Farnham Town 1, Frimley Green 3

TWO second-half goals condemned Farnham Town to defeat on Saturday – and kept Frimley Green’s Combined Counties League Division One title hopes alive.

Victory in their final two games against Kensington Borough and Tooting Bec will see Frimley pip Sheerwater, who have played all of their games, and clinch promotion to the Premier Division after Farnham, for so long themselves a live contender for the title, failed to play partypooper at the Memorial Ground.

“The guys at Frimley told us that if they beat us then they think they’ve got every chance of winning the league, which was a nice compliment for us,” said Town boss Luke Turkington.

“They definitely saw us as their biggest threat to them winning the title.”

Farnham were looking to continue their winning ways and make it three wins on the bounce after Tuesday’s 6-0 home thrashing of Deportivo Galicia as they pushed to cement third spot in the league and a place in next season’s FA Cup.

The visitors looked the brighter of the two sides early on before firing themselves into an early lead on 21 minutes courtesy of Eddie McKinley who volleyed home from close range after Leo Medrado’s shot had rattled the Town crossbar.

Moments earlier, Frimley’s Mark Privett had Farnham shot-stopper Dease Kerrison at full stretch to produce an acrobatic save while at the other end Sam Gillett leaned back as he pulled the trigger and could only look on in dismay as his shot sailed harmlessly high and wide of the goal.

The series of chances at either end came after Town’s Tom Smith was denied, as the pace of the ball dragged the Farnham defender wider than he would have ideally liked and allowed time for Frimley stopper Ricky Borrett to rush out, smother and parry his point-blank shot.

But the Farnham faithful were left jumping for joy just five minutes after going behind when appeals for handball ended in the referee emphatically pointing to the spot. Matt Glass did the rest from 12 yards as he scored into the bottom right-hand corner to level the scores at 1-1 in the 26th minute.

Frimley pushed on in a bid to retake the lead and looked threatening in front of goal in both halves.

And Farnham had two notable chances before the interval, courtesy of an overhead kick by Elliot Cardona and a thumping strike by Max Meaton.

But it was the visitors who retook the lead five minutes into the second half through George Bauerman, who calmly steered the ball home at the back post after Town failed to deal with a corner.

The Farnham management team of Luke Turkington and Lee Pollard were forced into an injury-enforced change on 60 minutes as Sam Gillett limped off with a hamstring problem and was replaced by Jack Falvey.

The tempo of the game started to pick up and a neat interchange between Nick Medcraft and Glass saw Medcraft show plenty of resilience to skip past a defender before laying it off to Glass, who used his pace to earn Farnham a corner as Town probed.

But Farnham’s hearts were broken a minute from time when a cross from the left wing was slotted home by Sean Latimer at the back post, sparking wild celebrations and a bundle of blue and white shirts.

Frimley looked sharp and proved clinical in front of goal when it mattered in the spring sunshine.

But Turkington admitted: “It was a fairly poor advertisement for Combined Counties League football as it was very direct but it was very effective for Frimley, who knew what they needed to do get the three points. They were simply stronger than us.”

But Frimley’s approach has given Turkington food for thought for next season as they approach their final two games of the season at home to fifth-placed Bedfont & Feltham on Saturday and away at Epsom & Ewell on April 27 – two teams who, like Farnham, had strong aspirations to win the league and promotion up to the Premier Division.

“I think we always wanted to have aspirations of winning the league and I thought we had enough to do that, but looking back we had a terrible month that spoilt our chance,” said Turkington.

“This is my first time back in the Combined Counties because last year I was in the Hellenic League. They are two very different styles of football but I think I know now what it takes to get to top spot. There have been lots of things to learn from this season and hopefully next year we will have a better shot at it.”

Farnham Town: Kerrison, Meaton, Smith, Verkaik (Sharratt 77), Conteh, Oakley, Medcraft, Nash (Taylor 60), Gillett (Falvey 60), Glass, Cardona. Subs (not used): Birchnall, Peck.