It’s not everyday a Step 5 Combined Counties League side hits 14 goals past a Vanarama National League South club.
Possibly not ever, but that’s exactly what happened when Tadley Calleva travelled to Farnborough for a Hampshire Senior Cup tie on Tuesday night.
Tadley have enjoyed a strong start to the season but to suggest a shellacking of a team three divisions higher was on the cards, well that is absurd right?
That is of course until you dig a little deeper. Farnborough fielded a team of fringe players – nothing unusual there, players coming back from injury, fans and their media manager.
The club continue to protest against their disqualification from the competiton two seasons ago after beating AFC Porchester 8-0. The match was played two month after the original fixture was due to be played and Boro fell foul of player eligibility rules.
At the time, Farnborough manager Spencer Day said the rules his side were being held to were a ‘grey area’ and his club had always taken the competition seriously when others hadn’t.
Whichever side of this you are on, Tadley Calleva advance, to the outside world Farnborough look a bit of a joke but to their own fans a siege mentality prevails – ‘you realise we wanted to lose’, said one.
Hopefully Tadley will progress to the latter stages as they did last season and pick-up another plumb tie against an AFC Bournemouth, Portsmouth or Southampton.
And perhaps next season if Farnborough continue their protest, they’ll consider not charging fans £10 for the pleasure.
