Farnham Town 2, Fleet Spurs 0

FOCUSED Farnham Town boss Luke Turkington has spoken of his delight at his side having shed their “soft underbelly”.

It follows two wins in four days – 1-0 at home to Eversley & California on Saturday and a 2-0 win against in-form Fleet Spurs at the Memorial Ground on Tuesday night – as Town’s promotion push really gathers pace.

Farnham have now won six consecutive games since the turn of the year to occupy second spot in Division One of the Combined Counties League – seven points ahead of third-placed Bedfont & Feltham – in the race for the coveted top four.

“We had a soft underbelly last year but we’ve recruited extremely well and we’re starting to put more pressure on the teams below us,” said Turkington.

“It shows that we have that strength that we didn’t have last year.”

The current run has included wins against the likes of Eversley, Godalming Town and Ash United, teams that 12 months ago gave Farnham debilitating headaches and arguably cost them promotion to the Premier Division.

“Last year we couldn’t buy a win against the bottom six, this year we’ve worked hard to focus the mindset on not looking at the table, just playing the game and the team in front of you,” said Turkington, who has seen his side’s recent form open up a crucial 12-point lead on fifth-placed Tooting Bec, who have one game in hand.

Striker Charlie Oakley was Saturday’s match winner in a scrappy game against basement boys Eversley before continuing his red-hot run by scoring both goals in the first ten minutes under the lights against Fleet Spurs on Tuesday, taking his golden run to seven goals in six games.

“It’s great for him and long may it continue,” said Turkington, “but he can’t do it on his own, it’s a team effort. Everybody played a part on Tuesday.

“We’ve got a good little squad here and we’ve just got to make sure we keep these wins coming. I trust the players to go out there and perform and they are doing so.”

Tuesday’s game was effectively over as a contest inside the first eight minutes – the time it took Oakley to nod home a delightful cross from the right from Max Meaton before adding a super second with a hooked goal following a succession of corners.

“It was a gruelling 90 minutes, deserved three points and another clean sheet, which is so rewarding. That’s two on the bounce now. We have prided ourselves on the fact that our defensive record is impressive in this league. We know that if we get a one or two-goal cushion that we can be hard to break down,” said the boss, whose side travel to Bedfont on Saturday to face British Airways.

Gruelling is right as the game wasn’t for the faint-hearted, with the powerhouse play of Ashley Lloyd, Jacob McDonald and Mo Sabo showing that Town can fight as well as play good football.

“The first ten minutes we were fantastic, we tried to show them how we can play football, but as the minutes ticked by it started to get more direct because of the pitch conditions and the ball was up in the air more than it was on the floor. Fleet tried to make it more physical to try to get back into the game but we were just too strong for them.”

Fleet’s Ross Cheek was stretchered off after a 20-minute delay after suffering a head injury while Town keeper Dease Kerrison was poleaxed while claiming a high ball in a game where no quarter was asked and none was given – a challenge which left Turkington deeply unimpressed.

“I have seen the video footage of Dease getting clattered and there was zero effort made to win the ball. They really have to stamp that out,” he said.

At the moment, all that is being stamped out is threats to determined Farnham’s march to promotion.