AFTER two hard-to-bear defeats against fairly ordinary opponents, this victory raised Farnham's morale and confirmed that they are definitely promotion material.

Against a determined but unimaginative Old Emanuel, Farnham, after a high-octane start, went to sleep for 10 minutes, apparently deciding that the resistance was unlikely to be particularly fierce.

During this spell,the visitors had their only real spell of good play, scoring a nice breakaway try in the corner.

A penalty stretched the lead to 8-0 and Farnham realised they had some work to do.

It was the end of Emanuel's good patch and Farnham rarely left the visitors' half for the remainder of the half, and much of that period was spent in the 22.

The breakthrough came when some excellent pressure on Emanuel's clearance attempt from behind the try-line resulted in a five-metre scrum.

The scrum was won and Mike Coe took the ball from skipper Matt Payne in the centre to crash through the gain line. The ruck was cleared almost immediately and some slick handling left Lee Manson free on the wing to steam in for the score.

A second try soon followed, with Graham Symons (new to the open side) finishing off a driving, rolling maul. Simon Lewis converted and Farnham led 12-8 at the break, well on top, but without the comfort of a 20-point lead, which is what they should have had.

Farnham continued to camp in the Emanuel half after the interval, with just the odd foray into the home half to keep the crowd interested.

Some excellent defence denied Farnham the killer try and Old Emanuel always threatened through the blistering pace of their right wing. So it was still a knife-edge situation.

Farnham continued to batter the OE line until the very end – testimony to the determination they showed after that sloppy period – and were rewarded with a try at the very death, giving them a lead that was a fairer reflection of the play.