Elephant In The Room

Farnham Town  4  Balham  0

Combined Counties League League – Premier Division South

Admission / Programme - £8 / £2

Farnham Town have been absolutely smashing it this season.

Playing in the Premier Division South of the Combined Counties League, they have won every league game bar three, which have been drawn. With just three games to go (at the time of writing) they have 99 points and a goal difference of +100.

Promotion was secured some time ago, to the Isthmian League, and in terms of domination of a competition, I can’t ever recall a team in a senior competition being in such a position before. I stand to be corrected, but if we take the National League System, there has been no equal in the top six steps of non-league football. It really is that impressive.

So, the elephant in the room, you don’t just assemble a squad of your typical Step 5 footballers and produce a team that steamrollers everyone in the league the way Farnham has done, you need to do a bit more than that. To be fair, Farnham have got players from Steps 4 and 3 playing for them, and there is nothing wrong with that at all, clearly the club have ambition and those players have chosen to take a step down to join a club where hopefully they will be on a journey that sees them playing back at the levels they arrived from, and possibly even surpassing them.

Of course, lets not be naïve, players of that ability don’t step down levels for those reasons alone, there has to be some financial recompense on offer to ‘facilitate’ their moves to Farnham, and it’s fair to say that while I’ve never seen or heard a figure as to what the weekly wage build might be, let’s not kid ourselves, it’s gonna be a big one!

I don’t know the ins and outs of where the money is coming from, some of it will be self generated of course, but I did hear that they have financial backing, and I do stand to be corrected here, but my understanding is it’s a consortium of You Tubers that are providing the assistance.

What the truth and the reality is, is only the business of the club and those involved with it, but, what I would say is that it’s ok having money, but you need to spend it wisely, and no one could argue that Farnham Town have not done that this season.

Let’s start with the town, this is a Surrey town that is very much commuter belt. As you drive in it exudes wealth and prosperity, in fact it’s a lovely town that ideally I wouldn’t have minded having a look around, but being mindful of the car parking situation at the ground, I chose to head straight to where the action was going to be.

The ground is located to the West of the town centre, just off the main road that heads out to the A31 by-pass. Set down a narrow lane, it’s hemmed in on three sides by housing, with the fourth side is a large memorial hall. There isn’t much space in the car park but being early I managed the get the two chaps on the gate to let me through barrier and take one of the few remaining spaces, and this was only at 1.30pm.

The clubhouse sits outside the ground and is the kind of place the serves both those going to the game, or indeed any locals who simply just want to pop in for a drink. It was a tidy venue, and on an unusually sunny and warm day, it was nice to be able to take advantage of the outdoor seating.

Once through the turnstiles you have a smart new seated stand to your left, with the dressing rooms behind, while further down beyond the stand is another new construction, this time some covered terracing. To the right of the turnstiles is a food outlet and more importantly, from a money making point of view, an outdoor bar that did a roaring trade it has to be said. 

The bulk of Farnham’s fans (495 turned up today), position themselves behind the North goal, and this is quite a quirky part of the ground. Set around a steep grass bank, the hard standing rises up gradually from one corner, reaching a high point in the opposite corner where at this stage you are quite a distance above pitch level. Set in the very middle, right behind the goal is a seated stand, while behind this are apartments that overlook the pitch. No one seemed to be watching from the apartments, and I’m not sure how happy they are to have such fine views, but in terms of standing or sitting to watch a football match as a paying spectator, the vantage point is superb. Plus, on a warm dry day, sitting / lying on a grass bank is never a bad thing!

The side opposite the turnstiles (the memorial hall side), has the dug outs, a TV gantry and a small but older area of cover. Overall though, a nice ground, a mix of the new and old, but very tidy and well looked after, money has clearly been spent, so credit to the club for not neglecting the facilities.

I have to say, the vibe around the place was very good, many of the club officials and supporters were wearing ‘Champions’ t-shirts, while the atmosphere was all very positive and jovial, but, what is the actual history of this football club?

Formed in 1906 following a merger of two sides, one being the wonderfully named Farnham Bungs, they joined the Surrey Intermediate League and then ultimately moved into the Surrey Senior League. In 1971 they joined the league that was to become the London Spartan League before transferring to the Combined Counties League in 1980.

The league title was won in both 1991 and 1992 and the second time lead to promotion to Division Three of the Isthmian League. However, they never started the campaign due to not having the funds to upgrade their ground, so it meant a season in abeyance before they re-joined the Co-Co in 1993.

Since then there have been a couple of blips whereby they’ve been relegated from the Premier Division to the First Division, but nowadays things are very much looking rosy and this time will see them actually start an Isthmian League campaign!

So how did the game against play-off chasing Balham pan out?

It felt like Farnham didn’t get out of third gear throughout the game, and they didn’t really need to if we are being truthful. Having said that, after a fairly even period of early exchanges it took a while for Farnham to get going until the impressive Shamal Edwards finally scored after 38 minutes Then just a minute later Owen Dean made it 2-0 and it was effectively game over.

Adam Liddle scored a third juts before the hour mark and the fourth goal came in added time when Dean finished coolly for his second goal.

Farnham march on, and I fully expect that they will be one of the favourites, if not the outright favourite to take the Isthmian League Division One South Central title next season, but how far they can go is an interesting debate. 

Guess it will all come down to one thing……