Chertsey Town 3 - 3 Egham Town

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PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY
CHERTSEY TOWN 3 (2) v EGHAM TOWN 3 (1)

Egham Town scorers: Dale Marvell (2), Luke Muldowney

Egham Town's second friendly was against the recently promoted Chertsey Town, now looking forward to playing in the Evo-Stik Southern League. One thing they will want to look at is their defending; having lost 0-4 at home to Hemel Hempstead they were punished by an Egham Town side whose performance will have pleased John Hamsher.
The two clubs have a long history of player swapping. Hamsher himself is well known at Alwyns Lane, but on the playing field the Sarnies were delighted to have Marcus Moody, who was at the Runnymede Stadium a few seasons ago, as the latest former Curfew.
Played on a surprisingly good pitch given that the rain did its best to jeopardise it, with a heavy downpour before kick off the latest of a series of deluges, the game was entertaining from the start and stayed that way throughout. Egham had a mix of first and youth team players again. Josh Henry took the goalkeeping shirt, while the hopefully short term loss of right back Colin Bartholomew seems to have been covered with Dan Hartlebury cominng in. Epsom & Ewell seem to have had to do a major rebuild; Chertsey have at least one of their former players while we now have another, in forward Ross White now partnering former E Dale Marvell. In the centre back slot Egham unveiled Ken Drury, who was at Cove last season. Lee Pasmore, another former and now returned, via Chertsey, Egham man was in midfield.
Seconds from kick off White was in a good position to put Egham in front but his cross shot was just off target. After five minutes Henry was forced to save from Chertsey marksman Phil Page, who was to go on to score a hat-trick. His first came on eight minutes, a cross drive that beat Henry for pace. Egham were able to equalise midway through the half when Chertsey defenders dithered and let a cross in their own area reach Marvell, who scored easily. Chertsey restored their lead almost immediately, Page again using his strength and pace to net from just inside the area. Only a very good save by the Chertsey keeper denied Matt Grave an equaliser late in the half.
The second period was every bit as entertaining. Marvell, who with a name like that must have had punning titles in reports during in his time at Epsom & Ewell, did nothing to stop me doing the same with a superb run and calm, curling finish from outside the box on 20 minutes. Aaron Taylor and Matt Evans came on for Grave and Drury. Page was denied his hat-trick goal by a quite brilliant point blank save from Henry, but soon after the Chertsey man got his third. It looked as if Egham would have to be content with a narrow defeat but after a rare Egham corner was not cleared the ball came off Frankie Driver and Luke Muldowney, who swivelled to smash the ball home. (Chertsey fans reckon we should stop calling Mr Muldowney “Ginge” because he isn't anymore.) Egham gave all the players who turned up a run out, including Will McDonald, who has appeared now for the first team three times, all against Chertsey!

Egham started with this line up: Josh Henry, Dan Hartlebury, Jake Galbraith, Marcus Moody, Ken Drury, Luke Muldowney, Jamie Houghton, Lee Pasmore, Dale Marvell, Matt Grave, Ross White.
The team was changed during the second half, with Aaron Taylor, Frankie Driver, Will McDonald and Matt Evans coming on.