Decided to take the train to Farnborough and walk to North End's ground which looked like a reasonable hour's stroll from the station from the maps I printed off Google and the club's website. It was a nice sunny day but about half an hour in I found myself scratching my head trying to work out where the ground was as the recommended road was now closed and turfed over. A car pulled over and I was asked if I knew where the ground was. It was three of Bemerton's commitee men and after comparing notes, they kindly offered me a lift to the ground. Luckily for us a sign appeared at a nearby roundabout that guided us through a maze of roads to the ground. I think it would have taken me another 10 minutes to find that sign and probably another 30 minutes to navigate the maze of roads so the lift was much appreciated.
When we arrived at the ground, the Farnborough players had finished warming up and were posing for their official club photo before disappearing to the changing rooms adjacent to the pitch for some last minute instructions. Before the game, both sets of players shook hands as part of the FA Respect campaign. Bemerton were wearing their change kit of orange with Ian Chalk's company logo - I'm sure Alan would be queuing up to buy one of these garments.
Bemerton started brightly and made a few chances but their corners and free-kicks lacked purpose and poor delivery let them down. The best of their chances were a header straight to the keeper and a shot that struck the side netting.
Farnborough had a couple of pacy strikers and made some good breakaway chances. They should have taken the lead on the 37th minute when a cross found an unmarked player in the box. With the goal at his mercy he headed down into the ground, wide of both the post and his oncoming teammate's boot sliding in to try and get to it. Two minutes later Bemerton had a decent penalty shout - Joe Sanger ran across the keeper with the ball and was tripped up but the referee didn't agree that the keeper had made contact.
Farnborough started the second half well. An early cross looked promising but managed to evade everyone in the box. In the 49th minute they came close to scoring - a long ball was headed backwards, over the keeper and onto the crossbar.
These close misses galvanized Bemerton. From a throw in just in front of me, the ball was played into the box and won by a Bemerton player who carefully chipped the ball past the keeper and into the net.
Four minutes later and Bemerton doubled their lead with a diving header connecting with a cross with pace to make it 2.0. I wasn't sure that the try and remove my shorts celebration would catch on mind!
The home side didn't give up hope and on 80 minutes had a glorious chance to get a goal back. Their no 9 was lucky to be on the pitch after asking the referee to book a Bemerton player and then pushing the referee when it wasn't given. He took the ball in the area, turned and hit a shot against the post. He had another chance right on 90 minutes but shot wide. While Farnborough would rue their early miss, Bemerton were through to the first round proper.
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