Egham Town 3 Spelthorne Sports 1

TUESDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2013
EGHAM TOWN 3 (1) SPELTHORNE SPORTS 1 (0)

Egham Town scorers: Jamie Read (22), Luke Craig (73), Louis Chandler-Joseph (88)

Without a game since the League Cup demolition of Croydon, Egham arranged this game against Spelthorne Sports at the last minute. The frustration of not playing on Saturday at Ash United added to an inevitable ring rustiness that needed to be shaken off before two home games against Hanworth Villa and Guernsey.
Egham started at a high tempo that would have seen a lot of sides go in more than Jamie Read’s 22nd minute strike behind. That they did not owed as much to wasteful finishing as resolute defending. The goal came from a mistake by the Sports keeper, mishandling Joel Jacobs’ cross shot into the path of former Spelthorne man Read, who fashioned a lovely chip shot into the net. With five minutes to go a strangely out of sorts Kemo Maphela was replaced by Jacob Lambe.
In the second half new guy Tim Pitt (from Molesey, 17 appearances, no goals, but he is a right back), Jamie Houghton, Louis Chandler-Joseph and Tom Hedges were all given a chance to stretch their legs. Sports were getting into the game, and equalised after 63 minutes, which jolted the home side into realising that even in a friendly against a side from the division below lapses of concentration are likely to be punished. Brendan Matthew would have made it 2-1 but for a good save. Egham got their lead back with a move started by Arran Taylor-Ives passing to Jacobs. His pass to Lambe was perfect as was the next one, to Hedges, who took the ball to the byline before playing it to Luke Craig, who scored emphatically. The scorer was the provider late on with a tremendous through ball for Chandler-Joseph, whose finish was superb. Between goals two and three there were presentable opening s for Sports but not quite enough calmness to convert them.
The game was played in excellent spirit, with both sides playing at full tilt but not one bad challenge all night. I don’t know who the ref was but he did a good job with club linesmen, including Jack McKinlay practising his semaphore.
SQUAD: Paul Borg, Alex Rodrigues, Joel Jacobs, Arran Taylor-Ives, Jim Ward, Luke Muldowney, Luke Craig, Patrick Craig, Brendan Matthew, Jamie Read, Kemo Maphela, Tim Pitt, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Tom Hedges, Jamie Houghton.