In front of a crowd a whole 299 under that which saw the valiant Sarnies smite the mighty foe from across the water Egham Town were grateful for their skipper Ashley Lodge’s scrambled, injury time equaliser against a determined Hertford Town side.
The need for Ashley Smith’s men was to get some points on the board, and they started promisingly when Tayshan Hayden-Smith threatened Lamar Johnson’s goal with a penetrating run straight from the kick off. Johnson fumbled the shot out for a corner but was pretty steady thereafter. A lively first period saw lots of earnest scampering about with any real penetration from either side, although it was Egham who looked the more likely to score.
Hertford had more of the game after the break, but the style and standard of play from both sides was the same. Some robust challenges from both teams threatened to add a little spice but referee Reece Davies kept a lid on things. Half an hour in Hayden-Smith made inroads, tried a shot, and when the rebound fell to him drilled in another attempt that Johnson dealt with by going full stretch to his left. Nine minutes from the end, the same time at which Egham scored their FA Cup winner last week, Thomas Wade fired in a shot that Xavi Comas saved superbly. Unfortunately for Egham, when the corner came over Wade’s header, although apparently diverted to safety by another top drawer save by Xavi onto his left post, was turned in by George Lutaaya. This was scarcely fair on Egham, who moved to do something about this state of affairs, sub Jermaine Osei firing Lodge’s pass goalwards where Johnson saved with a dive to his left. Hertford had two excellent chances to move two goals ahead and made a hash of both of them. Firstly, as Comas was caught on the edge of his box, Elliott Bailey lobbed the ball just wide of the left stick. The visitors, having been briefly pushed back, swept upfield with Lutaaya haring down the right wing before playing the ball back for Wade. He shot, on target, and the ball hit the back of Bailey’s right foot and went wide. That Bailey was apparently offside probably made him feel better. What would have made him feel worse is that, with two minutes of injury time played, Egham put together a forward surge that ended with Rhys Rabess, form the byline, playing the ball across for Lodge to force the ball over the line.
Egham, now up two places to 17th, have two home cup ties this week. On Tuesday they entertain Whyteleafe in the Velocity Trophy. Leafe, third in the Bostik South East, had won the first four of their league matches but went down 1-2 at Sittingbourne. On Saturday the FA Cup beckons again, with a home tie against Bostik Premier’s 20th placed Brightlingsea Regent, who went down 0-2 today at home against leaders Tonbridge Angels.
EGHAM TOWN: Xavi Comas, Josh Andrew, Enock Sagonile, Dan Julienne, Greg Haydon, Lewis Hobbs, Sean McCormack, Tayshan Hayden-Smith, Kezie Ibe, Ashley Lodge (Captain), Michael Kalu. Substitutes: Georges Ehui, Paolo Giamettei, Tom Windsor (Julienne, 65), Rhys Rabess (Sean McCormack, 72), Jermaine Osei (Kalu, 80).