KINGS LANGLEY 2 EGHAM TOWN 1

SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISION ONE CENTRAL
TUESDAY 18 AUGUST 2015
KINGS LANGLEY 2 (0) EGHAM TOWN 1 (0)
Mitchell Weiss (48), Alex Campana (66) / BRENDAN MATTHEW (7)

Kings Langley came into the Southern League as runaway champions of the Spartan South Midlands League, and, playing with largely the same squad have taken well to their new elevated status. Ultimately it was that cohesion that saw off Egham Town, who slipped to a third loss in the opening four games of the season. There could be no excuses for the Sarnies this time round: no shots against posts; no glaring misses; no outrageous flukes against them. Tonight they had an early lead, something to hold onto and perhaps build on, and that they failed to do so can be perhaps pinned on their youth and collective inexperience. It seems that captain Troy Ferguson cannot recover from injury quickly enough, and it is to be hoped that when he, Yinka Salami and the as yet untested Philip Appiah become available the team will start picking up points. They weren’t helped by Saturday’s goalscorer Wilson Gondwe ducking out because it was his birthday. Nadean Fosu and Tom McGarry were given their debuts in the back line, and initially it looked as if Egham would win this match easily. Only seven minutes in Jon Hippolyte found Josh Andrew, whose perfect through ball gave Brendan Matthew the time and space for a clever flicked lob over keeper Rob Partington. The Kings were rattled, Partington flattening Matthew on the edge of the box three minutes later but only seeing yellow. Then the momentum went. Egham let their opponents pin them back, to the extent that they had to thank Jamie Norris for two tremendous saves in the 23rd and 25th minutes to keep the lead until half time. The problem here was that, for all their team’s success Kings Langley were joining Egham in being almost unwatchably bad. The Sarnies needed someone onfield to spot this and to be able to lift the standard to which they know they can play. To say the home side were there for the taking is probably pushing it a bit but some decent attacking moves from Egham would have at least posed the right questions. Already some of the stuff Egham have played this season has been marvellous but it was not replicated here. Instead both XIs misplaced and over or under hit passes. When they turned round after the break it was the home side who cut those mistakes down and because of that deserved to win. The standard of play from both sides did, to be fair, go up a notch or two, but despite that McGarry and Norris got into a tangle on the edge of the box and Michael Weiss capitalised. After 66 minutes Alex Campana rifled in the winner and Egham boss Trevor Norris took off McGarry and Hippolyte for Haluna Masembe and Danny Bassett. Both are like whippets but with Masembe in a strangely subdued wide midfield role Bassett had to try to work openings with Matthew but the home side showed the value of being a more cohesive unit by holding them pretty much at arm’s length and ensuring that the points stayed at Gaywood Park.
On Saturday Egham welcome to the Runnymede Stadium St Ives Town, who went to Leighton Town and won 4-1 against the side that beat the Sarnies on Saturday. The Cambridgeshire side have always been and will be tricky opponents.
EGHAM TOWN: Jamie Norris, Louis Chandler-Joseph, Tom McGarry, Nadean Fosu, Mitchell Gutteridge, Luke Neville, Josh Andrew, Tarome Hemmings, Jon Hippolyte, Brendan Matthew, Larry Boateng. Subs: Danny Bassett (Boateng, 76), Seb Castello, Jordan Carter (Fosu, HT), Haluna Masembe (McGarry, 76), Jamie Cunningham (kpr).