Bedford Town 1 Egham Town 0

SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
BEDFORD TOWN 1 (1) EGHAM TOWN 0 (0)
Bedford Town scorer: Will Summerfield (19)

If Egham Town are to establish themselves among the promotion contenders this season they are going to have play a whole lot better than they managed in this sad and sorry loss to a Bedford Town who started the day in 20th place. The home manager, Craig “Bully” Adams, had written in the match day programme: “Believe me when I say it’s hard to write programme notes after 4 league defeats in a row.” Egham had risen to 7th on the back of three straight wins and should have been able to continue that run against a game but limited home outfit. However, one factor common in those consecutive victories was the presence of centre back Wilson Gondwe and midfielder Dan Pearse. Gondwe had signed on loan from Kingstonian, Pearse from Farnborough. Both brought skill, power, presence and quality to the side, and, in Pearse, valuable and memorable goals, from the halfway line against Northwood and the equaliser against North Greenford. Unfortunately both have been recalled by their clubs. To replace Gondwe Egham have loaned Ishmael Thomas from Wealdstone. (The internet reveals that when Barnet had Edgar Davids in charge a youth team player of that name was released, with a dozen others.) As for his ability to fill Gondwe’s shoes it is difficult to judge, given that he needlessly gave away a penalty after 21 minutes, bringing down Tom Liversedge. Thankfully Egham keeper Jamie Norris was not unduly troubled by Scott Cross’ subsequent and woefully underhit spot kick, or the Sarnies would have been 0-2 down before a quarter of the game had gone.
The only goal of the game had come two minutes before the penalty, Will Summerfield clipping a well struck free kick up and over a wall I don’t recall jumping. Bedford were at the time getting a grip on a half that started with Ryan Lake shooting wide for Egham and home skipper Dan Burke being booked for flattening Mo Harkin. Lake’s excellent tackle on Josh Winters and the penetrative runs of Josh Andrew were Egham’s highlights of a first period in which the recalled Louis Chandler-Joseph and Ricky Farnden, along with Harkin and Joe Chandiram, failed to take control of midfield and Reis Stanislaus was forced to do his best on very meagre pickings. Egham were also missing the busy enthusiasm of Calvin Thomas, who hurt his groin last week. After 45 years of watching Egham Town it is fairly easy to see if the selected XI are up for it or not, and this time, from five minutes in, it was fairly clear that “not” was the answer to that question. With one or two exceptions (notably Andrew) there was little zip, fire, whatever from players who slipped into an anonymous, ersatz version of what they are capable of. The loss of two (very good, but nevertheless loaned) players should not make such a marked difference to a squad full of very good, if inconsistent, players. One key measure of how a side performs is how often it forces the opposition keeper into action. Egham’s Norris had reacted smartly to make a superb point blank save from Liversedge after 68 minutes; it took until the 90th minute for Lee Crockett, down the other end, to be tested, doing well to block Stanislaus’ shot after Thomas had flicked on Harkin’s corner. Bedford, early in injury time, then were denied a second when Norris saved from Tom Rawlings.
EGHAM TOWN: Jamie Norris, George Gould, Ryan Lake, Luke Muldowney (Capt.), Ishmail Thomas, Maurice Harkin, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Rick Farnden, Reis Stanislaus, Joe Chandiram, Josh Andrew. Subs: Dan Read (Chandiram, 62), Matt Grave, Duane Antonio (Andrew, 73), Dan Williamson, Lee Morley.