FARNBOROUGH 3

DORCHESTER 2

FARNBOROUGH ended a seven-match run without a league win on Saturday while inflicting the Magpies’ fifth Skrill South defeat in a row.

Dorchester boss Phil Simkin was a lot happier with his team’s performance compared to those of recent weeks, but it was the same old story for the relegation-threatened visitors.

They did break a three-game goal drought thanks to Sam Lanahan’s first strike for the county town club and youngster Dan Munday again showed his promise with a fine effort late on.

However, while finding the net twice at the right end, Dorchester conceded three times, one an unfortunate own goal by Fraser Colmer, the other two in the space of five second-half minutes.

“We played very well and got beat 3-2,” said Simkin, whose side stay at the foot of the table. “We definitely deserved more.

“We probably had the lion’s share of the game but, yet again, we have had no luck, which is the way it seems to have been this season.

“They scored a scrappy goal 20 minutes in which came off Fraser Colmer and we had a couple of decent chances before then.

“We pulled one back about 10 minutes before half-time.

“There was good work by Charlie Losasso and Warren Byerley and it ended with Sam Lanahan scoring.

“It was pretty one-sided at the start of the second half. We bombarded them and their keeper made a world-class save then they broke away and scored.

“A shot hit the inside of the post and came out to their lad and he scored. We had to chase it a bit and they broke away and scored again.

“We got Dan Munday on and he scored a terrific solo goal, which got us back into it, but we couldn’t get a third.”

He continued: “It was an excellent performance from us but it is points we need, not performances.

“I was delighted with the performance but disappointed with the result.

“I don’t quite know what we’ve got to do to turn things around. I’m not altogether sure we can play any better than we did.

“We were extremely disa-ppointed not to get anything out of the game and anyone who watched it will say the same.

“Any neutral probably thought we were the home side. We haven’t played that well for a while.”

There had been a few half-chances at both ends before Farnborough took the lead when Colmer turned Dan Bennett’s low ball into the box past Alan Walker-Harris.

Dorchester responded by striking the woodwork and they equalised thanks to Lanahan’s strike, following some poor defending from the hosts.

A mazy run by Bennett ended with him shooting wide of the target as the sides went into the break level at 1-1.

The Magpies might have taken the lead after the interval when Nick Crittenden fired just wide and then Jamie Gleeson brought out the best in home keeper Kevin Scriven.

The next goal, or goals as it turned out, was always going to be crucial and a quickfire double from Farnborough’s new loan signing Jon Nurse and substitute Phil Page made it 3-1.

Simkin threw on Munday and Elliot Ward to try and save something from the game, and his substitutions worked when the former burst clear to cut the deficit to one.

Despite their best efforts to snatch a third, the Magpies couldn’t find a way through the Farnborough defence.

But whether the game should have gone ahead in the first place is another matter.

The pitch at Paddy Power Park got the thumbs up from the Farnborough groundsman with no official inspection deemed necessary.

And even though Simkin has had to deal with the frustration of a number of postponements lately, he felt this was one fixture that should not have taken place.

“The pitch was clearly unplayable,” he added. “It shouldn’t have gone ahead, no two ways about it.

“If it had rained once it would have been off but the rain stayed away.”

Farnborough: Scriven, Huggins, Treacher, Bosch, Inns, Doyle (Siaw 87), Bennett (Rose 89), Laidler, Sykes (Page 67), Nurse, Berry. Sub not used: Fearn

Magpies: Walker-Harris, Case, Colmer (Ward 77), Jermyn, N Walker, Smeeton, Lanahan (Munday 69), Gleeson, Crittenden, Byerley, Losasso. Subs not used: Twyford, Tennant, Brooks

Bookings: Farnborough – none

Magpies – Smeeton (foul 76) Referee: John Busby (Oxfordshire)

Attendance: 292