Godalming Town 1, Farnham Town 6

IF you were ever in any doubt as to what a strange game football can be sometimes, you only need look at Farnham Town’s last two games against Godalming Town.

A week last Tuesday, Farnham headed to the Bill Kyte Stadium full of confidence on the back of five successive wins – only to get thumped 5-2 on the 3G pitch to be unceremoniously dumped out of the Esoteric Recordings Division One Challenge Cup, a trophy they must surely have harboured high hopes of winning given their lofty league position.

Wind the clock on seven days, and the two teams met again – with boss Luke Turkington’s Farnham trouncing Godalming 6-1 to march into the second round of the Aldershot Senior Cup and a curious tie against Isthmian League side Westfield.

“It was a much better response,” said Turkington. “It literally was a case of what they did to us last week, we did to them this week. We returned the favour, it was a very good performance.”

Tuesday night’s cup win, which came courtesy of goals from six different scorers – Mo Sabo, Karma Thomas, Rowan Sharratt and a Jacob McDonald penalty in the first half and Harry Oakley and Luke Whiddett in the second – came on the back of a somewhat disappointing 1-1 draw with Spanish side FC Deportivo Galicia at a soggy Memorial Ground in the league on Saturday.

While midfielder Joe Sowden’s thumping drive after excellent work from roving full back Tom Smith on the left was able to cancel out Deportivo’s opener in the rain and extend Farnham’s unbeaten league run to eight games, it failed to ease Turkington’s fears of his side’s ability to raise their game against the teams hovering around the wrong end of the table.

A 7-0 demolition of Cove and a battling 3-1 at Fleet Spurs certainly suggest Farnham are a different beast these days, but a degree of doubt still remains.

“It was a lack of respect last week (against Godalming),” said Turkington, who was forced to miss only his second game in five years as a manager last Saturday.

“Too many times people can switch off because they’ve seen the league table and they read too much into that. We switch off when we look at the table and see our opponents are down the bottom and that’s been apparent for the last two games. Credit to the other teams for coming at us but I think it’s a lack of respect and we need to change our mentality very quickly if we want to progress to the next league.”

Arguably the most frustrating thing about Saturday’s draw was Town’s inability to find a second goal despite playing ten men for the last half an hour or so after Xavi Perez was sent off for a second yellow card after a crude challenge on the industrious Kye Nash, who stood out with a lively display despite a playing surface which began to cut up with the incessant rain.

And it could have been worse for Farnham but for two excellent saves from in-form goalkeeper Dease Kerrison, especially one at the death as Deportivo hunted a surprise win.

Tuesday night’s big cup win was the perfect antidote to two points being dropped in the league on Saturday as Town face another of those emminently winnable but no less tricky games against near neighbours Ash United back at the Memorial Ground on Saturday.

“It’s a local derby so we are going to have to be on our toes and we will respect them but we won’t fear them and we’ll be trying to get the three points,” said Turkington.

A bigger threat to the boss’ plans to pick up those three points to keep the pressure on the runaway Jersey Bulls at the top of the table may come from the heavens, with the worrying forecast of yet more rain already creating some concern as to the state of the susceptible Memorial Ground pitch.

“I hope it’s on because you’re only as good as your last game and I want to get these games out of the way before they start clogging up the fixture list in February and March,” said Turkington.

“It wasn’t the result we wanted against Deportivo but it hasn’t really knocked our league position, so we will learn from that and move on to the next game, and I’m hoping on Saturday we can have a repeat of what we had on Tuesday night.”