Farnham Town manager Paul Johnson was pleased with his side’s performance after they thrashed Alton 6-1 in the A31 derby on Friday night – although he did see room for improvement on their second-half display.
Town took the lead on five minutes when Adam Liddle’s header was parried by Alton keeper Lewis Mees to Charlie Postance, who tapped home from close range in front of a bumper crowd of 952 at The Memorial Ground.
An unmarked Lewis Flatman doubled Farnham’s advantage on ten minutes when he headed from from Darryl Sanders’ cross.
Sanders scored the third in the 24th minute when he curled his shot into the far corner, and Postance made it 4-0 before half-time when he latched on to a long ball and slotted his finish under Mees in the 43rd minute.
Shamal Edwards scored Farnham’s fifth on 58 minutes when he cut in from the left and drilled his right-foot finish into the bottom corner, and Owen Dean made it 6-0 in the 82nd minute with a superb solo run and finish.
Ed Dryden pulled a goal back for Alton from a corner on 86 minutes, but the visitors were reduced to ten men when Jamie Hoppitt was sent off for a second bookable offence on 88 minutes.
“It was a pleasing night,” said Johnson. “Credit to Alton – for the first ten to 15 minutes they matched up to what we did and stifled it a little bit.
“We scored two in ten minutes sort of against the run of play, but after that the quality shone through and we ran out comfortable winners in the end. The game was done after 25 minutes.
“The substitutes came on and tried to make an impact. A couple did but the game petered out – which was a shame because we had 400 or so behind the goal and we didn’t really give them enough to cheer about in the second half like we did in the first.
“We’re a little bit disappointed to concede a goal – but that’s the standards we’re setting. You’ve got to drive those standards. We drive them so we don’t fall short.
“It’s been a big couple of weeks for Charlie. It was a tough decision on who to go with up top – whether it be Owen, Shamal or Charlie. We just thought with it being a derby to put the big man up there and let him compete – and he’s got two goals. The second goal from Lewis was a well-worked goal, and Darryl’s goal was the icing on the cake.
“Shamal came on and straight away was a threat – and got his goal within five minutes of being on. The other substitutes grew into it. Owen didn’t really get any service, but the moment he picks the ball up from 25 yards and drives at you – he did it constantly last season and has done it this season – and he capped it off with a good goal.”