Hartley Wintney U18 2 - 4 Farnham Town U18
26 Oct 2011, Southern Youth League West Division

Hartley Wintney gave a strong performance on Wednesday night but the score did not justify how close the game was. In cold conditions, Hartley Wintney began the brightest out of the two teams and had the first real notable chance. Central midfielder Paris Hutt's shot was just over the bar after a few minutes and a free kick from the left hand side caused some trouble for the Farnham defence.

However, a few minutes later Farnham caught the defence off guard and a shot beat keeper Daniel Pearson to the far right hand post to give Farnham the lead.

Hartley Wintney did fight back almost immediately after the set back of an early goal. The equaliser came from a well taken free kick by captain Michael Floyd which was from the edge of the penalty area.

The pace of the game then slowed down with both defences cancelling out the forwards. One of the main battles was down the right hand wing with Hartley Wintney's right winger Jonas Cornando, whose pace caused problems for Farnham's left back all game.

A goal just before and after half time gave Farnham a two goal lead but Hartley Wintney still created some good chances to give themselves a chance of being back in the game. Most noticeably a shot from Jonas Cornando just went over the bar, which would be his last contribution of the game as he unfortunately had to go off injured.

Farnham got themselves a fourth goal of the game just before the hour but yet again, Hartley Wintney found another goal. This time, a half volley from Rob Bradley took a deflection off a crowd of players and ended up in the net.

There would be no comeback in the latter stages of the game for Hartley Wintney though, who may believe that on another day they could have gained the three points.

SQUAD: Dan Pearson, Ben Cave, Robert Bradley, Michael Flloyd, Ben Butler, Dan Hastings, Paris Hutt, Ross May, Ben Brownen, Jonas Cornando, Mark Taylor, Subs: Rob Deans, Sam Meade, Matt Partlow.

[Martyn Pearson]