By John Baron
Football can be a cruel game sometimes.
On bank holiday Monday the footballing gods were smiling on Farsley Celtic fans, who celebrated a 92nd-minute Ben Atkinson winner at Warrington to snatch a 2-1 win.
Just five days later those same gods were frowning on the travelling Celt Army as a 94th-minute Alfreton free kick found the bottom corner of Farsley’s goal to inflict a smash and grab 2-1 defeat.
It was harsh – very harsh – on the village team from West Leeds. But that, as the saying goes, is football for you.
For much of the game the well-organised Celts defended heroically against Alfreton’s traditional aerial bombardment.
The Celts took the lead through Tom Allan mid-way through the second half. The hosts grew stronger as the second half progressed and equalised through Max Hunt with 14 minutes to go.
But deep into stoppage time in-form Jed Abbey fired in from a free-kick to give Alfreton all three points.
It was a game of few chances, and certainly not one for the purists. Farsley were lucky to survive on 22 minutes as Adam Lund had two efforts blocked on the edge of the area before David Moyo’s strike smashed the post.
But Farsley snatched the lead just four minutes later as Allan’s excellent strike flew past keeper George Willis to put the visitors ahead in the contest with their first attack of note.
Alfreton’s aerial blitz-like bombardment would make the Wimbledon ‘crazy gang’ sides of old blush, and while their football is not attractive to watch, it is highly effective. It will be a surprise if this well-drilled and well-run Derbyshire outfit – who, like Farsley, have a modest fanbase – aren’t pushing for the playoffs again this season.
The hosts’ per centage football dominated after the break, without really threatening Leeds United loanee Ombang in the Farsley goal until Alfreton pulled level on 76 minutes when Hunt volleyed home to make it 1-1.
The Celt Army came agonisingly close to clinching the three points themselves when substitute DJ Campton-Sturridge’s rasping effort from a threatening run at the edge of the area cannoned off the post on 88 minutes.
Three minutes into stoppage time striker Robbie Fox should have won it for Farsley. But the substitute could only fire his first time shot straight at the Alfreton goalkeeper from inside the six-yard area.
The Celts would be left to rue the miss.
Less than a minute later, the hosts countered and Rudy Misambo conceded a needless free kick on the edge of the area. Abbey hit the set-piece past a poorly set up wall and some questionable goalkeeping to gift Alfreton a late victory and leave Farsley fans wondering how their team had lost that game.
Post-match reaction
Gaffer Clayton Donaldson was left frustrated with the defeat. He said: “We’re obviously disappointed with the result. I don’t think we deserved to lose. I thought the point was the absolute least that we deserved with the way we performed.
“I thought we played well overall. Had two moments where we just switched off and it cost us. It’s hard to take because we did have chances to increase our lead in the game. We hit the post, the keeper made a couple of good saves but I think that was their only two moments out of three they had in the game.
“They bombard you with long throws and set pieces so you have to be resilient and stay focused, which we did for 80 minutes and then we switched off and we were punished.”
Despite the defeat, pitchless Farsley’s form has been good this season and they sit just outside the playoff spots on nine points, with three wins and three defeats from six tough away games.
Line up
Farsley Celtic: Ombang, Turner, Allan, Misambo, Assenso, Sloane, Greenfield (Fielding 74), Branson, B Atkinson, Stephenson (Campton-Sturridge 61), Donaldson (Fox 61).
Subs not used: Mampala, Watson.
Home comforts?
Fans will this week be hoping for some sort of clarity from the club over work on laying a new state-of-the-art pitch at the Citadel.
After the removal of the old grass pitch over a month ago work stalled due to an unspecified ‘historic’ problem at the site.
According to the most recent update issued nine days ago – chairman Paul Barthorpe had agreed terms and ‘signed off on a solution for this’ and an update on a start date had been due in the past few days.
Farsley’s first home game could be against Spennymoor on 19 October and not the Leamington game on 21 September as first planned. If the date is met, the Celts will have faced 11 straight National League North away games in a row, plus at least one FA Cup tie.
Next up
Pitchless Farsley will look to bounce back from the defeat on Tuesday evening with a trip to Southport as they face their seventh consecutive away game of the season. Kick off is 7.45pm.
Looking ahead to the game, Donaldson said: “We go again. If you’re going to lose then you want to lose playing well for the majority of the game and we did that so that’s the main positive we can take which we will do going into the next game.
“Onto Tuesday now and Southport away is a game in which we can try and put things right. We played well there last year and got a decent result [1-1] so we’ll be looking for the same again.
“We’ll obviously watch and analyse where we went wrong on Saturday but at the same time we’ll move on quickly and make sure everyone is ready for that by picking a side that can take all three points.”
Places are still available on the supporters’ club bus. Contact John Stubbs on 07904 187327.
Sponsored content
