Welcome to Through the Turnstile, this series of features are intended to shine the light on some of non-leagues leading stars. This time we are venturing through the turnstile looking at Farnham Town. A club that were promoted into the South Central division they are now pushing for a second promotion in 2 years, along with their success on the pitch they have also been making some incredible strides off the pitch and are definitely a club in which many others could draw ideas from. Fans are put at the front of every decision and although Chairman Harry Hugo has openly admitted he wants to run the club like a business, it is for the right reasons, making sure the club offer the best product for the best price – a win win for everyone. I am really excited to dive into this one for you guys, buckle up lets get stuck in!
A brief history of the Club
The club was established in 1906 as a merger of Farnham Bungs and Farnham Star.They became members of the Surrey Intermediate League, and were champions in 1929–30 and 1930–31. The club won the Surrey Junior Cup in 1945–46,and in 1947 they joined the Surrey Senior League.In 1962 they left the league, but they returned in 1963.They went on to win three successive league titles in 1965–66, 1966–67 and 1967–68 and were runners-up in 1969–70 and 1970–71,before joining the Spartan League in 1971.When the league merged with the Metropolitan–London League to form the London Spartan League in 1975, the club were placed in Division One, which became the Premier Division in 1977.
After finishing bottom of the London Spartan Premier Division in 1979–80, Farnham transferred to the Combined Counties League. The 1981–82 season saw them play in the Western Division as the league was temporarily split into two divisions, before reverting to a single division the following season.They were runners-up in 1986–87 and went on to win the league in 1990–91. The following season saw them retain the league title, as well as winning the Premier Challenge Cup and the Elite Cup.They were subsequently promoted to Division Three of the Isthmian League but resigned from the league prior to the start of the 1992–93 season as they were unable to raise the money needed to upgrade the Memorial Ground and were too late to rejoin the Combined Counties League until the following season.
Farnham won the Premier Challenge Cup for a second time in 1995–96.When the Combined Counties League gained a second division in 2003, they became members of the Premier Division. However, they were relegated to Division One after finishing bottom of the Premier Division in 2005–06. They won Division One at the first attempt, but were not promoted due to ground grading issues,and remained in the division until they finished as runners-up in 2010–11, after which they were promoted back to the Premier Division.The club won the Challenge Cup again in 2015–16.In 2017–18 they finished bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. In 2021 the club were promoted to the Premier Division South based on their results in the abandoned 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons. In 2022–23 they won the Southern Combination Challenge Cup, beating Balham 3–2 after extra time in the final.
The 2023–24 season saw Farnham Town win the Premier Division South title,earning promotion to the South Central Division of the Isthmian League. The real question is, will the 2024-2025 season see another promotion for Farnham Town?
(Source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnham_Town_F.C.)
Club legends (as told by fan Nick Sims)
I think first off would have to be Owen Dean, he is a someone that came through our youth after poaching him from local rivals baggy lea but has transitioned to the first team at 18-19 years old and he scored the 2 goals in the cup final against Balham that helped bring Farnham our first bit of silverware in god knows how many years so a bit of history made at such a young age and for me considered a club legend already at such a young age.
I think the other I would mention as a club legend would be Max Meaton he is now into his 10th year at the club I believe which is incredible in non-league football with the amount of ins and outs and has always been a consistent performer. Not to mention he scored the goal that secured Farnham the league title last season so again another bit of history and for me can defo be considered a club legend.
Kit
2024/2025 Replica Kit – £45
https://shop.ftfconline.com/products/farnham-town-24-25-home-shirt
Stadium info
The Memorial Ground (GU9 7XW)
Capacity – 1500 ( 100 💺)
Number of stands – 3
Grass Pitch
Entry Price
Season ticket prices
Adults – £140
Concessions – £95
Entry into all Farnham Town Men’s and Women’s first-team, as well as all under-18s, home league fixtures for the 2024/25 season.
Matchday Programme
Printed – £2 each and consists of 48 page
Stadium Shop
The pitchside and online club shop offer some items you would expect to find, the branded pin badges, beanie hats, scarves and the like. But they also now offer some high quality hoodies from their own ‘Castle Range’ (as shown in the image below)
Itssssss pin badge corner…
Price – £3
Special mention – Ground Improvements
Now a special mention needs to go out to the club hierarchy who are implementing some monumental changes within the stadium in order to bring the best offering to their fans.
The clock end was a previously well used elevated vantage point where you can find a hotbed of fans watching the game for the simple reason (As you can see below) it provided an unparalleled view of the pitch.
Now unfortunately as the club are operating at Step 4 level, this area needed to be cordoned off due to safety concerns and to comply with health and safety regulations. It is for this reason the club launched the campaign “Reclaim the Clock End”.
As part of this project the club were looking to raise £25,000 through fan donaitons, which if they hit they would match fund it with £25,000 of the clubs money to fund the wider project. As a reward for any donation the club were offering the following:
£50 or more – You will have your name etched into a brick used to build the new Clock End Terrace
£100 or more – The above, plus a limited edition scarf made available exclusively to #ReclaimTheClockEnd supporters and you will feature on in our matchday programme as a ‘Clock End Partner’
£1,000 or more – The above, plus a 10-year season ticket (valid until 2035) to Farnham Town FC, eligible for both our Men’s and Women’s First Teams and U18s.
£2,500 or more – The above, plus full pitch hire at The Memorial Ground to conduct a post-season match on a day of your choice, with a staffed bar after the game for you and your friends to enjoy
£10,000 or more – The above, plus exclusive naming rights for the Clock End Terrace for the first three seasons after it’s completed
Now since the launch of this GoFundMe, via a mixture of fan donations and two large private donations, the club has met its target (and a little more) at £27,000 which is enough for them to start the ball rolling on the next steps, very very exciting times and one I will be keeping an eagle eye on.
Reclaim the clock end!!!
Drinks
Wow.
What a beautiful Clubhouse and also a lovely space outside of it to match. The photos below really do highlight just how lovely an area it is, especially during those warmer days.
I think it could well be the most appealing clubhouse covered on the site so far to date.
Picking up a drink either here or at the small shed bar areas around the the pitch on a matchday is an option, so there is no need to be dehyrated when watching the game.
Food
Food is something you do not have to worry about if you attend a game at Farnham Town…Burgers, Chips, Cheesey Chips, Loaded Fries, Hog Roast Baps, Chocolate Brownies, Donughts and so much more!
The epitome of why Non-league football really does offer value for money when it comes to what you can get to eat at a ground, some amazing options to choose from!
The Fab 4 – League Tables
Now lets dive into the league table I know you all care about, the Fab 4!
3/4 entries into the Fab 4 league tables, incredible value for money for anyone looking for a pint of beer on a matchday as that takes 3rd spot on the table!
They do miss out on the league table for you Cider drinkers but have no fear as with their burger and chips being priced at just £5.95 you can simply enjoy having a bite to eat instead!
Top 3 current players (as told by fan Spencer Barnett)
Harry Cooksley, Daryl Saunders & Ryan Kinane
First player on my top list is Harry Cooksley as he has produced some amazing winning goals when we have needed them.
Next I think will need to be Daryl Saunders. His skill with the ball and how he can read the game is unreal!
Finally I think it has to be our captain Ryan Kinane. His leadership and defensive skills have helped us keep so many clean sheats over the last few seasons.
Press Play!
Now there are many reasons why Farnham Town were nominated in the 2024 Non-league club of the year and for me at least one of these reasons is the clubs video offering, their series ‘Non League Diaries’, which takes its inspiration from Amazon Primes All or Nothing, a weekly behind the scenes video. The series is now in its 3rd year and really does offer a warts and all view of the club and everything which is going on outside of just the regular matchday.
If you like those kind of fly-on-the wall video series I highly reccomend ‘Non League Diaries’ to you, each episode is a real eye-opener and genuinely really interesting watch.
Views from the Staff
Q) What is it like to have a career in football?
Having a career in football is honestly the dream, I always joke with my friends that I’ve never worked a day in my life because it’s been my biggest passion and hobby since I can remember. So to be able to live it day to day is unreal because I’ve never had a day where I’ve dreaded having to do something.
Q) Did you always want to work in non league football and was Farnham your 1st choice or has it become your 1st choice since working there?
So funnily enough I stumbled across Non-League while at uni studying Sports Journalism. We got an email through saying Guernsey FC were looking for a commentator for a one-off match and I just jumped at the opportunity. They must’ve liked my work and offered me the chance to do it regularly. So my usual Saturdays watching Chelsea completely flipped but I loved it.
I spent a season and a half at Guernsey FC until I graduated from uni and walked away with nothing but good memories and friends for life from there.
I then spent a year at Winchester City which wasn’t so pleasant, but I think it made me grow and get a real feel for what Non-League was like away from the glitz and glam of flying to and fro fixtures.
Whereas at Guernsey I had a real rapport and genuine connection with the fans. Winchester’s fan base felt extremely toxic. I didn’t feel the same connection with the club at all. Considering it was a club that had never had any type of media presence, it felt like they quickly became expectant and were extremely ungrateful for what I was doing for the club.
Now I’m not one that needs constant gratification for my work. Without wanting to be arrogant I know the content I am able to put out is a very high level, only further confirmed by the fact that my full-time job is working in the Sky Sports Social Media team.
I’d just hear grumbles around the stadium about me not going to some of the away games because I simply wasn’t getting expensed for it and it was coming out of my own pocket, and it just chipped away at me silently. Then circumstances changed at the club with a new pitch the priority I realised pretty quickly that I would have to look elsewhere.
Farnham was a club making waves on social media for a year or so, at that point and it had captured my attention. It just happened that Harry and I were following each other on Twitter and we got in contact about taking over their TikTok output and a week later I was working at Farnham instead of Winchester and i couldn’t be happier.
Having come out of Winchester and witnessed what I did there and what I see now at Farnham who are a proper forward thinking club. I think Winchester’s toxic nature comes from the very top of the club and seaps its way down. Whereas Harry and the rest of the hierarchy here are very upfront and honest and it makes it far easier to work with, so I’m grateful I got out of it and my visions are aligned with everyone at the club, so 100% it is my priority and I’m glad I made the jump.
Q) What does your day to day workload look like??
So as mentioned my full-time job is working with Sky Sports, so that takes up a lot of my time. Whether I’m shooting with Premier League superstars or prepping and editing content to go out on all of our socials.
But it ties perfectly in with my work at Farnham. So I run the TikTok and YouTube shorts predominantly for the club, while also helping out with announcements, matchday tweets and interviews etc.
We publish one video each on TikTok and YouTube shorts every day regardless of whether there are fixtures on or not as it just keeps us in the public eye. So they come from either jumping on trends on those apps or editing short clips from our weekly documentary Non-League Diaries that goes up every Friday.
Q) How exciting is it to be making so many changes with the fans in mind?
It’s extremely exciting and The growth speaks for itself, one year since I joined we’ve gone from 60k followers to 115.5k followers on TikTok and the commitment and trust the club put into me by paying for my services has been paid back because we consistently turn over a profit from the platforms I work on so essentially I am costing the club nothing.
Not to mention the amount of new fans it attracts to the club too, attendances have been amazing and we constantly top our league on that front too.
There’s always something exciting on the horizon to express our great Matchday experience via social media, it just keeps club with a fresh feel and gives people a reason to keep coming back.
I think Farnham have set the precedent for other clubs to follow because it is achievable for everyone, but clubs are reluctant or scared to commit funds towards media not realising the impact it has in the modern day and if you do it right like we have been at Farnham it can be another source of income rather than an outgoing.
Q) What has been your favourite moment to date in your role?
Two moments really stick out for me and both include the club that opened my eyes up to non-league.
So Guernsey have a major rivalry with Jersey Bulls and the Jersey Bulls players had given it large to me after they won the gold medal at the Island Games in the summer of 2023. As fate would have it, a year later, we travelled to Jersey Bulls and became champions on their turf and I held up a Guernsey shirt on their pitch in front of all the Jersey fans. We spent the weekend out there and the night of being crowned champions, Harry treated everyone to a meal out and settled the tab on the table for all the staff and players which I think says everything about how great the people at the top of the club are.
The second was this season as we were promoted to Guernseys league as a result where I was able to have a reunion with all the fans and staff and just thank them for the part they’ve played in my journey in non league.
View from the fans
Q) Quite simply….Why Farnham Town?
Lived in Farnham for 31 years and played in there youth teams growing up but also played for the reserves and the 1st team when i was 17-19 years old so has always been a team I have played for/followed and enjoyed being a part of.
Q) What is a matchday at Farnham Town like for you?
A matchday at farnham town starts as soon as I wake up now I dont play footy anymore I still get the same sort of buzz feeling about knowing its football day and getting to go and watch Farnham. Would typically get to the ground around 12.30 to start meeting with my fellow fans and have a pint and a catch up about the week. 2.45pm we would head into the ground to take our spot behind the goal known as the clockend to cheer the lads on. Full time we would head back into the clubhouse area couple more pints and wait for the players to come out and have a chat catch up and a drink with them.
Q) The club has seen some very forward thinking changes in recent years, how good is it as a fan to see this kind of leadership and decision making?
Having the leadership we do now as a fan couldnt possibly be any better I dont think its taken us from struggling in step 5 to competing to winning the league unbeaten to now being top of step 4 in our first ever season of competing in that league. What Harry and his group have done for the club has been nothing short of remarkable over the course of the couple of years that they have now been with us from changing up the direction of the football club to climb the leagues to appointing Johno and Jimmy to take the 1st team to starting a womans team that is successful to improving the facilities the pitch the players and the social media aspect as a fan its incredible to be apart of.
Q) What has been your favourite change to date?
I would have to say that my favourite change so far would have to be how the club now includes the fans in almost everything they do from the club meetings to the social media aspect to the match day experience when I started coming back down to watch before the takeover happened I think we could average around 30 fans on a good day which is now averagely 100x that were looking at 400-500 averagely and for big games weve had over 1000 fans a few times which was unheard of 2.5 years ago. So I think the way they include us as fans is the best part for me because its great as a fan to feel so involved in your local club and supporting them as they try to climb the leagues has been an incredible experience so far. Even simple things like mini buses being organised for away days makes all the difference as a fan.
Q) Non-league has steadily started to see more and more fans flooding through the turnstiles, why do you think this is?
I think the fact that going to your local club and it not costing you an arm and a leg to get in to enjoy a game of football and to socialise with people from the community makes a huge difference to non-league football but also I think they way that it is now so big on social media plays a huge part. People in the town and other towns are regularly supplied with updates, fixtures, pictures, marketing and highlights and results so its so much more noticeable now than it has ever been and football being the biggest sport in the world who wouldnt want to go and support there local team on a Saturday and be a part of something that ticks boxes for so many people. Its also a family activity watching a game at Farnham you will see multiple families dads, mums cousins children all there enjoying it and having fun.
Q) What are your hopes for Farnham town in the league this season?
My hopes for Farnham town this season are making sure we secure at least a playoff spot especially with it being our first ever season in step 4 that would be some introduction to the league. However the hopeful and confident side of me wants to see us to continue pushing for the automatic promotion spot that we currently occupy and secure a step 3 place next season. I have every confidence in the management team and the players that we have that this should be something we are celebrating as a club come the end of the season.
Q) What is it like being a fan of Farnham Town?
Ill be honest its an amazing feeling yes were on a up atm but never take things for granted
Q) The last few seasons have been a whirlwind for the club what are your thoughts on the success and changes?
Its been an amazing few seasons for us and yes were on the up. Harry and the supporters have brought us together with the players and the management.
Q) How exciting has this season been so far?
This season has been outstamding so far. We all knew we would have our good times and bad times but never thought we would be doing this well this season really thought it would be alot closer
Q) Project Clockend is now on its way – is this something you’re looking forward to be completed?
I cant wait for it to be completed us clockend supporters will have our own stand which will make us louder and better with the drum and make the ground even better
Q) Who is your favourite player to watch at the club right now?
Ill be honest i couldnt have a favourite player this year and last year they have all done thier bit yes i have close relationships with players but they all have thier roll in the club and they all pull together and have their roll in the team. Yes there been some great plays this season but its a team sport and they have formed and come together really well. Their a great group of lads the players and staff
Q) What made you become a Farnham Town fan and when was that moment you fell in love?
I’m actually a total newcomer to the club. I’d been an on-again-off-again premier league fan my whole life but had totally fallen out of love with it as I got older. I followed FTFC from afar for a while after I moved to Farnham in 2015, but decided to throw myself into non-league as I valued the community and the unparalleled club access. It creeps up on you, but the moment I totally fell in love with the club was when we won the league by drawing away at JBFC last year. The sheer passion and thrill of that one moment is what I’d been looking from the premier league for 20+ years.
Q) How much have you enjoyed the last few seasons being a fan?
As I said I’m a newcomer to the club in terms of active involvement, but honestly it’s been unreal. I love the club spirit, meeting the fans from our club and other clubs. It’s all just been so ‘real’ which is not something you can often say about ‘league’ football.
Q) What has been the best and most exciting change you have seen?
It goes without saying that Johnno & Jimmy have totally transformed the fortunes of the club, which of course wouldn’t have been possible without Harry’s generous investment.
Q) Who is the one player you currently love to watch play?
Tough one. Can I pick two? I’m going to pick two. I love watching Adam Liddle play, his work rate is totally unparalleled and he’s brilliant at making a nuisance of himself. My outside choice would be Ben Purcell! His challenges are so well executed and he has got us out of loads of tricky spots by breaking up a counter-offensive move with one perfectly timed sliding challenge.
Q) Favourite chant?
Oh when the town!
Q) What is your go to order at a game, food and drink…?
Easy one that! Lost lager. Loaded burger. Fries.
Q) What made you first attracted to support Farnham Town?
I first went to watch Farnham Town Fc with a free ticket from my boys football team.
Q) What makes the club special in your eyes?
We have such a great community and the fans are close to the players.
Q) What does a matchday look like for you?
A matchday for myself is exciting and great to catch up with other fans.
Q) What is one of the biggest moments following the club for you as a fan?
Biggest moment was near the end of last season when we travelled to Jersey to win the league.
Future plans as told by Chairman Harry Hugo
Q) What does the 5 year plan for the club look like?
The ideal next 5 years is continuing to progress where we can off the pitch; and if we can match that on the pitch too that’d be great. Hopefully we can get into step 3 either this year or sometime soon.
Everything is about developing off the pitch. The ground still needs to expand as we go up the levels but I’m really happy with how things have progressed over the last few years.
Community has been at the heart of everything we do over the course of the last 3 years. And it will continue to be in the future.
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So that brings us to the end yet another ‘Through the Turnstile’, as you can see Farnham Town are looking for back to back promotions and off the field I would say they have never been better. Led by Harry and his team they are creating waves online and also improving the matchday fans for those in attendance week in, week out. Long may it continue, other clubs pay attention!
Until next time!
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