By James Gray
DORCHESTER TOWN 1
Parker 8
FARNHAM TOWN 3
Stepney 24, Leggett 51, Obi 90+2
Dorchester Town's winless start to the season continued on Monday as ten-man Farnham Town came away with a 3-1 victory at the Avenue Stadium.
Defeat for the Magpies ensured a thoroughly miserable pair of results across the bank holiday weekend, following a 1-0 loss away to Berkhamsted on Saturday.
Dorchester boss Tom Killick made three changes to the side that started the defeat in Hertfordshire.
In came Ollie Haste, Matt Buse and Wayne Robinson, with Luke Pardoe and Charlie Wooding dropping to the bench. There was no place altogether in the matchday squad for Luke Roberts.
It took Dorchester less than ten minutes to take the lead, when Joe Parker charged down Farnham goalkeeper Zaki Oualah's clearance and kept his composure to slot home for 1-0.
The goal sparked the away side into life as Farnham responded with several near efforts on the Dorchester goal - the closest of which fell to Darryl Sanders, but he could only drag his effort narrowly wide of Josey Casa-Grande's right-hand post.
Farnham, who looked particularly dangerous from set-pieces early on, continued their search for an equaliser, forcing a pair of corners from which the latter would ultimately prove Dorchester's undoing.
The lively Bobby-Joe Taylor whipped in a wicked delivery onto the head of defender Jordan Stepney, who, from six-yards out, made no mistake and powered an effort home to bring the scores level.
Dorchester responded in positive fashion, with Robinson driving an effort just wide of the mark in the 30th minute, before Parker shot straight at Oualah shortly afterwards.
In the 43rd minute, the Magpies thought they had retaken the lead, only for Robinson's close-range effort to be ruled out by referee Carl Peters, owing to a foul committed earlier in the build-up.
Dorchester's bench were left further frustrated in first-half added time when a second Magpies goal was chalked off for offside. This time Haste was the unlucky man to be denied, with his back-post header ruled out by the linesman.
Halftime arrived soon afterwards, with both sides locked at 1-1 and having played their part in what had been an entertaining opening 45 minutes.
When the action resumed, it was Farnham's turn to take a prompt lead courtesy of a scything counter-attack. Taylor drove forward from his own half before sliding a pass through to the left-hand side of the Dorchester box, where Tom Leggett was on hand to bury a low shot in off the far post and hand Farnham a 2-1 lead.
But any early momentum generated by the away side was soon dealt a significant blow when striker Adam Liddle was sent off for a second bookable offence.
Dorchester proceeded to dominate much of the possession, but struggled to breakdown a resilient Farnham defence, with Will Spetch's low header in the 70th minute the closest the Magpies came to finding an equaliser.
Farnham introduced striker Ogo Obi with ten minutes of normal time left to play and it was the Town's number eleven who would prove decisive in the closing stages of the match.
As Dorchester committed more players forward, spaces began to open up in defence, and, in the 90th minute, Farnham nearly wrapped up the match. A long ball found Obi in the Dorchester half and he powered towards goal only to be thwarted by the efforts of Casa-Grande.
Minutes later, however, the ball again found its way to the feet of Obi and this time the striker made no mistake, rounding the onrushing Casa-Grande before calmly finishing into the bottom left-hand corner to ensure all three points headed back to Surrey.
The result leaves Dorchester 21st in the Southern League Premier South standings, whilst Farnham rise to second.
Magpies: Casa-Grande, Dickson, Spetch, Wright (Genesini 78), Robinson (Pitman 82), Buse (Wooding 61), Moore, Haste, Fogden, Smith (Pardoe 71), Parker. Subs not used: Hutchinson
Farnham: Oualah, Jackson, J. Dean, Stepney, Mason, Leggett, Mackenzie (Uche 80), Sanders (Purcell 62), Taylor, O. Dean (Obi 80), Liddle. Subs not used: Evans