SRWFL Division One South.
The battle at the top of the SRWFL Division One South table was still alive and kicking going into this weekend. At the start of play Farnham were sitting top of the pile on 39 points, and with a vastly superior goal difference, realistically only needed a draw from this game to be crowned as champions.
Havant & Waterlooville were second on 37 points and, as this was their final match of the season, had to win this match to have any chance of nicking the title away from Farnham. Andover New Street were also still in the mix on 34 points but with only two games remaining were relying on the top two to slip up.
It had been a problematic journey over, early train cancellations from an incident between Reading and Wokingham meant a swift change to a bus for the first part of the journey and then on with the remaining two trains to reach Farnham just 20 miles away.
It’s always good to catch up with both sides, I attended their last meeting, an eight goal thriller in the Women’s FA Cup last season with Farnham ending up winning 5-3 on that occasion.
Getting to the ground quite early it was great to see Emma Mutch, part of the Farnham management team, taking part in the pre-match preparations after her ACL injury last season. Hopefully we’ll get to see her back in action next season.
Farnham were missing three players for this including their regular goalkeeper so defender Laura Comerford drew the short straw and was between the sticks for this important match-up.
The game started very quietly with a lack of goalscoring opportunities in the opening 25 minutes. The best piece of action came from Havant’s Ava-Rose Leather who collected a pass on halfway before turning her defender and playing a lovely pass into the path of Emma-Jane May but Farnham’s player manager Anya Kinnane had anticipated and covered well.
Farnham created a half chance, a long ball from Kinnane was well controlled by Lesha Swaby and forwarded on to Rebecca Price who shifted the ball nicely onto her right foot but shot just wide.
The Hawks were looking dangerous down the right flank and Harlie Jones took advantage of a short back pass to nip in and get a shot away but Laura Comerford had come out quickly and blocked well with her legs.
On 27 minutes the visitors took the lead. A nice passing move down the left picked out Tia Hooper in space and she fired a shot past the outstretched arms of Comerford and into the net via the post. 0-1
Farnham came back and more nice control from Swaby opened up a chance for Francesca Thornton only for Lottie Spottiswood to put in two superb last ditch blocks to deny her an equaliser.
The visitors were then gifted a chance on half time when the referee gave them a dubious free kick on the left byline. It was lifted into the six yard box and flicked into the net by Millie McNamara to double the Hawks lead. 0-2
In added time Farnham gave themselves a lifeline. Kinnane, now playing up front, picked up a long through ball, shrugged off a challenge and then launched a missile over Sara Luce in the Havant goal and into the roof of the net. 1-2
H-T: Farnham Town 1 Havant & Waterlooville 2
The hosts started the second half on the front foot and were soon level. Just a minute into the second half Thornton threaded a pass through the visitors back line to pick out Emily Foss who took the ball to the byline before sliding a cross in towards the near post where Kinnane was waiting. It was just behind her but she managed to get a cheeky back heel in which just had enough on it to cross the line. 2-2
The home side’s lead lasted just three minutes, a long ball over the top saw Phoebe Fitzgerald outpace the defence and calmly slot the ball past the advancing Comerford. 2-3
With Farnham back chasing the game, they were pushing further forward and leaving space at the back. With another pass through from midfield, Jones found herself in space but could only shoot straight at Comerford who dealt with it well.
Nicole Leys chased down a loose ball on the right and hit a speculative shot towards goal. The keeper was beaten as the ball sailed over her but cannoned off the crossbar and bounced the wrong side of the line for the hosts before being cleared.
On another quick break the Hawks made it four, the impressive Leather taking the ball into the area and playing the ball across from the byline, the ball took a wicked deflection off a defenders leg and span past Comerford into the opposite corner. 2-4
With ten minutes to go Fitzgerald picked up her second of the game, again feeding off a pass through the defence, beating the onrushing Comerford to the ball in the area before rounding her and stroking the ball into the empty net. 2-5
Farnham kept plugging away and could have reduced the arrears when Price ghosted past two defenders to the edge of the area but dragged her shot wide of the post. Next, a good run down the right from Leys made an opening for Foss who hit a first time shot which was tipped over the bar by Luce.
Right at the end Fitzgerald completed her hattrick and scored the Hawks sixth. May battled midway in the Farnham half and sent a curling left footed pass into the path of Fitzgerald and she finished nicely at the near post. 2-6
F-T: Farnham Town 2 Havant & Waterlooville 6
An entertaining game watched by a crowd of over 120 in which the visitors thoroughly deserved their victory and took them to the top of the table, ending Andover New Street’s chances of nipping in on the blind side to take the title despite them winning 1-0 on the day. They were the better team on the day and were clinical in front of goal. It seems there will always be goals when these two sides meet, that’s eight goals in each of the two games they’ve played now!
Farnham still have the league in their own hands and a win from one of their two remaining games will give them back to back title wins (although there are two postponements still outstanding so they might also be given the points from those).
As regular readers will know, I’m not one to criticise match officials as a neutral as they do a thankless task but today’s referee was poor. He was the Jan Molby of referees, he hardly left the centre circle, and as such made far too many wrong decisions due to being so far away from the action. The only half consolation was that he was equally as bad for both teams. Not the referee you want in the middle for such an important match.
The final word goes to the Hawks Lottie Spottiswood who I thought was excellent throughout. Time after time she got important challenges in including her superb double block in the first half, covered the back line, reads the game well and always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.