Farnham Town 3, Eversley & California 1

IN the final reckoning come the end of April, Farnham Town may come to regret a dramatic mid-winter loss of form which saw them realistically drop out of the title race in Division One of the Combined Counties League.

But until such time, it’s still very much game on for a reinvigorated Town side who have now won their last three games in good style, finding the net eight times in the process.

The latest win, a comfortable one at the Memorial Ground on Saturday against an Eversley side who are in a rebuilding phase, wasn’t the prettiest, understandably so after a gruelling win against Sheerwater last Tuesday, but it was more than good enough to take the three points and move Town back up to fourth place with nine games to go – starting with an intriguing clash at rock-bottom Fleet Spurs on Saturday.

Two more goals from the improving Sam Gillett and a third from Ash Peck swept aside eager Eversley who at least went down with the satisfaction of scoring the goal of the day – a curling 25-yard free kick which left Town boss Luke Turkington full of admiration.

“It was a pearler,” he said. “Out of nothing he’s bent it round the opposite side of the wall into the top bracket, the keeper’s got no chance. Sometimes you’ve just got to applaud the free kick taker. It was a wonderful goal.

“But that’s three on the trot again and we’re back to winning ways. I think the pressure is off us now and we can try to finish as high as we can in the table.”

Gillett, who netted in the 2-1 win against Sheerwater, opened the scoring for Town on 19 minutes after stealing in behind the Eversley defence to tap in from six yards while Peck, who is suddenly getting more playing time, hit a cracker into the roof of the net from the edge of the box on the stroke of half-time to double the home side’s lead.

“At 2-0 I felt there was only one team in it,” said Turkington, “and that was the case pretty much the whole game.

“It could have been one of those games where we went on to score six or seven, but Tuesday’s game (against Sheerwater) really took it out of them so the workrate was slightly down. We didn’t really have to get out of second gear and it was a nice victory after a difficult game on Tuesday. It wasn’t the best performance but it was a good performance considering what happened on Tuesday and it keeps the winning momentum going.”

Eversley threatened to spoil the party with Ross McKernan’s stunning free kick 15 minutes from time, and hitting the crossbar moments later, but Gillett put the result beyond doubt five minutes from time when he broke the defensive line and lobbed the onrushing goalkeeper.

“Eversley kept trying and never gave up but we were too much of a force,” said Turkington, who was pleased that his side’s goalscoring conversion rate was going the right way having seen so many chances go begging this season.

“There was a big difference between the two sides, so now we just look to build on that momentum for Fleet Spurs on Saturday.

“It (promotion) is not in our hands anymore but we can still try to put pressure on.

“We’ll just take eachgame as it comes and get on with the job in hand and see how far up the table we can finish, because other teams up the top have got to play each other and we’ve got to play the teams up the top as well.

“We know we can take points off the teams at the top, but let’s take the points off the teams below us first.”

Farnham Town: Kerrison, Meaton, Verkaik, Sharratt, Taylor, Oakley, Atkinson, Nash, Gillett, Peck (Cardona 46), Falvey. Subs: M Conteh, Evans, Birchnall.