pressed from the front and ultimately deserved to win. Unfortunately for us we had a season's worth of mistakes in one game, which was just unlucky and this Farnborough FC team deserved better. 


Still, we learn more from these defeats than if we had won and use that to our advantage. Back for a league game next week , with our aim now to finish the season unbeaten in in SYL Premier and Champions. 

Match Report: Farnborough FC under 14s v Carshalton Athletic Blues @ Bisley in Surrey Youth Premier League

Farnborough FC under 14s: Surrey Youth League Premier Division Champions (...can't type that often enough!!) Congratulations to our whole team on this achievement and I include players, parents and coaches in that statement. This team of players have played some exceptional football this season, their attitude has been superb throughout and they are developing both as players and as young men in a way that makes me enormously proud. We only needed a point to win the league yesterday vs a physical, direct but good Kingstonnian side and we achieved that with a good performance in the first match. Although we lost the second match, we did draw 2 x quarters; win 1 x quarter and lost the quarter of the match just after we'd won the league, which is probably excusable. We went into the game very quickly after the first and we probably needed more time to get the boys' heads straight. Both goals were scored when we'd pushed up and were out of balance, which we didn't do in the first game. Still, that didn't take the shine off the league title, as leagues are won based on a performance across the season and Farnborough FC have been the most consistent. Fact. Add to that the two cup semi-finals, the players we have and the development they've shown and it's a very satisfactory season all round. Most of all we have won this division at a canter, with 3 games to spare, playing good football, always playing our subs and in a way that we can all be proud to be part of. And we still have football to look forward to: 2 x league matches, friendlies/trials matches and tournaments in June. Should be good and great for the players' development. Next season we have a lot to look forward to as well: SYL Premier Elite football, a new pitch which is being re-sown over the summer, great club house facilities and playing as part of Farnborough FC. I'm very pleased to say that a good number of our under 16s have progressed up to the under 18s this season. This means that although winning things is great, player development is key and the main task for the coaches is to develop good players for the Farnborough FC first team. That's what will make us all really proud in the end: a Farnborough FC stuiffed full of players from this team who go on to achieve great things (....trust me, the FA Cup is still my ultimate ambition!!)

Match Report Farnborough Elite v Kingston Juniors - Surrey Premier League

With teams at the top end of the league continually dropping points it was important we cemented our position as favourites for promotion with another good performance today against Kingston Juniors. Having already beat Kingston 7-2 earlier in the season the boys were confident of a good result. 


With a slightly earlier kick off time of 10:00 hrs Farnborough settled well and starting playing the ball around with Kingston struggling to get any possession. Tom B then put us 1-0 to the good when he broke through only to lose the ball, re-gain it and then shoot with the Kingston GK mistimimg the flight of the ball and it went under his body. It was obvious the players had listened well in training this week and were switching the ball well from the back and through the middle of the park. 


A great passing move starting with James Dinsdale, who was having the game of his life, and finished with Callum who played a great through ball to Tom B who got his second of the game with a composed finish. More or less straight away Ollie made it 3-0 when he finished well from a nice pass from Tom B. With 10 minutes to go before half time Matt Cook and Josh Rutt came on for Scott B and Josh O'Reilly and straight away settled well into the game. 


The team then played a great passage of play when we passed the ball across the defence line with Harry S moving it forward to Ryan who took on the defence only to be fouled in the box to get us a penalty. Ryan then stepped up to drill the ball home and gave us a 4-0 lead at half time. With no subs at half-time the second half started where the first half finished; with a goal. Rutty picked the ball up and played a great ball to Callum who beat the full back with pace and played a great ball to Tom B who had an easy opportunity to finish for his hat trick. Well done Tom!! 


Scott and Josh O'Reilly came back on for Ed and Harry S just before Ollie got his second when Ryan used his pace to beat the full back and cross for Ollie to tap in at the far post. Okey then nearly scored his first goal of the season when he pushed forward from full back to unleash a great shot across the goalkeeper only for the ball to come back off the post. Rutty then nearly scored his first goal of the season when he met a Ryan corner with a good header that he couldn't keep down and he put it over the bar. Ollie then completed his hat trick when he latched on to a pass from Tom B to round the GK and finish with a composed side foot pass into the net. Josh O'Reilly finished off the scoring when he scored from close range after a Scott Butcher corner was flicked and Josh met it at the back post to round off a great 8-0 win. 


A great team performance and all players performed outstanding. Well done.  

Match Report v Staines Town Concept Sun 4 Mar 12 - Surrey Premier League

With the amount of league games played due to good cup runs, the game today against Staines Town Concept was a double-header: 2 games back to back (20 mins each way). The game started well for Farnborough with Matt C scoring early from the edge of the box to put us 1-0 to the good. In tough, wet, cold conditions this score remained the same at half time, Subs at half time saw Scott come on for Callum, Ollie for Tom, Josh O'Reilly for Harry S and Adam for Karl. Josh O'Reilly then got on the score sheet straight away when he made it 2-0. He took a throw to Ryan who played it straight back to him only for him to finish it with his left foot from the edge of the box. Joe Monk then made it 3-0 with a neat finish from some good play. Ryan then scored a cracker with a great volley from the edge of the box to make it 4-0. Joe Monk then completed the scoring with a good overhead kick to finish the game 5-0. He said he would score one at the beginning of the season and has been trying in training every session so well done Joe for peresevrence. A good win in tough conditions. 
 
After a short cold break the second game started and was always going to be difficult for Staines with only 10 men. Tom B opened the scoring and under bad conditions a quick fire hat trick from Ollie saw us take a 4-0 lead. At this point and due to a culmination of bad weather and Staines losing men the game was abandoned by them with us taking all 3 points. Good job really as Moe was too cold to write anymore but thanks to her for letting me know as much as she could in order for me to at least keep up to date with the spreadsheet. 

Surrey County Cup quarter final: Leatherhead Youth FC vs Farnborough Elite Fc

Leatherhead Youth FC 1 - 4 Farnborough Elite FC

On a lovely warm sunny day the boys wanted revenge for our only defeat this season. The game started quickly and we seemed to settle first with Ollie proving a good early outlet getting so good space down the left wing.

Joe M then scored a well taken goal when a long throw from Josh O'Reilly was knocked on and Joe controlled a great shot into the corner giving the goalkeeper no chance. The middle 3 of Scott, Ed and Callum started to settle and composed themselves well to get the upper hand in the middle of the park to enable us to take the upper hand.

It was another Josh O'Reilly long throw that gave us our second goal when a Leatherhead defender rose highest only too put the ball into his own net from a header.

Keeping possession well and with the steady back 5 of Adam, Rutty, Josh O'Reilly, James and Harry, Leatherhead didn't look like scoring in the first half and the next chance fell to us again when Scott B floated a great free kick into the back post only for the ball to be headed up into the air. Ed reacted quickest and headed the ball into a empty net to put us 3-0 to the good.

Ryan came on for Joe M with 5 minutes left of the first half and got straight into the game skinning the left back to set up a chance for Tom B who turned well but lost his footing as he was about to shoot.

Half time and 3-0.

Okey, Matt C and Josh E came on at half time and with the Leatherhead team changing to 5 across midfield they seemed to settle earlier in the second half. The boys had to really battle to stay on top and battle they did with Ed, Matt C and Scott showing the way forward running every ball down. Leatherhead had a couple of chances during this period and Adam pulled off a great save to push the ball around the post.

A hat trick of Josh O'Reilly long throws brought us our fourth goal when Tom B rose highest to head the ball in off the post; the away linesman giving the goal. With minutes to go Leatherhead got a consolation goal when they caught our defence out to score from close range.

A great performance from the team to bounce back from our earlier defeat in the League cup semi final. The whole team pulled together, battled hard, played good football and deserved a great win. One more game and then the final. Bring it on!!!!

Match report: Staines Lammas vs Farnborough; SYL Prem

After 2 weeks off due to snow and frost, Farnborough U14's got back in action in the Premier League with an away encouter with the Staines Lamma Youth - SPL Prem winners two seasons ago.

Although Staines were mid table, their results had been close, with a fairly good goal difference. The game started very well, when in the first minute Ryan M latched on to a great through ball from Tom to drill the ball across the Staines goalkeeper into the far corner for a great finish.

Once Staines settled they started playing some good football but the defence of Josh Evans, Josh Rutt, Okey and Harry Small were solid, assisted by the protection of Matt C and Scott Butcher.

The next chance fell to Ollie, who received a great ball from Callum to turn onto his left foot and hit a good shot which beat the goalkeeper but came back off the bar. A couple more half chances by Farnborough were squandered and the ref blew the whistle for half time with the score 1-0 to us.

The half-time team talk consisted of winning the ball back quicker and working on looking after possession better. Adam, Ed, James, Joe M and Josh O'Reilly all came on at half time and settled well with the game mainly being played in the Staines half.

Staines then scored a good goal when they broke well and had a 4 on 2 catching our defence out and finishing well giving Adam no chance. A couple more good chances went our way before we scored again but the linesman ruled the goal offside much to our rejoicing.

Rutty, Harry S, Tom B and Scott came back on and Tom B was in the action straight away when he had a great shot which was going into the top corner only for the GK to pull off a great save. With about 2 minutes to go, and with us camped in the Staines half, Scott hit a no nonsense ball into the box for Harry Small to rise like a salmon and head home the winner.

A good performance by both sides, but we just wanted to win the game more in the end, taking our run of vistories in the Premier league to 11 from 11. Well done to the whole team. A great effort.