EGHAM TOWN 4 NORTHWOOD 1

THE SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER 2014
EGHAM TOWN 4 (2) NORTHWOOD 1 (0)
Egham Town scorers: George Gould (9), Mo Harkin (12), Dan Pearse (46), Josh Andrew (58)

Egham Town moved up to 8th place from 15th with this crushing victory over a Northwood side who came to the Runnymede Stadium expecting a win. With one keeper, Jamie Norris, injured after the 3-0 at Leighton Town on Saturday and the other, Garry Aulsberry, unavailable, Egham recruited Bedfont & Feltham custodian Josh Richardson. He probably did not expect a quiet evening in the Egham goal but that is what he got as the Sarnies dominated this match pretty much from start to finish. Other than the change at No. 1 the side was the same as Saturday, and the settled selection were soon on the attack. Four minutes in Danny Williamson charged down the right and crossed for Josh Andrew. His powerful header forced Northwood keeper Danny McNicolas to make an excellent point blank save, pushing the ball onto the bar and seeing it drop between him and the goal line. Five minutes later Egham were ahead, George Gould picking up a loose ball 25 yards from goal before advancing and firing home a low shot into the bottom right of the Northwood net. Gould’s strike was the first Egham had scored since Andrew scored two against Daventry Town in the penultimate game of last season, but it was only three minutes before the lead was doubled. Mo Harkin curled in a free kick, George Nicholas got a slight touch with his head and the ball hit the right side of the target. The rest of the first half was largely uneventful, Egham easily holding off any semblance of a Northwood threat and the visitors coming close-ish just once with speculative looper from nowhere by Jordan Lawal.
At half-time the Northwood manager read his side the riot act. Twenty seconds into the second half any possible revivative effects of that tirade were blown away when, from the kick off, Dan Pearse received the ball, looked up from his position on the halfway line, saw McNicolas off his line and hit an inch perfect lob for 3-0. I’m pretty sure that’s the longest range goal I have seen any Egham player score in my 45 years of support. (I have seen us let in goal keeping drop kicks, though – twice.) The visitors rallied and scored a classy goal through Rob Hastings, who bent his 25 yard shot up and over a populated penalty area to plant the ball into the top right corner of Richardson’s goal. That came of 54 minutes but the expected revival did not come for the away team and was stifled when Wilson Gondwe, having another excellent game at centre back, hit a truly fabulous long pass to Andrew on the left wing. The in-form No. 11 cut in, looked up and rifled a magnificent low shot into the bottom right corner from fully 25 yards. There was a scramble in the Egham area and two deflected shots as home concentration wavered momentarily, but Egham, even with three substitutions, were otherwise assured in their duties across the park and played out the rest of the game without any undue alarm.
The results were a little slow coming through on the internet and for a while it looked as if we could be 7th, then the Aylesbury 8 Leighton Town 1 result came and moved us down a place.
Egham next play on 20 September, at home to North Greenford United, then on 27 September travel to The Eyrie, home of Bedford Town.
EGHAM TOWN: Josh Richardson, George Gould, Ryan Lake, Luke Muldowney, Wilson Gondwe, Mo Harkin, Danny Williamson, Dan Pearse, Dan Read, Calvin Thomas, Josh Andrew. Subs: Matt Grave, Brendan Matthew (Williamson, 74), Dwayne Antonio, Joe Chandiram (Lake, 76), Ricky Farnden (Thomas, 62).