Chessington & Hook 4, Farnham Town 1

FARNHAM Town’s faltering promotion hopes were dealt a huge blow with a sobering 4-1 defeat at Chessington on Tuesday night.

The crushing loss, with Town conceding two goals in each half, follows defeat by the same scoreline against Bagshot last time out.

Ed Scurfield’s thunderous low hit in the last minute after good work from Kylo Atkinson proved nothing more than a consolation for Luke Turkington’s side, who have now lost three games in a row to lose ground on the top four in Division One of the Combined Counties League.

“We’re all just scratching our heads try to figure out what it is we’ve done differently and we can’t quite put our finger on it,” said Turkington, whose side made a flying start to the season and have been in the top five ever since with games in hand because of a raft of postponements.

“If anything we’ve enhanced the squad. The bottom line is we haven’t worked hard enough to grind out the results.

“Back-to-back heavy defeats and going from having one of the strongest defensive records in the league and throwing it away in two games means there is a serious issue there and it’s something we have to address.”

Town had conceded a miserly 14 goals in 18 games but have now shipped eight in two games against mid-table opposition.

And the only real difference between the sides at Chessington’s Chalky Lane ground on Tuesday night was that the home side’s passing and finishing was clinical, Town’s was not.

Town made a lively start, with Kylo Atkinson at the heart of most Farnham attacks, but Chessington stunned their lofty visitors in the 13th minute when good work from Ajani Laing and the impressive Kieran Campbell allowed Trey Masikini to rifle the ball past Harry Birchnall in the Town goal.

And 1-0 became 2-0 on 32 minutes when goalscorer Masikini repaid the favour and played in Campbell who slotted the ball into the bottom corner.

Then came a potential turning point in the game as Atkinson looked certain to pull a goal back on the stroke of half-time as Chessington’s big keeper Ian Hewitt got in a mess from a back pass and gifted the ball into Atkinson’s path seven yards from goal, but rather than roll the ball into the empty net with the keeper sprawled on the floor, the Town forward took an extra touch which allowed a defender time to scramble back and make a flying block near the line.

“Putting it in perspective, that would have completely changed the game. You’re 2-1 down instead of 2-0 down, you’re back in it, your tails are up and you can use that momentum to go forward in the second half.

“In the first half they had three chances and scored two goals, we had five chances and didn’t score,” mused Turkington.

And how Farnham were made to pay as Chessington, winning for the first time in six games, wrapped up the points with two goals in three minutes – the first on 58 minutes when Deji Adeosun intercepted a ball in midfield and played in Campbell for his second of the game and the second on the hour when Campbell’s clever flick left Adeosun one on one with Birchnall and he made no mistake.

“It could have been 8-5. We clearly had our chances. When they had one on ones they were clinical, they buried all three of them. But that’s football, you have to roll with the punches and get on with it,” said Turkington.

“We haven’t been in a position like this before so it’s going to test us as well, test our character and see what we’re about.

“But the reality is that if you can’t beat the middle of the road teams then how do you expect to beat the teams in the top half.

“We will always fight to the end but after Tuesday night it’s now out of our hands. It was always in our hands, it was our destiny. That’s the real issue I had from Tuesday. We’ve lost, every team loses, but it’s now out of our hands.”

Town are without a game on Saturday because of AC London’s expulsion from the league and return to action at the Memorial Ground next Tuesday with a Surrey Premier Cup quarter-final against Lingfield, who are sixth in the Premier Division of the Southern Combination League – one division higher than Town.

“We’ve got a cup quarter-final on Tuesday night at home and, effectively, if we come out of that you are looking down the barrel and saying it could be game over for the season,” said Turkington.

“But there will be more twists and turns in the coming weeks of the season. We’ve just got to believe we can still get there and fight for every point. It’s never over until it’s over and we’ll keep going until the bitter end.”

Farnham Town: Birchnall, Meaton, Smith, Harper, K Conteh (Gillett 61), Oakley, Atkinson, Page (Nash 73), Horwood (Taylor 61), Glass, Scurfield. Subs (not used): Cardona, N Medcraft.