Abingdon United 1 Egham Town 0

FA CUP WITH BUDWEISER PRELIMINARY ROUND
SATURDAY 30 AUGUST 2014
ABINGDON UNITED 1 (0) EGHAM TOWN (0)

Problems are beginning to pile up for Lee Passmore and his Egham Town squad even before August is over, with the latest being the loss of a crucial player in Scott Weight while his shot-shy Sarnies have now gone 306 minutes without scoring. When the last one went in, at Beaconsfield SYCOB, Reis Stanislaus’ winner looked as if it would the springboard from which Egham would launch a decent league campaign. Instead it has been followed by two losing performances at Potters Bar Town (unluckily) and at home to Godalming Town (less so), and then this defeat to a side second from bottom of the Hellenic Premier, one step below in the national pyramid.
More changes were made in the starting line-up, with the oddity of Jake Galbraith not in the left back slot due to unavailability. In goal Jamie Norris, back off holiday, took over from Garry Aulsberry. Josh Andrew and Richie Byrne were at the match but, crocked, unable to influence proceedings. The sight of Marcus Moody on the bench heartened the Egham faithful, glad to see the tricky and talented player back in a red shirt.
Abingdon United were, until two seasons ago, a Southern League side but withdrew to play in the Hellenic as a response to escalating travel costs. Their welcome was as warm as their ground is impressive, in particular an excellent playing surface. Egham settled in to a fairly good early pattern, winning free kicks around the home area but the only threat posed came nine minutes in, Mo Harkin whipping in a corner kick that Weight met with a powerful header that hit the foot of the right post. Had it gone in… It took until the 31st and 37th minutes for the next decent openings but Dwayne Antonio, to whom both chances fell was, firstly, denied near the foot of the left post and then not able to force the ball past keeper Jamie Zoldan, who had raced out to the edge of his box.
It was just seconds after the latter chance that disaster struck the visitors when Weight, in tackling Josh Crook, fell in the Egham box clearly in a great deal of pain. It was obvious from the outset that the injury was a bad one. Physio Heather Stevenson was quickly on hand to stabilise and protect the injury while an ambulance hastened to the ground. The game was held up for about 25 minutes and as Weight was taken off the pitch on a trolley by the pair of emergency professionals the home players, supporters and officials sportingly joined in applauding him off. Moody appeared to be the chosen replacement as he was stripped off and ready for action but instead Joe Chandiram came on.
The second half, unsurprisingly, did not start until just before half past four, and in the first minute Chandiram whipped in a decent cross that found Stanislaus and Harkin not communicating as both went for a header and neither succeeded. Moody did come on, just past the hour, for Antonio, but there was no identifiable increase in threat on the home goal. Instead, with four minutes left, the home side broke down Egham’s right flank, a decent cross was curled in and Kieran Davis rose to guide a scoring header into the far corner of Norris’ net. “We’ve got to do something” said assistant manager Jack McKinlay to the bench as forward George Gould was asked, in replacing midfielder Harkin, to supply the attacking guile and punch so lacking hitherto. I don’t think he touched the ball once. No blame on him; by this time the game was already lost, and along with it the £1925 prize money. One astute observation by an Egham fan was this tie looked like a Combined Counties game. It was impossible to argue; the home side were game but not especially gifted while the wayward passing, lack of combative fire and inability to impose any sort of authority on the game from Egham gave Abingdon hope that was eventually, and justifiably, rewarded. Last season’s top scorer Reis Stanislaus seems to have lost his zest – and is due a ban after his red card for swearing at the ref at Beaconsfield - and his striking partner of last season, Ryan O’Toole, while now only one match away from being eligible to play again, has not been training. Perhaps he really has retired, as we heard in pre-season. It would be unfair to single anyone out, though; it is a team game. The missing cutting edge is becoming a key failing for a Sarnies side with only nine goals in seven games, five of them coming in the first match, the 5-4 win at Barton Rovers. Of the remaining four two were leads thrown away at Leighton Town’s ground as Egham went down 2-4 to Aylesbury United and the other two were at Beaconsfield SYCOB. It is to Leighton Town that Egham return for their next league game, to play the landlords. On Tuesday, as preparation, they welcome Vanarama Conference South side Farnborough Town for a friendly that hopefully will unearth some answers to the problems so evident in this loss to a struggling Hellenic League side who had won one match all season (they beat Holyport – same division – 4-0 in the Extra Preliminary Round replay) and whose goalkeeper, pretty much like his Potters Bar and Godalming counterparts, was barely tested. This Egham Town side is capable of being so much better but let themselves and their club down. In the search for the tiniest crumb of comfort there is this to consider: Marlow were at Hellenic Premier Milton United, so, like Egham, expected to prevail against lower status opposition to face the winners of our tie. According to Football Web Pages the score was 3-2 to Milton, with the FA preferring a 2-1 success for the home side, a result also seen on the Southern League site. That the NLP went for 2-0 is probably due to Marlow not scoring until second half injury time, when they were 2-0 down. Whatever the score there is little doubt that few would have predicted Abingdon United v Milton United as a First Qualifying Round tie.
There is the possibility that Egham may not have a game on 13 September as no league games were scheduled on the assumption that Southern League sides would get through.

Mark