Cherrywood Road - Farnborough FC
Farnborough 2-1 Basingstoke Town
26/12/12 - Blue Square South
Att: 572
Christmas is a time for family and eating food, drinking beer and playing rubbish board games while watching another Christmas special on the telly. I've always held the opinion that the number of matches over the festive period is far too much in this country and that a winter break would be much better for fans, players and the standard of football in general. I was due to spend Boxing Day at my brother's house, therefore I wasn't going to be travelling to Birmingham to watch another Aston Villa capitulation. As luck would have it, my brother lives across the road from the home of Farnborough FC, who happened to be at home to Basingstoke. I managed to get a pass out of the house for a couple of hours and nipped over the road to take in some Blue Square South action to round off the blog for 2012 at my home-town club.
It was a thoroughly miserable day with the rain coming down and the winds picking up. For a moment I was tempted to stay on the sofa with a bottle of beer, but I felt that I had to persevere and braved the conditions. From the outside the first thing you see is the rear of the Main Stand, which also houses the main entrance to the club bar. The newly built Prospect Road End is quite imposing from the outside, although it's been under construction for around four years and still isn't open for supporters. After taking some pictures of the outside I went into the ground, with the lady on the turnstile assuring me that the pitch was still playable.
In 1968 a meeting was held with the view of establishing a football club in the town, with existing clubs Cove FC, North Farnborough FC and Farnborough FC all invited to discuss the matter. Cove and North Farnborough both opted to continue in their own guise, while Farnborough Town FC were formed with the backing of a local businessman. Queens Road was the club's first home and their first match finished in a 7-6 victory over Surbiton. After four seasons in the Surrey Senior League the club were admitted into the Spartan League, which they won four years on the bounce. Unfortunately the lack of facilities at Queens Road restricted the club's progress and by the mid-seventies the club had moved to it's current home at Cherrywood Road.
The club went from strength-to-strength and also had a remarkable record at home, putting together an unbeaten run of eighty seven matches between August 1973 and April 1977. By the mid eighties Boro were firmly established in the Isthmian League and by the end of the decade had won promotion to the Conference. They were relegated at the end of their first season at that level, but bounced straight back and in 1991/92 enjoyed one of their most successful ever seasons. In the league they finished a club record 5th place in non-league's top flight and in the FA Cup they claimed their first ever League scalp by beating Torquay United 4-3 in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Their reward was a home tie with West Ham United, which was switched to Upton Park on police advice. Boro held the Hammers to a draw and it took an 89th minute goal to win the match for West Ham in the replay.
Boro spent most of the 90's in the Conference but by 1998 the club were locked in a spiral of debt and were relegated to the Isthmian League, which was when they were taken over by Graham Westley. He invested in new players and also changed the badge and colours of the club, swapping the traditional yellow and blue for red and white stripes. In 2001 Farnborough won the league and established themselves in the Conference once more. They also made more headlines in the FA Cup in 2003 when a third round victory at Darlington lead to a fourth round tie against Arsenal. Like the West Ham tie, the match was switched to Highbury and an Arsenal team including Pires, Vieira, Parlour, Kanu and others beat a Farnborough side that had ten men for an hour 5-1.
This match proved to be the beginning of the end for the club as days afterwards Graham Westley left for Stevenage, taking most of the first team squad with him and leaving the club with no players, masses of debt and a transfer embargo. The team rallied to avoid relegation that season, but two years later they eventually went down and in the summer of 2007 Farnborough Town were liquidated, to be re-born as Farnborough FC.
Since the new club was formed the ground has seen a lot of improvement work, most noticeably at the Prospect Road End where a good sized covered seated stand has been built. There has also been cover added to the Moor Road End and new seats added to the Main Stand, as well as a new club shop built. The SWAN (Stand Without A Name, as it's known) has also been extended to go along the entire length of the pitch and has had new seats fitted. On the whole the ground is looking better than it ever has and even boasts an electric scoreboard at one end which was once used at Stoke City's Britannia Stadium.
On the pitch the new club won promotion at the first attempt, rattling in 110 goals in the Southern League South & West Division One. A play off defeat to Gloucester denied them back-to-back promotions but the following season they held off competition from Nuneaton Town to secure the league title and a return to the Blue Square South just three seasons after leaving it. In their first season back at that level they were pipped to the title by Braintree Town and after seeing off local rivals Woking in the play off semi-final they were beaten by Ebbsfleet United in front of over 4,200 fans at Cherrywood Road.
On the pitch the new club won promotion at the first attempt, rattling in 110 goals in the Southern League South & West Division One. A play off defeat to Gloucester denied them back-to-back promotions but the following season they held off competition from Nuneaton Town to secure the league title and a return to the Blue Square South just three seasons after leaving it. In their first season back at that level they were pipped to the title by Braintree Town and after seeing off local rivals Woking in the play off semi-final they were beaten by Ebbsfleet United in front of over 4,200 fans at Cherrywood Road.
Last season was a disappointing one of the club, finishing 14th place but this season has seen them start much brighter and they went into this match in 5th position against a Basingstoke side that has failed to live up to expectations so far. Last time out Boro were soundly beaten 3-0 at home by play off rivals Boreham Wood, so they would have been eager to get back to winning ways against a side that's currently involved in the relegation scrap at the bottom of the table.
There was a decent crowd inside the ground as the teams came out, helped by the fact that Basingstoke brought a reasonable amount of supporters up the M3. As the teams swapped ends before kick off the Farnborough fans followed suit, as it's one of my favourite things about non-league football I felt obliged to follow the crowd. As we walked down the side we had to walk up the steps to the back of the stand and squeeze behind a fence due to the dugouts being placed on this side of the ground, despite the fact that there are two sets of dugouts already built next to the tunnel on the other side of the pitch. I've never seen anything like it and I found it utterly bizarre. With the rain hammering down we all huddled under the shelter at the back of the terrace as the home side flew out of the traps.
Within eight minutes of the kick off Farnborough took the lead in quite comical circumstances. A free kick from the right was floated towards the back post where the Basingstoke player attempted to clear it, but ended up shinning it past his own keeper. Moments later it could have easily been 2-0 when the Farnborough striker snatched at his opportunity, however by the eleventh minute the lead was doubled when Dave Tarpey's first touch took the ball away from the defender before he smashed it into the far corner. It was one way traffic and I started to wonder how many Boro were going to score. Ashley Bayes produced a fine save moments later to prevent the scoreline growing even further, with Basingstoke only really having one noteworthy effort at goal in the first half, when a free header was put wide from a corner.
It was a much more even game in the second half as the rain eased off, leaving a very heavy pitch which meant the players struggled to produce any sort of passing football. Basingstoke began to take a foothold in the game and some good saves from the Farnborough keeper kept the visitors out. With ten minutes to go they pulled a goal back when a fantastic turn and shot from Tim Sills flew in the top corner from the edge of the box, setting up a nervy ending for the home side. Basingstoke huffed and puffed, although it was Farnborough who came closest to scoring in the closing stages when Nic Ciardini's free kick struck the outside of the post. After three minutes of added time the referee blew the whistle, much to the relief of the Farnborough fans. It was a deserved victory, although they should have been out of sight after half an hour and shouldn't have let Basingstoke back into the game.
After the match I made the short walk back to my brother's house where a cold bottle of Stella and a roast dinner was waiting. It was an enjoyable afternoon of football at a ground that has seen a lot of changes in recent years. It's a shame that the new stand is yet to be opened, as it seems wasted sitting there empty while the fans stand in the rain, or behind a pillar, looking at the empty seats. It's a club that has suffered from years of mismanagement and deserves a bit of a break - Here's hoping they can maintain their promotion push in the new year.
Welcome to Cherrywood Road
Club shop
Club history
The SWAN
Moor Road End
Main Stand
Prospect Road End
Teams line up
Panoramic view of Cherrywood Road
