Sport

Football: Bashley end Boro's 100% start

September 03, 2009

Farnborough 1 Bashley 1

ALL good things must come to an end and Farnborough’s perfect start to the season finally has a blemish.

After five straight wins for Steve King’s side, the visitors frustrated Boro to the extent that the hosts had to settle for just a draw.

But one point is hardly the end of the world; after all, Boro were never going to win every Southern Premier game this season.

And, thanks to that point, Boro are still clear at the top of the table, ahead of Truro City. King’s side have 16 points by the end of August, which is some achievement.

Besides, on another day, Boro would have won this game. They certainly created enough chances in the second half to have done so but, for once, King’s prolific forwards were not clinical enough.

Bradley Bubb and Kezie Ibe both missed excellent chances and Dean McDonald, having scored a super equaliser before the break, peppered the Bashley goal but could not beat keeper David Elm.

Perhaps playing a third game in five days, on a hot afternoon to boot, simply caught up with Boro, who had been so stylish two days before at Clevedon.

“We didn't start that well and the first half was a bit scrappy,” said King afterwards. “But in the second half we created enough chances to win two games. We didn't take them. It can happen.

“I’m disappointed we did not win but we can’t win every game — and I certainly would have taken 16 points from the first 18 on offer, before the season started.” All Boro's goals this season have come from King’s four forwards (the aforementioned trio plus Anthony Thomas); this was a day when King needed someone else to snatch a late goal from midfield or from a set piece.

“The goals will come from elsewhere,” said King. “Look at Daryl McMahon's contrib-ution today from midfield. He kept trying to play and open Bashley up. I thought he was the best player on the pitch.”

At times, McMahon and McDonald are so good that they look as if they alone will destroy teams with their class, movement and, in McDonald’s case, a box of tricks and powerful finishing. It was those two players who worked Elm hardest in the second half. Bubb and Ibe narrowly missed the target with two clearer chances.

Such clear-cut opportunities did not materialise in the first half. Boro began sluggishly and were punished. From a corner, after just eight minutes, Peter Castle — built as solidly as his name suggests — fired the visitors ahead. Bashley could afford to sit back and soak up the pressure and they did so to great effect, before McDonald conjured up another special goal, jinking past a tackle and flashing a shot past Elm, a few minutes before the break.

Without McDonald’s goal, the second half might have become increasingly awkward for Boro. Leamington and Didcot have already shown that teams will come to Cherrywood Road with limited ambition other than to frustrate Boro and play on the break.

“It does seem a bit harder at home,” agreed King. “Teams will pack people behind the ball. Because of that we may only get three or four chances a game here. But, with the quality we have, that should be enough.”

While Bashley did threaten on the break — former Boro striker Mark Gamble, who had a lively game, missed a fine headed chance and Chris Mason forced an excellent save from Richard Barnard — Boro were increasingly dominant in the second half.

But, with no out-and-out wingers in King’s side and defensive-minded fullbacks in Adam Doyle and David Ray, Boro struggled to put Bashley under intense pressure.

“But if we played with width you would have to sacrifice one midfield player and one forward,” said King. “We have played the same way since I arrived and we have won almost every game. After the event you can always say ‘if we had changed it’ but we still created fantastic chances. It’s just that, on this occasion, we didn’t take them.”

In other words, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And 16 points from six games bears King out: Farnborough have had a fantastic August and there is little to suggest that they will not continue in the same vein now that we are in September. Tiverton, to whom Boro travel tomorrow, beware.

Farnborough: Barnard, Ray, Doyle, Smith, Robinson, Holloway, King, McMahon, Ibe, Bubb (Thomas 84), McDonald. Not used: Opinel, Stevens, Wormull, Cia

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