Saturday saw the latest PO derby for Moneys as they headed 1 junction up the M27 to the Cams Alders Stadium to face former Wessex Premier League counterparts, Fareham Town. Callum Glen had some changes to make to the line-up for the first time in 3 games as Lawrence Cooper replaced the injured James Franklyn, Adam Payce was a late replacement for Max Smith who was nursing a slight knock, and Jack Lumsden came in for Simba Mlambo.

Moneys started the game brightly despite the challenging conditions as the wind whipped up across the Cams Alders. Lawrence Cooper came closest just inside 20 minutes as he shot from outside the box, but it was saved well by Fareham’s new temporary goalkeeper in Charlie Searle.

Just a couple of minutes later though and Moneys did take the lead. Faris Khallouqi broke into the box and shot low across the keeper into the bottom left hand corner. It was Faris’ 5th goal in just 4 games and his 8th goal of the season so far.

On 34 minutes, Fareham managed to equalise. Sam Paul crossed the ball into the box and Josh Benfield was there to head the ball into the net for ‘the Creeksiders’.

Not long after Fareham scored, Moneys were forced into an early substitute as Lawrence Cooper hobbled off with a knee injury, to be replaced by a returning Rudi Blankson.

In the final minutes of the first half, Fareham were reduced to 10 men as goalscorer Josh Benfield was adjudged to have committed some serious foul play with a high boot on Moneys captain Tom Cain. The referee its safe to say had a chaotic few minutes as a result on his hands. Fareham wanted to make a sub to adjust their setup following the red, of which the referee didn’t realise and allowed play to continue, despite the linesman being in the middle of substitute duties on the side-lines. All of this lead to Fareham club captain Dan Bennett being shown a red card as the half time whistle went, presumably for something he said in the direction of the officials.

Half Time – Fareham Town 1-1 Moneyfields

Early in the second half a couple of switches were made in an attempt to liven up the game as Kieran Alcock came on for Louis Gates, followed by Jordan Pile for Tom Jeffes a few minutes later.

After 72 minutes, Rudi was shown a yellow card for a very soft foul in Fareham’s box that from behind the goal actually looked like a potential penalty. Rudi positioned himself between the ball and the Fareham defender, so as the Fareham player tried to clear the ball, he kicked through Blankson, but the referee saw it as Rudi standing on the defender. One I’d like to see back on the veo for sure. Moments later, Max Smith was brought on for Jack Lumsden.

Just after 80 minutes Harry Close came on for Adam Payce and on 90 minutes Tom Cain was shown a yellow card for descent for his protestations towards the referee for what he deemed to not be a foul as Moneys desperately sought after a late winner.

2 minutes into added time, Moneys thought they had won it. Jordan Pile struck a shot into the deck from outside the box and its awkward bounce had Fareham defenders trying their best to block it, but all it did was deflect it past the keeper and into the net. Massive credit to Kieran Alcock as his initial cross which was cleared to JP, was the result of him driving forward with the ball from deep inside the Moneys defensive half, right the way down the pitch.

But barely 2 minutes more had gone and Fareham re-levelled the game. They broke along the right wing and crossed into the box where Sam Paul had a first shot saved amazingly well by Malachi Osei-Owusu, only for the rebound to be put into the goal to make it honours even.

A frantic game that felt more like a cup-tie at times with its end to end play, but a draw was probably the right result all told. Fareham didn’t look like a team bottom of the league, but Moneys weren’t quite the same goalscoring and chance creating selves that they have been recently. The point left Fareham still bottom and Moneys slipped to 4th in the league table.

Full Time – Fareham Town 2-2 Moneyfields