Egham Town 0 Epsom & Ewell 1 League Cup SF

EL RECORDS PREMIER CHALLENGE CUP SEMI FINAL
TUESDAY 16 APRIL 2013
EGHAM TOWN 0 (0) EPSOM & EWELL 1 (0)

Fractions cost Egham Town the chance of extra time at least in tonight’s League Cup semi final. Epsom & Ewell had taken the lead three minutes into the second half as Mark Jarman capitalised on some midfield laxity before rounding winning the one-on-one with the horribly exposed Paul Borg. Those fractions were Joel Jacobs’21st minute free kick hitting E’s keeper Joe White’s bar, and in the second half the small margins that saw Brendan Matthew’s 20 yard shot on the run hit the foot of the left post with a quarter of an hour of a high standard cup tie remaining and with five minutes to go the custodian’s finger tips as he just about reached Kemo Maphela’s shot that ended a fine solo run. Matthew’s shot came at about the time that news went round the Runnymede Stadium that Hanworth Villa had done Egham a huge favour by beating Guernsey 2-1, so it was not all doom and gloom. However the fact remains that Egham have not been in a major final (the Southern Combination Cup hardly counts – twice, if anyone is interested) since the 1970-71 season, and the only other time Egham were in this round in this competition, 2007-8, the visitors, Bedfont Green, won 2-1.
Egham had had to do another reshuffle of the pack with skipper Arran Taylor-Ives under the weather and others taking care of knocks and bruises. Louis Chandler-Joseph put in an excellent shift at right back as Egham had a bright start against the side sitting in second place in the table. With Reis Stanislaus and Jamie Read in the starting XI it was hoped their pace, power and skill would create chances, but the best that came was when Read’s header from a Jacobs free kick was turned over his own bar by centre half George Murphy. Once Epsom & Ewell had taken the lead it took a superb defensive tackle to by Chandler-Joseph to deny Dale Marvell, who last season netted 29 times for Egham. Tommy Hedges came for Luke Craig and Stanislaus was replaced by Matthew, the latter change shortly followed by Borg saving superbly from a Ben Hayward half volley. Patrick Craig gave way to Luke Muldowney and in the latter stages Egham threw men forward in a desperate attempt to salvage the game. Their cause was given a boost when Jarman threw the ball into the face of Town midfielder Steve Coultas, and referee Damith Bandara had no choice but to send the goalscorer off. The loss tonight sees a 14 game perfect home sequence end, but that figure still holds for league games, which is what really counts. Egham have to get their heads round the next challenge, which is to win at South Park on Thursday and guarantee at least a second place finish.
EGHAM TOWN: Paul Borg, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Joel Jacobs, Junior Wright, Alex Rodrigues, Steve Coultas, Luke Craig, Patrick Craig, Reis Stanislaus, Jamie Read, Kemo Maphela. Subs: Jacob Lambe, Brendan Matthew (Stanislaus, 64), Luke Muldowney (P Craig, 77), Tommy Hedges (L Craig, 56 ), Jim Ward.
Results tonight: League Cup – Cobham 2 South Park 3. CCL – Ash 4 Badshot Lea 1, Camberley Town 0 Bedfont Sports 0, Cove 5 Croydon 2, Farnham 4 Hartley Wintney 1, Hanworth Villa 2 Guernsey 1, RPV 1 Horley Town 0, Sandhurst Town 0 Windsor 1.