Farnham Town 0, AC London 1

AFTER the joy of the previous week’s demolition of promotion rivals Epsom & Ewell, Farnham Town were brought back down to earth with a 1-0 defeat at home to AC London in the Combined Counties League.

The Town players, management and faithful arrived at a bitterly cold Memorial Ground on a high and looking to extend their lead at the top of the Division One table, but 90 frustrating minutes later they found themselves not only defeated but top only on goal difference.

A late date switch for this game by the league saw Town robbed of regular stopper Stuart Norman and new signing Dean Love, only signed on the eve of the game, thrown straight into the starting line-up.

Farnham started the brighter of the two teams and had two penalty appeals turned away by the referee before the first chance of the game came on five minutes when centre half Sean Evans saw his bullet header parried away by AC goalkeeper Mirande.

From this moment on, for the first half at least, it was the visitors who were in the ascendency with some crisp, pin-point passing and excellent movement leaving the Town midfield exposed time and again.

That said, chances were at a premium and it took a mistake from the aforementioned Love when clearing a ball for AC London to have their best chance which Silva fired goalward before Love redeemed himself to pull off a fine save and keep the game goalless.

Town’s best chance of the half fell to Nick Medcraft after great work from Kylo Atkinson down the right flank, although his header fell just the wrong side of the crossbar after 40 minutes.

And just four minutes later Town found themselves behind with a goal that took everybody by surprise. A seemingly innocuous cross from the left wing and was met by a relatively weak header from Gui Silva, but the ball then struck the head of Farnham’s Tom Smith before looping over the stranded Love and into the back of the net.

In truth the goal gave the visitors a lead that they fully deserved as all too often Town midfielder Jamie Phillips was finding himself isolated in midfield and it was only an accomplished defensive performance that had kept AC at bay up until that point.

Town manager Luke Turkington must have picked up on this as he made a change at half time, bringing off Muctaru Conteh and replacing him with Jordan Page. The change had an immediate impact and the home side were well on top for the second 45 minutes without ever really being able to test the away keeper, with the final ball letting down Farnham all too often.

Ryan Esprit and Nick Medcraft both had good chances but it was Kay Conteh who came closest to scoring with a header from an Atkinson free kick that came within a whisker of restoring parity.

Conteh then seemed to be fortunate avoid conceding a penalty and being sent off for what everyone in the stadium, except the referee, judged to be a foul.

The best chance of the half fell to Kylo Atkinson on 80 minutes from time when a great cross from Tom Smith found him unmarked 12 yards out in the centre of goal but his diving header ended up well wide.

The final 10 minutes of the game was a real end-to-end affair as Farnham pushed for the equaliser with AC content to soak up the pressure and then hit Farnham on the break using their undoubted pace and power, but the only chances that were created were scrappy half chances as AC London held on.

On Saturday, Farnham Town hope to return to winning ways in the chase for the one promotion spot from Division One when they host new boys Tooting Bec at the Memorial Ground (kick-off 3pm).

Farnham Town: Love, Meaton, Smith, Phillips, K Conteh, Evans, Atkinson, N Medcraft, M Conteh, Engelfield, Esprit. Subs: Flynn, Taylor, Moore, Page, Falvey.