Farnham Town manager Paul Johnson slammed his side after they lost 2-1 at home to ten-man Fleet Town in the Combined Counties Premier Division South on Saturday.

The home side let an early lead slip at the Memorial Ground, with Johnson labelling his side’s second-half display as “dreadful”.

“I’m still fuming,” said Johnson. “For the first half an hour we were very good and we could have been 3-0 up.

“However, in the second half we were dreadful. Fleet were dreadful – they didn’t have to do anything special to beat us – but we were well below our level in the second half.

“We conceded two goals from set pieces, which is very disappointing.

“And when Fleet went down to ten men we played aimless long balls and didn’t look like scoring.”

Town had started brightly and, after dominating the first quarter of an hour, took the lead on 16 minutes when Owen Dean rose to head home.

Six minutes later, Farnham had two chances to double their lead. Fleet keeper Callum Smart managed to scramble away a long-range effort from Richie Mbele, and from the resulting corner Andy Ali was denied by the woodwork.

Fleet fashioned an equaliser on 25 minutes from Tayo Oyebola after the home side failed to deal with a routine long throw into their area.

Five minutes into the second half, from another dead ball the Farnham defence failed to clear, and Louis Blake fired home from six yards out.

In the 63rd minute Connor Young was pulled down by Fleet defender Khalid Babiker, who was judged to be the last man and was sent off.

Despite being a man to the good, Farnham were given a lesson in game management as Fleet used their experience to slow the game down.

It wasn’t until the 90th minute that Farnham created a clear-cut chance when Jamie Hoppitt’s header was superbly saved by Smart and, despite almost eight minutes of added time, the visitors held on.

Town travel to league leaders Abbey Rangers on Saturday, before the rearranged fixture at home to Redhill next Tuesday night (January 17), and Johnson is looking for a good response from his side.

“Abbey Rangers are a big, powerful side who have had a couple of seasons together, but quality-wise we have enough to compete with them.

“We need to put a shift in on Saturday and then kick on.”