Farnham Town 3, Ash United 1

IN-FORM Farnham Town extended their unbeaten run to nine league games on Saturday – but determined boss Luke Turkington knows his side can improve in their relentless quest for promotion.

Two goals from striker Charlie Oakley and a third from brother Harry easily saw off the threat of a tame Ash United side who were mightily flattered by a two-goal defeat.

But it wasn’t so much that Farnham could have racked up the proverbial cricket score at the Memorial Ground that irked Turkington, it was the concession of a late penalty that wreaked a clean sheet and took the gloss off an otherwise dominant display.

The otherwise impressive Jack Mitchell brought down Kieran Williams in stoppage time and Ash striker Giacomo Dillulo did the rest from the spot as the visitors gained a morsel of comfort from a game in which they deserved nothing.

“It’s back to winning ways, which is what we wanted to do, but it was very upsetting to give a goal away like that with the last kick of the match,” said Turkington.

“This game it didn’t matter, in other games it would and they are the bits I’ve got to try to iron out. We’ve done it too often where we seem to switch off or make wrong decisions at the wrong times.”

The most notable occasion was when British Airways stunned the Town faithful with an equaliser in the seventh and final minute of stoppage time to grab a 1-1 draw back on September 21.

But fears that that kind of lapse could be Town’s undoing as they chase one of the four automatic promotion spots available in Division One of the Combined Counties League this season appear unfounded on the strength of Saturday’s impressive display – the latest in a long line of decent performances that have seen Turkington’s charges emerge as the likeliest challengers to the runaway Jersey Bulls, who Town face in a mouthwatering clash in the Channel Islands in just over three weeks time.

Having missed a golden opportunity when racing through on goal inside the first minute on Saturday, Charlie Oakley continued his fine goalscoring run with two more – sliding the ball beyond Ash goalkeeper Aaron Lucas on 19 minutes after a delightful ball from Gavin Brainch and then making the game safe on 52 minutes when he latched onto a through ball from midfielder Kye Nash before steering the ball into the bottom corner.

In between times, brother Harry made sure the Oakley brothers both scored in the same game for the first time when Charlie Oakley’s glancing header from Rowan Sharratt’s free kick was only palmed into his path by Lucas.

“If we can play like that and still be able to improve then I’ll be looking forward to the rest of the season because we’re starting to look like a team who can cope with the change in the weather and the pitch conditions,” said Turkington.

Now, after beating teams from the bottom half of the table in Ash United and Fleet Spurs, Farnham turn their attention to rockbottom Eversley & California, who are winless in eight league games.

“If we get the three points at Eversley on Saturday that will make it ten unbeaten and I don’t think the club has had that kind of run for a good few years, so we’re aiming for that, but we don’t want to be looking at the table thinking it’s a foregone conclusion – far from it, we have to make sure we play to our strengths and do the best we can on Saturday,” said the boss.

“You’re going to go to places, including ours, where you’re not able to play pure football now, the weather’s turning bad, the cold’s coming in, pitches are cutting up, so it’s all about being men against boys.

“I tell the boys you have to be switched on, you have to give teams the respect they deserve, but if they carry on playing the way we have been playing I see no problems in us getting the three points. But if we switch off, we’ll be punished.”

Farnham Town: Kerrison, Meaton (Thomas 71), Smith, Sharratt, Mitchell, H Oakley, Nash, McDonald, C Oakley, Corbett (Peel 79), Brainch. Sub (not used): May.