Farnborough FC Women v Brentford FC Women
With the Didcot game being a lunchtime start, it gave me the option of going home or seeing if the trains worked out to allow me to get to this 5pm kick-off. I’d only been alerted this game was on when asking for options on a women’s game for the Sunday so good luck all around!. Two train connections from Didcot and a twenty minute walk to the ground from Farnborough North station and I made it to the BR Saunders Transport Community Stadium with half an hour to spare.
This game was part of a Community Day at Farnborough with the men’s team playing Hartley Wintney at lunchtime and the women kicking off later, and it looked like a fair number of fans had stayed to watch the women play which was great to see. Building a closer relationship with the local community is a key part of what the club is looking to achieve in the long term and events like this can only help.
This was to be a tough test for the hosts, a brand new team last season who had a sensational year winning their league and a cup in their first season, playing an established side who narrowly missed promotion in their league by a single point, in the tier above the league Farnborough will be playing this season and also winning a cup themselves.
The game started as you would expect, with the visitors on the front foot. The prolific Chloe Logie, scorer of about 200 goals last season, put through one on one with the keeper but Morgan Palmer closed her down quickly and managed to get enough on the shot to turn it wide of the post.
Farnborough hit back and a spectacular strike Ellie Stalley from around 20 yards out sailed over Freya Walker and into the roof of the net. What a strike! 1-0
Boro’s Farrah Yewings then made a great run from halfway inside her own half surging forward and sending a strike goalwards from 25 yards out but just pulled it wide of the left hand post.
Brentford struck back and came close when Maddie Phillips picked up a loose clearance from a corner, ghosted past two defenders to the byline and fired across the face of the goal, but just overhit it with Logie trying desperately to get on the end of it at the far post.
The Bees came close again with a lovely move, Kirsty Matthews to Logie who played a clever angled pass into the path of Nikki Woods whose shot just drifted the wrong side of the upright. In the last piece of action in the half, a drive from Mollie Holmes from outside the box which Palmer managed to parry and claim the rebound
H-T: Farnborough 1 Brentford 0
The second half began in much the same vein with the visitors pushing to get back into the game. Woods had an early chance but the keeper did well managing to block the shot with her legs.
Brentford fashioned another chance, Rosie Redman cut inside the full back and fired the ball in from the left which Palmer initially spilt but recovered well to dive on the loose ball as Mollie Holmes was waiting to pounce.
The after the hour things went a little crazy!
Farnborough broke quickly which ended in a foot race between Stalley and Walker, the Boro forward just getting there first and was flattened by the Bees keeper on the edge of the box. The free kick was curled goalwards by Stalley, Walker parried away but only to the feet of Esme Parsons who finished well from close range. 2-0
Two minutes later it was three. Brentford’s defence was caught by another quick break with Stalley picking up the through ball and calmly slotting the ball past the advancing Walker into the bottom right corner of the net. 3-0
The visitors pushed on to try to get something out of the game and were now finding more space down the flanks after several substitutions. A nice move opened up a chance down the right which Lucy Bolitho placed across the keeper and into the bottom corner to finish well and pull one back. 3-1
Just a minute later (I was still writing up the last goal!), Brentford pulled another back with Logie latching onto a through ball and lobbed the ball over the stranded substitute keeper. There are three certainties in modern life, death, taxes and Chloe Logie scoring! 3-2
The Bees were now pushing to level the game and with 10 to go Paula Holguin did just that, poaching at the far post as somehow the ball managed to squirm across the goal line. 3-3
The Farnborough backs were now firmly against the wall as Brentford launched wave after wave of attacks to try to find a winner. Matthews had a shot from the edge of the area well tipped over and she again was involved in a lovely move she started and nearly finished, only to see her shot go wide of the upright.
Katie Taylor had the final chance of the game for Farnborough when she turned inside the full back giving her sight of goal but could only shoot straight into the arms of Walker.
F-T: Farnborough 3 Brentford 3
A cracking game of football enjoyed by the decent crowd at the ground. Plenty to like for both sides and, what pre-season is all about, getting minutes in legs. Farnborough will have learnt a lot from this game and also showed that they’re not far away in terms of quality from a side with a second placed finish in tier 6 last season.
The Farnborough back line were excellent, as with the game at Ashridge a couple of weeks ago the centre back pairing of Leighann May and Georgia Stalley looked solid and were ably assisted by full backs Farrah Yewings and Ailsa Winter. My player of the match though has to go to Ellie Stalley for her all round performance and two quality goals.
Brentford will probably feel they made enough chances to win the game but also showed great spirit and belief to claw their way back from three down.
Farnborough are a club on the up and looking to grow the women’s side of the club in the future with some excellent initiatives to do just that. I look forward to seeing them prosper over the coming few seasons.
Looking forward to seeing both sides have a very good season in 24/25 with hopefully more trophies on the way for both!
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