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Non-league Farnham’s 25-game winning streak ends
Farnham Town’s 25-game winning streak at the start of the Combined Counties Premier Division South season came to an end in a 0-0 draw with KnaphillA ninth-tier football club’s record-breaking winning run – which had rivalled the best teams in Europe – has ended after 26 games.Non-league Farnham Town had won their opening 25 matches…
A ninth-tier football club’s record-breaking winning run – which had rivalled the best teams in Europe – has ended after 26 games.
Non-league Farnham Town had won their opening 25 matches to top the table in a blistering start to their Combined Counties Premier Division South season.
But the streak finally came to an end with a 0-0 draw at Knaphill on Tuesday.
It is believed to be the longest ever winning run from the start of a league season in British football history.
Even Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven have drawn four and three games respectively in their so-far undefeated league seasons.
“Looking at it now, it was an impossible dream,” said Farnham manager Paul Johnson.
“When we look at it, it’s never been about winning every game, to do that would have been something special.”
They finally came unstuck against Knaphill, who sit second in the table – nine points behind, having played five games more.
Farnham’s task was made harder as early as the eighth minute, when they were reduced to 10 players with Jack Dean’s red card.
Like many teams across English football’s pyramid they have had the wet and miserable weather to contend with, on top of being the side every team in the league wants to beat.
Johnson said his team will likely now play matches on Tuesdays, Saturdays – and at least one on a Thursday – in an effort to fit the games in before the end of the season.
The Football Association has written to clubs in step five informing them there will be no extension to the season, which is due to end on Saturday, 27 April.
‘The bubble has burst’
Johnson hoped the pressure would be lifted off his team after their 100% winning run had come to an end.
“I think once we get the next couple of days out of the way and turn our focus to Croydon [Athletic, Farnham’s next opponent on Saturday] it’s going to be more of a relief.
“The bubble has burst a bit in trying to break that record, and hopefully teams won’t come with as much enthusiasm as they have done over the last few weeks.
“If we stay unbeaten then great but if we don’t, the aim has always been to win the league.”
Farnham will achieve that goal by securing another 13 points from their final 12 matches, though realistically they only need four wins with their vastly superior goal difference.
They have let in a total of 12 goals while scoring 90, and have only conceded more than one goal in a game on two occasions – in 3-2 wins at Sandhurst Town and at home to Spelthorne Sports.
Farnham’s success this season has been part of a drive to push the club up the leagues, following significant investment in the past 18 months, with many players brought in from clubs higher up the pyramid.
If they were to win the rest of their matches they would finish with 112 points – 24 more than any other team’s highest possible total.
“It’s disappointing it’s [the winning run] come to an end but it’s going to be something we can reflect back on as a great achievement as a group,” captain Ryan Kinnane, 29, said.
Farnham’s record-breaking run
To say definitively that Farnham’s start to the season is the best in British history is complex due to the huge number of leagues there are, and have been.
However, football historian Phil Annets, writer of the FA Cup and FA Vase Factfiles, and author of FA Cup 150, believes it is likely to be the case.
His database, which holds records of about 36,000 clubs – dating back to the creation of most leagues – shows Amersham Town won every game bar one in the Hellenic League in 1962-63, though it is not clear at what point their solitary defeat arrived.
An honourable mention must also go to Jersey Bulls, who are third in the league behind Farnham.
The Bulls won their first 27 games of the Combined Counties Division One 2019-20 season before it was abandoned because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ unforgettably went 49 Premier League games, and the entire 2003-04 league season, undefeated.
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