BGB Southern Premier

Hitchin Town 1 Farnborough 3

It was a freezing, foggy afternoon at Top Field on Saturday, and Farnborough eventually saw off struggling Hitchin Town to move four points clear at the top of the table.

While the Siberian temperatures inside the rickety old ground meant the 300 plus hardy supporters were almost frozen to the spot, Boro blew both hot and cold before an experienced head secured the points late on.

Marcus Richardson bagged a superb 87th minute clincher to put the game beyond the home side’s reach at 3-1 — his third goal in two games from the bench — but in truth the victory should have been long since confirmed.

In a Jekyll and Hyde display from Francis Vines’ men, they totally bossed the first half from the kick off. The game was just two minutes old when a fragile Canaries’ backline gifted Michael Charles the opener, and Boro proceeded to call all the shots for the rest of the half.

It was easy to see why Hitchin have struggled so much in the Southern Premier, as Boro cruised through the half in a fashion reminiscent of some of their more comfortable wins from last season’s Southern 1 South & West championship triumph.

Hitchin didn’t even muster a worthwhile shot at Lyall Beazley in the Boro goal, and Ryan Scott’s heavily deflected strike made it 2-0 on the stroke of half time.

It could, and should, have been more for Boro, but they became a little guilty of overplaying matters when it was clear that, had they persevered with sliding the ball in behind the creaking Canaries’ defence, there were more goals on offer.

At half time, it seemed likely that more goals would indeed follow, but instead Boro turned in a dreadful, dreary display. Their crisp passing deserted them, and it was turn of the Boro defence to charitably  offer the home side a way back when Ian Hillaire scored the easiest of goals after a horrible mix up.

For the next half an hour it was tough to watch as Boro laboured through the half, but a nervy last few minutes were at least avoided when substitute Richardson produced the goods once again.

Clearly Boro will have to play much better if they are to stay ahead of the rest at the top, but if anything the first half was just too easy, and a casual attitude affected their second half display.

After the match Vines was disappointed with his side’s second half performance, but when your side has played poorly and won 3-1 away from home, it’s difficult to be too despondent.

“The performance wasn’t what I wanted and when you set your standards so high it is a little bit disappointing,” he said. “But we came away and won, which is the most important thing.

“The first half was so comfortable, but I could see the second half was coming because we started to complicate it. If we kept it simple we would have opened them up time and again, but maybe it was too easy and they decided to make it harder for themselves.

“In the second we needed to shore things up rather than push on because of the way the game unfolded, and we needed a great block on the goal-line at 2-1, but we got the win in the end.

“We knew what we wanted to do out there, but some simple little things were going wrong for us today. It was nothing major, but if you look at my players they are disappointed, even though they just won.

“That is a good thing, and the boys will want to put it right next week against Mangotsfield.”

Vines kept the faith with the side that started in the mid-week victory over Braintree Town, meaning Richardson and the returning Leigh Rumbold had to be content with a place on the bench.

From the first kick it was clear that Boro were the game’s dominant force, and after just two minutes they were handed the lead after some comical Hitchin defending.

A hopeful ball over the top caused chaos at the back, and Darrell Ellams thumped his attempted clearance straight into centre back Marcus Rose. The rebound caught out stranded ‘keeper Martin Bennett, and rolled straight into the path of a grateful Charles who calmly slotted his tenth league goal of the season into the open net.

Boro then went on to open up the Canaries at will. The pace of Charles and Gamble was terrifying the home side, and it was the Northern Irish youngster who fed his strike partner again, only for Bennett to deny Charles his second with his foot.

Further chances came and went as Charles glanced a header wide and Gamble took a heavy touch when clean through, before his sliding effort was smothered by the over-worked Hitchin stopper. Skipper Steve Laidler then put Gamble in the clear again, but this time he took too long to get his shot away and eventually ran out of room.

It was left to an unlikely source to grab the second three minutes before the break, as Gamble teed up Scott on the edge of the area and his shot took a wicked deflection that left the despairing Bennett with no chance.

After such a dominant half, it seemed a question of how many Boro would get, but as the fog continued to roll in during the break, making it hard to see from one side of the pitch to the other, Boro dramatically lost their way in the second period.

Passes were going astray and Vines’ men lost their shape in the middle of the park, but Hitchin were seeing things much more clearly.

After a sloppy opening ten minutes from Boro, the home side were back in the game. From Daniel Charges’ cross, Beazley, David Ray and Adam Doyle all clashed going for the same ball, which fell kindly to Hillaire, who had the simple task of rolling the ball into the gaping goal.

That gave the Canaries a much-needed injection of confidence, releasing them from the cage Boro had them cowered in before the break.

Last-ditch defending from the Boro backline became the order of the day, even though Ray and substitute Rumbold had shots blocked at the other end, and on 77 minutes came the decisive moment of the half.

When a ball threaded through middle caught out Dave Woozley and Doyle, Beazley raced from his goal but disastrously spilled the ball straight to the feet of Paul Barnes. The striker must have thought he had scored as he  shot low towards the goal, but Ian Oliver was on hand to superbly clear off the line.

That prompted the entrance of Richardson for the tiring Gamble, and he gave Boro more of a platform to aim at up front.

They came back into the game and with three minutes left Laidler played in Charles whose shot was well saved. But the ball came back to Richardson on the edge of the area and he brilliantly picked his spot in the bottom corner to seal the win for Boro — their fourth league win in a row.

Hitchin: Bennett, Peters (Lewis 45), Ellams, Balderson, Gilbert, Rose, Chris Doyle, Stupple, Barnes, Hilaire (Bull 80), Charge (Boateng 73)

Boro: Beazley, Ray, Oliver, Woozley, Doyle, Laidler, Barima (Rumbold 65), Scott, Gamble (Richardson 77), Charles, Wheeler (Ciardini 81)

For player ratings and more reaction from Vines to another victory, pick up a copy of Tuesday's Farnborough Mail.