UXBRIDGE 1 EGHAM TOWN 3

EVO-STIK SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
TUESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2014
UXBRIDGE 1 (1) EGHAM TOWN 3 (2)
Lewis Cole (29) – Reis Stanislaus (10), Mo Harkin (26) Dan Read (80)

Egham Town won a thrilling, entertaining match against Uxbridge at Honeycroft, and, remarkably, did so without a recognised goalkeeper. With Jamie Norris unavailable the club called on Tristan Thomas, who played twice for the Sarnies last season but he had to pull out at 6.30 due to work commitments. With neither youth team keeper Ronnie Hill nor Barry Marchena, last week’s stand-in for the County Cup win at Carshalton Athletic able to make it either that left George Gould, who is quickly becoming Mr Utility at the Runnymede Stadium. He made his debut this season at Potters Bar as a striker, found excellent form as a right back and today was absolutely superb as a goalkeeper.
Gould, not the tallest man in the Egham squad, made the first, and his most eye-catching, save nine minutes in, leaping to his right to palm a well struck free kick from Matt Woods onto the bar and away to safety. It was crucial, because in Egham’s next attack Dwayne Antonio used his pace down the left to beat right back Josh Christopher and deliver a perfect low cross for Reis Stanislaus to strike from six yards. Gould gathered a Lewis Cole shot safely, and denied the same player again to keep his side ahead. The lead would have been doubled when a corner was not cleared and Ryan Lake curled in a shot that Christopher headed off the line, but after 26 minutes a delightful passage of neat interpassing in the Egham midfield ended with Stanislaus touching the ball to Mo Harkin for a 20 yard thumper that beat home keeper Rourke Pickford all ends up.
Uxbridge were clearly not expecting this. Last season saw Egham win 5-0 at Honeycroft (and lose 1-4 in the return) and it was looking likely that with the Egham defence cutting out some early errors that put their rookie keeper under pressure and having the pace to attack another such drubbing was on the cards. However the home side then pulled one back, a cleanly struck half volley from 20 yards by Lewis whistling past Gould and into the roof of the net.
From the restart Egham could have made the game safe as Josh Andrew attacked down the left and from his cross Antonio found Dan Read, whose flick shot just beat the left post. Uxbridge got themselves back into the game and Woods saw Gould deny him with a great save from a free kick that took a deflection or two on its way towards goal. Lee Morley cleared up a possible glitch in defence with 78 minutes gone and two minutes later the points were secured as the ball went from Stanislaus via Andrew to Read. He advanced on Pickford’s goal and beat him easily. Two more half chances from Stanislaus merely underlined Egham’s attacking threat. Egham move up to 7th, Football Web Pages need to get the score shown correctly (2-1!) and the mood is good for the trip to Truro City on Saturday.
EGHAM TOWN: George Gould, Wilson Gondwe, Jake Galbraith, Mo Harkin, Ryan Lake, Lee Morley, Josh Andrew, Joseph Chandiram, Dan Read, Reis Stanislaus, Dwayne Antonio.Subs: Brendan Matthew (Antonio, 90), Wayne Jackson, Ashley Quashie (Read, 86), Ricky Farnden (Gondwe, 63), Danny Williamson.