Following a 1-1 draw in Gloucestershire, Farnham Town turned hosts for an FA Cup Second Qualifying Round replay against Cirencester. However, on the day, a 2-1 victory, for the visitors, through two by Harlie Price, saw The Town’s cup journey come to an end.
Darryl Sanders had the first major chance to put Farnham ahead. To the left of the 18-yard box, he opted for a long-range effort with the aim of finding the bottom-left corner, but couldn’t get the direction, and it went out for a goal kick.
Sanders did eventually find the opener thanks to Bobby-Joe Taylor drawing out Connor Johns past his left-side post before a pass across the goal left Sanders with an open goal, which he found to give the hosts the lead.
Farnham almost got an accidental second when Mat Mackenzie’s cross from the left wing didn’t find one of his teammates but forced Johns to go off his feet to make sure it didn’t dip underneath the bar. Lucky for the Cirencester keeper, it was the bar that was hit.
Sanders was involved again as he picked up a misplaced pass and played in Owen Dean, who was then one-on-one with Johns, but an intervention from a visiting defender changed the trajectory of the ball as it hit the post.
The equaliser arrived in the second half when Jamol Dare was able to bypass the Farnham defence, which forced Michael Eacott to come out. Eacott timed his dive brilliantly to deny Dare, but it came back to Price, who, from within the D, found the back of the net.
Farnham threatened to take the lead back after Rakish Bingham got a ball through to Owen Dean, who beat the offside trap. Dean then tried to backheel to Taylor but was intercepted, and the move ended with Sanders firing high over the bar.
Sanders had a golden opportunity to get his and his side’s second after linking up with Billy Clifford inside the box. Sanders received the ball on the left side and had a clear line of sight to the opposite bottom corner. He was very unlucky to see it come off the post yet again.
A double did arrive, but it was for Price and Cirencester. He got his first-time effort through the legs of his man, which seemed to leave Eacott unsighted as the ball swung past him into the bottom corner.
Once again, the post cruelly denied Farnham a way back into the game when it was the recipient of a flick-on from a throw-in, which took it beyond the incoming Owen Dean.
The full-time whistle then went to end Farnham’s FA Cup journey there, but there was a lot of luck that didn’t go the way of The Town, and for the moment, the posts at the Memorial Ground will not be in the good books.
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