Another away success adds to mystery of inconsistency
"It's a mystery," said City director of football Adie Britton. "A mystery," echoed captain Gethin Jones. Even chairman Manda Rigby claimed to be dumbfounded in her best Marple-esque fashion.
The question – one that would have had even Hercule Poirot testing his little grey cells – was how could a side play like a pack of asinine animals one day yet three days later deliver a performance as sharp and zingy as a bag of lemons on Pancake Day?
"It's a mystery," repeated midfielder Marc Canham after his side banished their home defeat to Staines with victory at Farnborough. "I even knew you were going to ask me that question and I don't really know the answer.
"We didn't go out there on Saturday and try and play badly or not work hard. However, I just think the effort and energy levels were much higher today. Perhaps on Saturday we worked as individuals but tonight we worked much better as a team."
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City started as if they had just left off from their equally impressive away performance at Hayes & Yeading on January 26, with Saturday nothing more than an unfortunate dream.
It was a first-half performance that left the home side – the division's third highest goalscorers – chasing shadows.
Yet despite all of their effort City did not manage to score in the first half, coming closest when Mark Preece's header was cleared off the line by Farnborough defender Olly Treacher.
"The first half was probably the best we have played for a long while," said Canham. "We were on top of our game, we won the ball back in midfield and counter-attacked from high up the pitch."
Farnborough looked a more potent force after replacing Dave Tarpey with Elvis Hammond at the break but City kept their first clean sheet since November 17 and clinched all three points with 12 minutes to go.
A long ball was played forward for Elliott Chamberlain and he rounded keeper Jordan Clement before seeing a shot come back off the legs of defender Dean Inman. However, the ball rebounded back to the on-loan Exeter striker, who made no mistake with his second attempt.
City have now taken seven points from the last nine away from home – something of a contrast to their form at Mayday Trust Park.
"The challenge now is to put everything together and try and have some consistency," said Canham.
"I think that would please our fans more than anything."
How to do that, in the light of both good and bad recent performances, perhaps remains a mystery.
Comments
by Owlowl
Friday, February 08 2013, 8:59AM
“According to some the biggest mystery is 'Who's really managing the team?'”