Farnham Town 6-0 Braintree Town: Alexander scores five

Farnham Town beat Braintree Town 6-0 at the Memorial Ground on Saturday 24 October, and the scoreline understated how quickly the game was decided. Billy Clifford scored after four minutes and George Alexander had two by the sixth, on the way to five goals of his own in front of a crowd of 621 on a wet and windy afternoon.

The result took Farnham back to winning ways after a short break and left Braintree with five straight league defeats. It also answered a question the club had been asked since the summer: whether a side promoted into the National League South could score heavily enough to stay in it.

Four minutes in, the game had a shape

Braintree had the first effort of the afternoon in the second minute, when Alexandru-Leonard Bolovan's overhead kick went comfortably over the bar. Two minutes later Farnham led. Debutant Marcel Lavinier crossed from the left, Clifford met it at the far post and volleyed past Ben Hughes.

The second arrived on six minutes from the same source. Lavinier whipped a cross towards Alexander, who scored with a diving volley. Braintree's back line never settled, and Farnham's midfield had time to pick passes rather than chase them.

Alexander's five, and where they came from

Alexander joined the club this month from Hornchurch, and Paul Johnson's description of him afterwards was unusually specific. "All his goals were in the six-yard box, barring a penalty, and that's where you've got to be if you want to be a top striker," the manager said.

The third goal came on 59 minutes, Miles Obodo squaring Mason's pass for Alexander to tap in at the back post. The fourth was a penalty on 78 minutes after Trae Cook-Appiah was fouled by Hughes, and Alexander converted despite the keeper getting a strong hand to it.

Alexander's fourth of the afternoon came on 81 minutes when Taylor's shot from the edge of the box was parried to him, and the fifth on 88 minutes from Cook-Appiah's cross. Taylor, Jack Spong and Lavinier had all gone close before the interval.

What Johnson said about the performance

"I thought some of the football we played in the first half was excellent," Johnson said. He had told the squad before kick-off that a short break should leave them fresh, and asked them to start quickly, be brave with the ball and be comfortable on it. "They delivered," he said.

He was equally pleased with the second half, when Farnham added four more goals. "The second half was about how good we can be and where we want to go as a group," he said. "You need to set the tone in these games if you want to be up there competing, and I thought we were relentless."

Johnson also made the point that the substitutes had to warm up on a wet touchline all afternoon and still played their part. His closing note was a warning against overreaction: "It was a great home win with six goals, but we're not getting carried away with it."

The partnership that made the scoreline

Johnson paired Alexander with Miles Obodo and said the two "clicked straight away". That is the detail worth keeping. Farnham did not win because one striker had an exceptional day in isolation; they won because the movement of the front two repeatedly pulled Braintree's centre-backs out of position.

Clifford's early goal came from a cross to the far post, the second from a cross into the six-yard box, and the third from a square ball across the goal. Three different deliveries, one pattern: Farnham attacked the space behind the full-backs and then found the striker arriving centrally.

What went wrong for Braintree

Braintree arrived having lost their previous four league games and left with a fifth. They did have the first shot of the afternoon and a free-kick from Fletcher Hubbard that Michael Eacott held comfortably on 14 minutes, but the game was gone by then.

Ben Isaacson forced a save on the half hour and Elliot Thorpe shot over from 25 yards, which was the sum of the visitors' threat. Braintree's keeper Ben Hughes made saves from Alexander and Taylor and still conceded six, which says as much about the space in front of him as about his own afternoon.

Three things stood out from the afternoon:

• Two of the goals came from a debutant's crosses, so the supply line has widened.
• Farnham scored four in the second half after leading 2-0 at the break, which is the habit that separates promotion sides from mid-table ones.
• The substitutes, including Trae Cook-Appiah, changed the game rather than holding it.

What comes next

Farnham travel to Chesham United on Tuesday 27 October for a 7.45pm kick-off, then face Ebbsfleet United at home in the FA Trophy second round on the weekend of 14 November. The league meeting with Ebbsfleet follows on 28 November, also at the Memorial Ground.

Reading too much into one afternoon is the obvious trap, and the guide to reading scorelines explains why a six-goal win against a side in the bottom half is not a forecast. The club news section carries the squad news, and the midweek fixture load is the next test of a small squad.