EGHAM TOWN 1 UXBRIDGE 0

EVO-STIK SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
SATURDAY 21 FEBRUARY 2015
EGHAM TOWN 1 (1) UXBRIDGE 0 (0) REIS STANISLAUS (23)

The Sarnies prepared for Tuesday's Red Insure Cup Semi Final tie at Poole Town with a deserved win over Uxbridge, a three point haul that secured a league double. It also gave boss Koo Dumbuya his first league success and was down to a hard working team performance that was a vast improvement on Tuesday’s home reversal against an industrious Bedford Town. Two new signings were on the team sheet. Jacob Mingle numbers among his former clubs Ashford Town (Mx.), Staines Town, Braintree Town, Thurrock, Horsham and Eastbourne Borough. He has now signed to give some class and experience to the Runnymede Stadium team, but did not have a happy debut. He went down injured in the 6th minute, had treatment, came back on, went down again and after 10 minutes had to leave the field. He was replaced by Dan Read, who had been named as a sub after picking up a knock against Bedford. The other new face is Colombian player Esteban Salgado, who was not used, and comes to Egham from Kent Invicta League side Meridian VP. The signings take to 46 the number of names shown on Egham Town team sheets during this campaign.
Egham needed a good performance to lift them for Tuesday’s game at Premier Division leaders and promotion favourites Poole Town, and they were grateful when the visitors’ Kevin Warner headed wide off Craig Tomkins’ free kick after only four minutes. After Mingle’s truncated bow Egham settled into a good pattern of working hard in defence and midfield, and of using the pace and trickery of former Hampton man Haluna Masembe to stretch the “Red Army” at the back. After 23 minutes it worked as Masembe, on the left wing, took the ball past Will Wambeek and crossed to Egham’s top scorer Reis Stanislaus, on the edge of the area. Stanislaus controlled the ball and steered the ball into the bottom right corner of Paul McCarthy’s net. Uxbridge’s Matt Woods was lucky that his two footed lunge on Read was deemed only worthy of a yellow card as Egham dominated possession against a team in 10th place to the home side’s 15th. Read had a shot blocked after excellent approach play by Brendan Matthew down the right late on in the half. Uxbridge only managed a shot from Jake Groves, safely gathered by Jamie Norris in the Egham goal.
Danny Julienne had the same luck as Woods when he went through an Egham player after 51 minutes, Masembe the victim this time, and it was clear that the Middlesex outfit were feeling frustrated. They seem to have expected to have the easy ride they got last season; Egham’s good start in season 2012-13 had a 5-0 win at Honeycroft as its highlight but post-floods the Sarnies gave a soggy performance and went down 1-4. Egham were missing Wilson Gondwe at centre back but recalled Yinka Salami to partner the impressively unfussy Mitchell Gutteridge. In midfield Troy Ferguson, who did not have a particularly memorable debut on Tuesday, worked tirelessly but the player who has seen his fortunes turn round is the pocket dynamo Wayne Jackson. To the eyes of this scribe his performances under Luke Muldowney were uniformly crap, and he has his critics still, but under the new management his work rate and tenacity are at last bearing fruit. That’s why, for the NLP report, I named him as MOM, to the bewilderment of some. Egham were determined to hold on to their slender advantage and not one player shirked his responsibilities. It might even have been better for them with three minutes to go, Stanislaus forcing a decent stop from McCarthy from a free kick awarded for a foul by Kevin Warner on the man who proved to be the match winner. Egham will be hoping to have Wilson Gondwe available again after he picked up a knock and will welcome Josh Andrew back from a four match suspension for the trip to Dorset. Ben Hunter went off with a knock halfway through the second period to be replaced by the outstanding Seb Castello; the signs are there that Mr Dumbuya is building a decent squad.
EGHAM TOWN: Jamie Norris, Danny Williamson, Ben Hunter, Wayne Jackson, Yinka Salami, Mitchell Gutteridge, Brendan Matthew, Troy Ferguson, Reis Stanislaus, Jacob Mingle, Haluna Masembe. Subs: Dan Read (Mingle, 10), Seb Castello (Hunter, 68), Chris Smith (Jackson, 81), Esteban Salgado, Jamie Cunningham.