It wasn’t a loss and the point lifted Egham Town to 7th place but this draw felt like a defeat as the Sarnies let the visitors equalise despite being a man up and there being only three minutes of regulation time left. Dropping those two points denied Chris Moore’s men third place. The stage was set for a well-fought afternoon’s entertainment with Egham’s management a coaching team all formerly at Honeycroft, as were players Mitchell Wiseman, Louis Stead, Danny Julienne, Lewis Cole and regular goalscorer Matty Woods. The latter made his first start since he went off with a hamstring injury at Ramsgate on 2 September and won a corner just four minutes in. A surging run by Cole Brown down the Egham right created a half chance for Dylan Keating, then veteran Red Army keeper Paul McCarthy pulled off an excellent save to his left as Devante McKain headed goalwards off skipper Stead’s deep free kick. McCarthy then created a situation that resulted in Egham forward Brendan Matthew being booked, by blasting a drop kick straight at him. Having had an attempted chip go just over the Uxbridge bar Callum Webb gave Egham the lead, clipping in a cross shot from six yards, the chance being created by Julienne and Jordan Berry. If Egham thought it a platform on which to build they ought to have checked the foundations as Kearney found a gap and levelled two minutes later, and a minute thereafter Cole did likewise. Egham should have been level three minutes before the break once Matthew raced through, played a cross field pass that Woods had the intelligence to step over but Webb, unmarked eight yards out and with McCarthy out of position got under the shot and wasted the opening.
Eight minutes into the second half Webb scored a beauty to make up for that miss, notching his first Sarnie double. Woods and Julienne linked superbly, and Webb curled his shot into the far corner, off the keeper’s outstretched left hand. Soon afterwards Woods tore down the inside right to lay off a pass that caused Uxbridge’s defence into panic mode. Two minutes later Egham were ahead again. Stead hit a corner deep, Wiseman headed it into the danger area, Matthew’s nodded pass found McKain and the central defender’s low shot beat McCarthy comfortably. It was McKain’s first for the Sarnies. That was in the 56th minute, and on the hour Egham moved ahead in personnel as well, Ben Peden seeing red for a bad challenge on Webb. How Egham then managed not to go on to pick up three points baffled the onlooking Sarnie faithful. Webb had a shot turned away by McCarthy and sent another over the bar, by not much, and Matthew slipped when he turned to chased Julienne’s smart through ball. Egham were not happy when Jamie Burgess left Julienne on the deck but were still seemingly doing enough to hold on to their lead. Matthew was subbed by Ryan Debattista. Alex Nolan’s incisive run found Woods, who was denied by his former team mate McCarthy. Uxbridge sub Kevin Byrne dropped like he’d been poleaxed, guaranteeing a yellow card for Stead. Uxbridge were, clearly, fighting for a point and found a way through in the 87th minute. Uxbridge were breaking, a foul was conceded, the free kick went deep and Kearney lifted his shot past Patrick Ohman. They thought they had gone on to win as almost immediately the ball was again in Ohman’s net but there was a flag raised. Five minutes into injury time Debattista’s back header found Webb, who tried teeing up a shot before overdoing his pass for Woods.
Egham face two tricky away games, each against new opponents, next before a home game with Marlow on 4 November. On Tuesday the Sarnies face the rigours of the A3 to play Portsmouth based Moneyfields, winners of the Wessex League last season and currently unbeaten divisional leaders with five home wins out of five. On Saturday Bowers & Pitsea, based near Basildon, are the opponents in the First Round Qualifying of the Buildbase FA Trophy. If there is a replay it will be on Tuesday week.
EGHAM TOWN: Patrick Ohman, Alex Nolan, Callum Webb, Devante McKain, Mitchell Wiseman, Danny Julienne, Lewis Cole, Louis Stead (Captain), Brendan Matthew, Matty Woods, Jordan Berry. Substitutes: Wayne Carter, Aaron Berry, Ryan Debattista (Matthew, 76), Matt Stockill, Ryan Phillips (Cole, 85).