Farnham Town 1, Godalming Town 0

IT wasn’t particularly pretty and it certainly wasn’t one for the ages, but Farnham Town boss Luke Turkington won’t mind that one bit.

A dramatic late winner from in-form striker Charlie Oakley after Connor Gales’ long ball forward was enough to secure Farnham Town’s eighth successive league win on Tuesday night – and with it they took another big step toward the Holy Grail that is promotion to the top table of the Combined Counties League.

Oakley has found the net with unerring regularity since Farnham embarked on their dizzying winning run, which began all the way back on January 4 at Tooting Bec.

Having latched onto Gales’ fine ball, Oakley arrowed an unstoppable low shot into the bottom right-hand corner of keeper Adrian Giles’ net with just three minutes to play to break gutsy Godalming’s hearts.

Bizarrely, 20 minutes earlier, a carbon copy move looked certain to give Farnham the lead, but Oakley, having nipped in front of Giles, could only look on in despair as his goalbound shot slowed up on the bobbly Memorial Ground pitch and was hacked off the line.

And it nearly proved to be a costly miss as Godalming broke and Charlie Chennell’s through ball into the box found Jamal Ramsey, who was only denied by a superb one-handed save low to his right by Dease Kerrison.

“We knew it was going to be tough against Godalming but we keep on churning out the results that we need,” said Turkington, whose side are at home again on Saturday against Chessington & Hook United.

“I’m not particularly happy with the performance but the form book almost goes out of the window at this time of the year. It’s a case of who wants it more and we’ve shown that if you are patient and keep doing what you are doing, eventually you will break through the defences and get what you deserve.”

And he added: “We’re one step closer to the magic mark of getting promoted and we move on now to Saturday.”

Farnham’s electric run in 2020 couldn’t have come at a better time as the promotion hopefuls had a bit of a wobble at the end of November and December which included home and away defeats to all-conquering champions-elect Jersey Bulls, who can wrap up promotion of their own with a win against British Airways on Saturday.

Since the second of those two defeats to the Bulls, 2-0 at the Memorial Ground on December 28, Farnham have dug deep, ground out wins and heaped huge pressure on the chasing pack.

All of a sudden, Town have opened up an 11-point lead on third-placed Tooting Bec, lead fourth-placed Walton & Hersham by 12 points, and have a 13-point cushion to Bedfont & Feltham in fifth.

And with all three of those teams still to come to the Memorial Ground, Turkington knows they are firmly in the box seat to go up next season with the Channel Islanders – but he still urged caution.

“When it comes to the final push, the last six or seven games, you will always see a team either capitulate or have a wobble,” he said.

“We can afford to have that wobble, but what we can’t afford is to have that wobble now, we have to stay firm.”

What has arguably impressed Turkington most this season is the willingness with which his talented side has adapted to different conditions, given that 12 months ago a debilitating run of form in January and February put paid to any chance of going up.

“The boys have gone above and beyond my expectations,” he said.

“We knew from last year that we had a soft underbelly and we knew that we had to put that right. We knew we had to bring in the right players to do that. It’s like a complete transformation of character and we are in this really good vein of form where we are just grinding out results whether we play good or bad.

“I was never expecting it, how well it has gone. Obviously, I still want to see improvements but being flawless like we have recently, it certainly surprised us all. Long may it continue.”

For their part, Godalming were a totally different proposition from when the two sides met at the Bill Kyte Stadium in January, when the home side were hugely flattered by a 2-1 defeat as Farnham bossed the game.

Phil Ruggles took over the hotseat 11 days ago and has clearly rejuvenated his side with a wealth of fresh faces, but Tuesday’s visit to Farnham was a step too far for the bottom club.

“The bad weather that we have had has taken its toll not only on our pitch but on everyone’s pitch and you have to play the conditions and play the percentages. Godalming did that well in the first half but then ran out of puff in the second,” said Turkington.

“Did I accept the performance? No, I think we can do so much better, I’ve seen them do much better, but I am accepting those three points and we move on to Saturday.

“It was job done. Not a job well done, but that is all we require right now.”