Frimley Green 7 v 0 Bagshot

Monday 2nd April 2018
Combined Counties League Division One
Recreation Ground, Frimley Green
Admission: £6.00
Programme: £1.00
Attendance: 88
Match Rating: 3

After the fixture list was decimated by waterlogged pitches on Good Friday and Easter Saturday following prolonged heavy rain, a dry day followed on Sunday – only for heavy rain to return again overnight and into Easter Monday morning. That threw my original plans in the air, with yet again the vast majority of fixtures bring postponed.  In the end I decided to head for the certainty of a game on a plastic pitch at Bracknell Town, but I headed off early enough in the hope rather than expectation that one of the morning games in the Combined Counties in the area would somehow survive the wet weather. My preferred option of Cove (as I had only visited there previously on a non match day), did not, but this match at Frimley Green did.

The Recreation Ground is about a twenty minute walk from Farnborough North train station, and there have been no noticeable changes since my last visit just over two years ago. The 16 page programme was perfectly acceptable given the level, containing all of the necessary stats and information on both clubs.

Frimley Green came into this game in sixth place in the division, following 17 wins and six draws from their 31 league games, but a top three promotion spot is probably realistically beyond them now, seven points adrift with seven games left to play. After finishing a very respectable eighth place in their first season in senior football last season, they have struggled this season, and came into this game bottom of the table, following four wins and two draws from their 27 league games, in which they have shipped 102 goals. When the two teams met in October, Frimley Green won 0-2.

With spells of rain falling ahead of kick off and during the game, it was no surprise that the pitch was very muddy in places, and saturated in others, but the ball bounced well and there was no question the referee was right to play the game. Although Bagshot battled gamely throughout, the gulf in class was always evident, not helped by their goalkeeper putting in a less than convincing performance. With four minutes on the clock, Frimley Green took the lead, George Bowerman striking a powerful low shot inside the near post which the keeper barely reacted to. Two minutes later and a Frimley Green corner was parried high into the air by the keeper, with the ball dropping into the bar and into the danger area, but no Frimley could touch the ball home. On 26 minutes, a goalbound shot was sliced by a defender on the line onto the crossbar, but on 33 minutes the home side did double their lead. Roberto dos Santos put in a lovely cross from the left wing to the far post, from where Eddie McKinlay headed home. Frimley scored their third on 40 minutes, when Bowerman struck home low from the edge of the area, very similarly to his first goal, and within a minute he completed his hat-trick when he headed the ball home following another lovely cross from the wing.

So the game was already as good as won by half time, with the home side four goals to the good, and they added a fifth on 55 minutes, some good passing in the box resulted in McKinley, who drove the ball home. Frimley scored their sixth on 78 minutes. A low ball forward should have been cut out but Jamie Kemp ran into it down the right and to the byline, drilled through ball across the goal and a defender sliced the ball high and it dropped over the line. And a minute from time, after the visitors had managed to get in a couple of goalscoring chances, Frimley added their seventh, the ball was played low across the area to an unmarked dos Santos, who struck the ball low through the keeper's legs. They should have scored at least once more by the time the final whistle blew, and indeed could easily have reached double figures but for some good chances missed and the intensity of their play dipping for a while on the second half.