Michael Bakare scored his first goal for City as his team rattled in three at Farnborough and put themselves in the Blue Square Bet South top five in the process, Cliff Akurang and Kezie Ibe converting the others as Glenn Pennyfather’s team extended their unbeaten run to 13 games.

 

Despite a long trip to beat Gloucester City in the FA Cup in midweek, the Clarets showed sufficient energy to prevail at The Rushmoor Stadium even if Reece Connolly had levelled earlier on and Stuart Searle saved a late penalty. Glenn reacted: “Michael looked lively when he came on and it was nice for him to get his first goal for us today. He’ll start to settle down now and will show us all the quality he has.”

 

Chelmsford are now in fifth place, keeping pressure on a well-placed top four, but the City boss remained unconcerned with the challenge of gaining ground, adding: “We’ve been there before and now we’re chasing - I have no problem with that. The teams above us know there’s a very, very long way to go yet and we’re on a great run, so if any of them slip-up we want to be there ready to take advantage.”

 

Unchanged Chelmsford sprinted into the lead inside the first 2 minutes when some tidy work from Warren Whitely on the right-hand side saw him float a delivery across to Akurang, who was unmarked at the far post to head beyond Farnborough goalkeeper Nikodin Matic. That’s the way it stayed until a decent 30th-minute move from the hosts saw a Tony Garrod effort saved and Connolly bagged the rebound.

 

Apart from a few slight openings neither side looked much like adding to their tally, with the hosts shading the first half and going very close moments before the interval when the Clarets’ defence had to clear. Glenn explained: “We looked leggy after Tuesday and weren’t playing at our normal pace, so I was pleased for half time to arrive so I could reorganise. We corrected our shape and were comfortable after that.”

 

The second period was certainly more productive for the visitors and they were able to regain their advantage on 52 minutes. Some neat passing involving central midfielder Sam Corcoran saw him thread the ball into the box where Warren Whitely helped the ball onto Ibe and he finished well against his former club.

 

Ibe made way for new striker Bakare shortly afterwards and his impact was swift as he registered his first goal for City to give Glenn’s team some breathing space, lashing the ball into the net from close range in the 60th minute. The Hampshire club could have reduced the arrears when Aiden Palmer was adjudged to have handballed but ‘keeper Stuart Searle proved equal to Garrod’s penalty with a brilliant diving save.

 

“We’d started well in the first ten minutes and had an opportunity to make it 2-0,” Glenn summarised, “but then seemed to move down the gears. It was a lot better after half time and we fully deserved the points. That wasn’t a stellar performance by any means, but it won’t always be pretty and Farnborough were a full time side looking to arrest a dreadful slide. These were very pleasing points considering the circumstances.”

 

City:

 

1 Stuart Searle

2 Ben Nunn

3 Aiden Palmer

4 Adam Tann (C)

5 Kenny Clark

6 Warren Whitely

7 Ricky Modeste

8 Sam Corcoran

9 Kezie Ibe

10 Max Cornhill

11 Cliff Akurang

 

12 Michael Bakare (On for Ibe, 54)

14 Joe Benjamin (On for Whitely, 74)

15 Jermaine Brown

16 Mark Haines

17 David Rainford

 

Farnborough: Nikodin Matic, Nathan Webb, Ryan Blake, Philip Appiah, Jack Holland (Esmond James, 77), Douglas Bergqvist, Tommy Murphy, Ashley Winn (C), Tony Garrod (Jordan Merriman, 85), Callum Cobb (Josh Pearson, 61), Reece Connolly. Unused Substitutes: Kevin Asare-Addai, Jake Somerville (GK).

 

Bookings: City: Whitely (9, foul). Farnborough: Bergqvist (35, foul).

 

Referee: Daniel Cook (Gosport).

 

Assistant Referees: Maurice Taylor (Southampton) and Sam Purkiss (London).

 

Attendance: 505.

 

City Man of the Match: Aiden Palmer.