British Airways 1, Farnham Town 2

A GOAL after just 42 seconds from Elliot Cardona paved the way for in-form Farnham Town to soar to a third successive win in Division One of the Combined Counties League.

Striker Cardona’s early strike, coupled with a spectacular effort from Max Meaton on the hour, saw Town claim all three points against British Airways.

But they had to dig deep in the final 20 minutes to secure all three points at The Orchard and maintain their impressive promotion push.

“It was a dream start, the perfect start and a really nice result,” said Town boss Luke Turkington after his side cemented fifth place in Division One and stayed within touchin distance of the top four.

“It was a lovely move and Cardona has put it though the legs of the goalkeeper,” said Turkington, who added that it was British Airways who actually kicked off at the ground they share with Bedfont & Feltham. “But we could have been out of sight in the first half. We should have been up by six in my opinion.

“We were rampant, it was brilliant play, really good to watch. It’s just unfortunate we didn’t put the ball in the net. When you don’t put it in the net you always put a bit of pressure on yourself to make sure you just keep the lead. Going into the break just one to the good was an injustice to us.”

“When you’re not converting your chances you can be punished. We’ve been in that position before,” added Turkington, who has seen his side score 11 goals with only one in reply in that three-game winning sequence which began just after Christmas.

And the likeable Town boss’ worst fears were almost realised when British Airways pulled a goal back almost immediately after the returing Meaton had scored with a sensational cross-shot from all of 30 yards.

“That was really annoying because we were back to holding out for the win and the last 20 minutes we were holding on,” admitted Turkington.

“They were in the ascendency, but we showed a lot of determination to keep them out. We made some tactical changes to make sure we got the three points and got out of there. But it was disappointing that we weren’t able to contain them. We all switched off from the second goal and they converted their only real chance of the second half.”

Town may have been able to breathe easier had Charlie Horwood’s controversial effort been allowed to stand. Horwood was left one on one with the British Airways goalkeeper after a booming free-kick from deep inside the Farnham half and duly found the net, only to discover that after a lengthy debate the officials had ruled out the effort much to everyone’s bemusement – not least the British Airways players who were trudging back to the centre circle expecting a restart.

And although Town were left to defend the most slender of leads for the last 20 minutes, they did so magnificently to secure their third win on the trot.

“It gave us a dilemma – did we want to push for a third or did we want to sit back and try to hold on to the win? With 25 minutes to go it’s a difficult call to make because we are still owning the ball but with all the chances we’ve created in the back of your mind you think ‘is this going to be the banana skin game?’, ‘is this going to be the one where we are going to be upset because we didn’t convert those chances?’.

“So we played it safe and we thought with our defensive record we’re going to try to hold out for victory.”

And hold out they did to bolster the best defensive record in the league, having conceded just 14 goals in 18 games.

“We’re proud of that and we’re not too far behind in terms of the goals for as well. It should have been dead and buried in the first half but to come away from home and get three points and to have three wins on the bounce should hopefully start the momentum that we need.”

On Saturday, Farnham Town host Dorking Wanderers at the Memorial Ground (kick off 3pm).

Farnham Town: Birchnall, Meaton, Smith, Sharratt, Harper, L Medcraft, Nash, Scurfield, Horwood, Turner, Cardona, Peck Taylor, Falvey.